Women in the Australian Coral Reef Society

from Reef in Review 2022

Women of the Reef

By Pat Hutchings

In 1928 a woman makes an appearance in the Great Barrier Reef Committee records (latterly the ACRS). With permission by G.H. Knibbs, Director of the Queensland Office of the Institute of Science and Industry, Miss H.F. Todd was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary, in which she was allowed to take notes at the meeting in Brisbane on 12 September 1928.

The permission was duly received and, in the decades that followed, the notes were characteristically penned by women, saying little about women. On the hundredth anniversary of the Australian Coral Reef Society- Great Barrier Reef Committee, we wish to start rectifying this situation by outlining the important role that women have played

within the council of this Society, which has done much to understand and protect Australia’s coral reefs.

While we lack the early historical records of the councillors of the GBRC, it is likely that few if any women were represented and this is probably because few coral reef researchers at this time were female.

The records show that once women started to become Council members they often became the ACRS secretaries and have been its treasurers in unbroken succession for the last 26 years. Professor Dorothy Hill (left) was Council Secretary from 1945-1955. She wrote two extensive histories of the Society (Hill, 1984, 1985). In the opening pages of Dorothy Hill’s historical account of the dealings of the Great Barrier Reef committee, which would later become the Australian Coral Reef Society, we learn Sir Matthew Nathan was elected Chairman and that it was at this meeting in Brisbane on 12 September 1928 that Miss H.F. Todd was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary. Later Dr Patricia Mather (above) was Secretary from 1967-1975, an important time for Australian coral reef research. She was very heavily involved in co-ordinating the 2nd International Coral Reef Symposium held on board the Marco Polo in 1973 and the subsequent publication of the proceedings. She also was a very active advocate for the establishment of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in 1975. Patricia was followed by Dr Anne Cameron in 1975-76. Patricia who worked extensively at Heron Island and with Isobel Bennett (who had worked with William Dakin and wrote “Australian Seashores”) produced the first field guide to the reef “A Coral Reef Handbook “ in 1978, followed by a 2nd edition in 1984 based primarily on the Capricorn Bunker Group, and in 1993 produced a completely revised version which covered the entire GBR although certainly still with a lot of focus on the southern part. These handbooks were essential reading for all the students who visited Heron Island on school or university field trips. Later on the ACRS Council realised the need for a more comprehensive book on the GBR and in 2006 signed an agreement with CSIRO publishing to produce “The Great Barrier Reef, Biology, Environment and Management”. The book was edited by Pat Hutchings, Mike Kingsford and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and was published in 2008 with a 2nd edition in 2019. The royalties from the sale of these books have funded student grants.

Treasurer Secretary

Several other women have been secretary of the ACRS, Pat Hutchings (1985-87, 1988-89), Vicki Harriott (1987-88), Carden Wallace (1989-90), Selina Ward (1997-2000), Emma Gyuris (2000-2001), Maria del Carmen Gomez-Cabrera (2001-2004), Anke Klueter (2004-2006), Ulrike Siebeck (2006-2011), Selma

Female Male President Vice President

Above figure: Number of male versus female treasurers, secretaries, presidents and vice presidents in the ACRS over the past 100 years.

REEF IN REVIEW

Klanten (2014-2018), Carrie Sims (2018-2020) and Stephanie Gardner (2020-2022) and all of these playing an important role in supporting the President and the Council.

Selina has played a critical role in organising and running the annual conferences of the ACRS and been highly successful in sourcing venues and sponsorships. In addition, women have also been well represented on the council assisting in commenting on zoning plans for Australian coral reefs as well as in evaluating student grants. Perhaps what is even more interesting is that since 1996, all the Treasurers have been female. The Society has also been led by several female Presidents and Vice Presidents: Pat Mather, Pat Hutchings, Selina Ward, Anna Scott and currently Sarah Hamylton.

Women have played significant roles in ensuring that the GBRC/ACRS has been a major player in promoting Australian coral reef science, running several major International conferences, as well as annual scientific conferences since the 1980’s, commenting on zoning plans for Australian marine parks, and awarding student grants for research.

This story of the role of women in Australian coral reef research needs to be told and we are planning to prepare a follow up paper.