JOHN LANDY

OVERVIEW

John Landy, Entomologist

John Landy AC CVO MBE (M’48), who died on February 24 at the age of 91, lived a truly remarkable life. An athlete, scientist, environmentalist and educator who served as Governor of Victoria from 2001 to 2006, John is best known as the second man to break the “impossible” four-minute mile barrier. John held the world record for the mile for more than three years, and his race with Roger Bannister at the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver was watched by more than 10 million Americans on a new invention called television, and listened to on radio by countless more around the world.

Not so well known was John’s love of butterflies and beetles. Some of his earliest memories “from around the age of four” are of insects. “One is the very clear image of two large yellow and black highly polished jewel beetles on a banksia tree and the other of a grass blue butterfly sunning itself on a leaf,” John told the Australian Museum in 2018. He started collecting butterflies from around the age of 11 and would ride his bicycle from the Landy family home in East Malvern to as far afield as the Dandenong Ranges in search of new species – a distance of almost 40 kilometres. When John commenced at Corio in 1945, he joined “an active Natural History Group” and remembers an “unusual Skipper butterfly on rushes growing in the salt flats near the School” and a “small Copper butterfly on the cricket pitch when I was in the outfield” which was “more interesting to me than the game itself”.

Just months after his “Race of the Century” with Roger Bannister, John joined the teaching staff at Timbertop and imbued his love of insects and the natural world with a generation of Timbertop students. The Timbertop Magazine published in February 1956 features an article by John about the discovery and positive identification of the Tailed Emperor butterfly, a species previously unseen in Victoria, which he describes as “one of Australia’s most striking insects”. John’s enthusiasm is evident in his lively descriptions of the Tailed Emperor and Imperial Blue butterflies, as well as the relationship between ants and caterpillars.

John spent 75 years studying and collecting butterflies. “My collecting was intermittent with a career in agricultural research and development, my athletics pursuits, family life and public service,” he explained. His collection, comprising 139 boxes of nearly 10,000 specimens, was donated to the Australian Museum. It was estimated that John had recorded more than 300 of the 400 butterfly species found in Australia. “My lifelong passion for butterflies has given me a wonderful insight into natural history and I’ve never had a boring day in the bush!”

J. M. LANDY Esq. A New Victorian Butterfly

The highlight of the year for the entomologists at Timbertop was undoubtedly the finding of the wings of the Tailed Emperor butterfly. Although only the wings remained, they were quite sufficient for positive identification. Even in Australia where the number of entomologists is very small, the discovery of a new species, or a species new to a State, creates great interest. The total number of Victorian butterflies just exceeds 100 but since 1930 very few have been added to the list.

It will be interesting for future observers at Timbertop to determine whether the Emperor is a visitor or has in fact established itself at Timbertop. Some entomologists in Melbourne feel that it is quite possible that it is breeding in the locality. Both the silver wattle and black wattle found at Timbertop are food plants of the species. The Tailed Emperor is without question one of Australia’s most striking insects. Vividly marked in black, green, and white on the top surface of the wings, he has a beautiful blending of brown, white and mother of pearl on the underside. The large 4” spread of wings is characterized by two pairs of sharply pointed tails projecting from the hind wings. Powerful wing muscles give the Emperor great speed of flight. He can easily elude the most skilfully wielded net and is usually a match for that brilliant enemy of all butterflies, the willy-wag tail.

During the year many other butterflies were seen at Timbertop. In all 40 different species were noted. Particularly good localities were the Howqua Valley with its wide range of vegetation and Mt Buller, where several Alpine species can be found. Perhaps the most interesting butterfly found during the year was the Imperial Blue. It is a delicately marked butterfly of slightly more than 1” across the wings and has a bright metallic blue upper surface. This species was found quite commonly around the School where its caterpillars were feeding on small silver wattles.

This is an edited extract from the inaugural Timbertop Magazine, published in February 1956.

Read the obituary for John Landy AC CVO MBE (M’48) on page 40