William Tietkens

Photograph of William Tietkens held in the State Library of South Australia
William Tietkens expedition 1889

William Harry Tietkens (30 August 1844 – 19 April 1933), known as "Harry Tietkens",[1] explorer and naturalist, was born in England and emigrated to Australia in 1859.[2] Tietkens was second in command to Ernest Giles on expeditions to Central Australia in 1873 and on a journey from Beltana, South Australia to Perth, Western Australia in 1875.[2] In 1889 Tietkens led his own expedition west of Alice Springs to the vicinity of the Western Australian border.[3] This expedition discovered Lake Macdonald, the Kintore Range, Mount Leisler, Mount Rennie, the Cleland Hills, defined the western borders of Lake Amadeus, and photographed Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (Mount Olga) for the first time. The expedition collected new species of plants and rock samples allowing the South Australian government geologist to compile a 'geological sketch' of the country traversed. Tietkens was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society on his return. Specimens of 250 plant species were collected, although only 8 were new to science,[4] and in 1890, Ferdinand von Mueller and Ralph Tate named Eremophila tietkensii in his honour.[5][6]

Tietkens later worked for the New South Wales Department of Lands as a surveyor from 1891 until his retirement in 1909.[2] He died at Lithgow, New South Wales.

  1. ^ "Mr. Tietkens's Memories". The Advertiser. Adelaide. 18 April 1932. p. 12. Retrieved 29 October 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ a b c Hartwig, Mervyn (1976). "Tietkens, William Harry (1844 - 1933)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 2008-05-15.
  3. ^ Joy, William (1964). The Explorers. Adelaide: Rigby Ltd. p. 72. ISBN 0-85179-112-3.
  4. ^ von Mueller, Ferdinand; Tate, Ralph (1890). "List of Plants collected during Mr. Tietkens' Expedition into Central Australia, 1889". Transactions and Proceedings and Report, Royal Society of South Australia. 13: 95. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  5. ^ Chinnock, R.J. (Bob) (2007). Eremophila and allied genera : a monograph of the plant family Myoporaceae (1st ed.). Dural, NSW: Rosenberg. pp. 425–427. ISBN 9781877058165.
  6. ^ Brown, Andrew; Buirchell, Bevan (2011). A field guide to the eremophilas of Western Australia (1st ed.). Hamilton Hill, W.A.: Simon Nevill Publications. p. 275. ISBN 9780980348156.