Frederick Waterhouse

August 25, 1815 (age 83)

London, United Kingdom

His original intention was to prospect for gold at the Victorian diggings, but he was unsuccessful and found employment with C. T. Hargrave, surveying in the Mount Lofty Ranges and Kangaroo Island. In 1860 he became curator of the South Australian Institute Museum, which opened in 1862, and which he had helped to found in 1856 with the donation of his own valuable entomological and ornithological collection. He joined the John McDouall Stuart Expedition 1861-1862, returning to Adelaide in 1863 with bird and mammal skins, insects and plants, including specimens of the Princess Alexandra parrot, Polytelis alexandrae. In 1872, trawling in the Gulf Saint Vincent with Albert Molineux, secretary of the Agricultural Bureau, he caught forty species of fish which had not been found there previously, some of which were new to science, and were described by François Louis de la Porte, comte de Castelnau then in Melbourne. In 1882 he took eight months" leave of absence on account of ill-health, travelled to England, and on his return retired to his home "Wandeen" in Burnside. He died on 7 September 1898, aged 83 years, at Mannahill (between Peterborough and Broken Hill), where Edward, a mounted constable, had been transferred. The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize is named after him. A river in the Northern Territory and several natural history species commemorate the Waterhouse name. His great, great grandson is Doctor Andrew Thomas, Australia"s only Astronaut and Cosmonaut.

Frederick Waterhouse

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Background

Waterhouse was born near London, a son of solicitor J. W. Waterhouse.

Career

His original intention was to prospect for gold at the Victorian diggings, but he was unsuccessful and found employment with C. T. Hargrave, surveying in the Mount Lofty Ranges and Kangaroo Island. In 1860 he became curator of the South Australian Institute Museum, which opened in 1862, and which he had helped to found in 1856 with the donation of his own valuable entomological and ornithological collection. He joined the John McDouall Stuart Expedition 1861-1862, returning to Adelaide in 1863 with bird and mammal skins, insects and plants, including specimens of the Princess Alexandra parrot, Polytelis alexandrae.

In 1872, trawling in the Gulf Saint Vincent with Albert Molineux, secretary of the Agricultural Bureau, he caught forty species of fish which had not been found there previously, some of which were new to science, and were described by François Louis de la Porte, comte de Castelnau then in Melbourne.

In 1882 he took eight months" leave of absence on account of ill-health, travelled to England, and on his return retired to his home "Wandeen" in Burnside. He died on 7 September 1898, aged 83 years, at Mannahill (between Peterborough and Broken Hill), where Edward, a mounted constable, had been transferred.

The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize is named after him. A river in the Northern Territory and several natural history species commemorate the Waterhouse name.

His great, great grandson is Doctor Andrew Thomas, Australia"s only Astronaut and Cosmonaut.

Membership

He was a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London. He is buried at Street Georges Cemetery, Magill, South Australia, as are several other members of his family.

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