Background
George Barnard was born as eldest son of the eleven children of George William Barnard and Anne Greensill at Lea, Chiselhurst, Kent, England.
George Barnard was born as eldest son of the eleven children of George William Barnard and Anne Greensill at Lea, Chiselhurst, Kent, England.
In 1845, he and his family emigrated to Australia and settled at "Landfall" homestead on the Tamar River near Launceston. He owned a huge collection of insect specimens with the main focus on Coleoptera and Lepidoptera as well as large collection of bird eggs. In 1891, he established a museum for his collections on his property at Coomooboolaroo 14 mi (23 km) south of Duaringa, Queensland, Australia.
After his death the insect collection was purchased by the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Tring.
Barnard wrote many ornithological articles for Alfred John North"s Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Birds Foundation Breeding in Australia and Tasmania (1889). The couple had seven children, including ornithologist Charles Ashmall Barnard (1867-1942), founding member and later president of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, and Henry "Harry" Greensill Barnard (1869-1966), a zoologist after whom Lasiorhinus krefftii barnardi, a subspecies of the Northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) was named.
