Kathleen McArthur

Background

She was born in Brisbane, Queensland to Catherine and Daniel Evans. Her mother was a daughter of the Durack pastoral family, her father a co-founder of an engineering firm.

Career

From 1942 she lived at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. In 1963 she founded the Caloundra branch of the society. She was involved in several campaigns during the 1960s and 1970s to preserve landscapes threatened by economic development, including the Pumicestone Passage, the Great Barrier Reef and Cooloola.

Much campaign work was funded through her growing and selling native plants as well as through exhibitions of her wildflower paintings.

She was especially concerned for the Wallum country of south-eastern Queensland, a habitat characterised by floristically-rich coastal heath and swamps on deep sandy soils. The spider, Ozicrypta mcarthurae, was named after her for her outstanding contribution to conservation.

In 1996 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by James Cook University of North Queensland.

Achievements

• McArthur was a strong environmentalist and a co-founder, with Judith Wright, David Fleay and Brian Clouston, of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland in 1962, and served as vice-president from then until 1965.