In 1938 botanist Percival St John was commissioned by Sir Russell Grimwade to make a census of the flora of Mt Buffalo National Park in north-east Victoria. St John's census included a collection of 136 herbarium specimens, representing 133 species, collected in November 1938 and January 1939. The specimens were mounted on paper with hand-written labels and were stored in four folios. These specimens were housed at the Mt Buffalo Chalet and at the Parks Victoria Office on Mt Buffalo at various times. Following decades of public use some of the specimens had become badly damaged and were in need of curatorial work.
In 2006 The Miegunyah Foundation commissioned botanists from the University of Melbourne to move the original collection from the Chalet to the School of BioSciences herbarium at the University of Melbourne, where it could be properly conserved to ensure its ongoing relevance and use. Following relocation, the collection was repaired, the identity of the plant species in the collection was verified or corrected using current taxonomy, the specimens were databased, and photographed. The specimens are now available for viewing as the "Mt Buffalo Grimwade Collection" in the collection online.
At this time a new collection of plants from Mt Buffalo National Park, representing most of species in the original Grimwade Collection, was also made by botanists from The University of Melbourne. Two sets of specimens were collected; one set is on public display at Parks Victoria offices on Mt Buffalo, and the other set is held at The University of Melbourne Herbarium. The specimens held at The University of Melbourne Herbarium have been databased and high-resolution images of the specimens have been generated. The specimen data and images are available for viewing as the "Mt Buffalo Miegunyah Collection" in the collection online.
Acknowledgements: The Grimwade Plant Collection initiative was led by Dr Alison Kellow, Dr Michael Bayly and Prof. Pauline Ladiges, School of BioSciences, The University of Melbourne. Staff of Parks Victoria and The Mt Buffalo Chalet assisted with re-location of the collection. Jeff Jeanes, Kevin Rule and especially Neville Walsh, of the National Herbarium of Victoria, provided advice and assisted with plant identifications. Members of the Mt Buffalo Field Naturalist Group, in particular Roger and Meredith Briggs, and Clyde O'Donnell, provided a number of the plant photographs used here. Members of the group also provided helpful advice and company in the field.
Funding from The Russell and Mab Grimwade Miegunyah Fund in 2006 supported Mt Buffalo fieldwork and digitisation of specimens and in 2018 supported generation of high-resolution imaging of these specimens.
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The marker icon indicates a single location where one or more objects were collected. Click to see more information. |
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A pink circle indicates two to nine proximal locations where objects were collected. Click on the circle or zoom to resolve the locations. |
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An orange circle indicates 10 to 99 proximal locations where objects were collected. Click on the circle or zoom to resolve the locations. |
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