The Australian Natural History Medallion is awarded each year by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV) to the person judged to have made the most meritorious contribution to the understanding of Australian Natural History. The idea originated with J. K. Moir, a book collector and member of the Bread and Cheese Club. Moir wrote to the FNCV in 1939 suggesting that such a medallion should be awarded to a person who had performed, in his words, ‘a signal service’ to the protection of flora and fauna—‘a variation of the Nobel awards’. Nominations for the Medallion are made by field naturalist clubs and kindred bodies from all over Australia, each nomination being valid for a three-year period. The Medallion has been awarded annually since 1940. In that time, recipients have been honoured for their work in every field of natural history studies, and have come from every state and territory in Australia.
The list of Medallionists and the year of the award is as follows:
1940 – Alexander Hugh Chisholm1941 – Frederick Chapman1942 – David Fleay1943 – Herbert Ward Wilson1944 – John McConnell Black1945 – Charles P. Mountford1946 – Heber A. Longman1947 – Philip Crosbie Morrison1948 – Ludwig Glauert1949 – Edith Coleman1950 – Bernard C. Cotton1951 – Tarlton Rayment1952 – John Burton Cleland1953 – Charles Leslie Barrett1954 – Herman M. R. Rupp1955 – Stanley R. Mitchell1956 – Dominic Louis Serventy1957 – Charles Ernest William Bryant1958 – Charles J. Gabriel1959 – Keith Alfred Hindwood1960 – James Hamlyn Willis1961 – Emil H. Zeck1962 – Norman Arthur Wakefield1963 – Thistle Y. Stead1964 – Winifred Waddell1965 – Roy Wheeler1966 – J. Ros Garnet1967 – Gilbert P. Whitley1968 – Norman Barnett Tindale1969 – Charles Austin Gardner1970 – Jean Galbraith1971 – Alexander Clifford Beauglehole1972 – Allen Axel Strom1973 – Edmund D. Gill1974 – Vincent Noel Serventy1975 – Alison M. Ashby1976 – Winifred M. Curtis1977 – John Russell (Jack) Wheeler1978 – Allan Roy Sefton1979 – Helen Aston1980 – Michael Tyler1981 – Elizabeth Marks1982 – Howard Jarman1983 – Trevor Pescott1984 – Kevin Keneally1985 – Jack Hyett1986 – Graham Pizzey1987 – Robert G. H. Green1988 – John Dell1989 – Bruce A. Fuhrer OAM1990 – Ellen McCulloch1991 – Fred J. C. Rogers1992 – Enid L. Robertson1993 – Alan J. Reid1994 – Joan Cribb1995 – W. Rodger Elliott1996 – Ken N.G. Simpson1997 – Geoffrey Monteith1998 – Peter W. Menkhorst1999 – Mary P. Cameron2000 – Dr. Malcolm Calder2001 – Alan B. Cribb2002 – Ian D. Endersby2003 – Clive Dudley Thomas Minton2004 – David Lindenmayer2005 – Pauline Reilly2006 – Ian Fraser2007 – Jeanette Covacevich2008 – Ern Perkins2009 – Richard Shine AM2010 – Don P. A. Sands OAM2011 – John Woinarski2012 – No award made2013 – Marilyn Hewish2014 – Tom May2015 – Margaret MacDonald2016 – Max S. Moulds OAM