Name Kathleen McArthur | Role Writer | |
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Died 2001, Caloundra, Australia Books When the Mind Opens, the Flowers Bloom: A Selection of Paintings, Writings and Photographs by Kathleen McArther (1915-2000), Queensland Wildflower Artist, Author and Conservationist, Compiled and with Introductions by the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, Sunshine Coast & Hinterland Incorporated Organizations founded Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland Similar People Judith Wright, Brian Clouston, David Fleay | ||
Kathleen McArthur
Kathleen McArthur (1915–2000), was an Australian naturalist, writer, botanical illustrator and conservationist. 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. She married Malcolm McArthur in 1938 and had three children before divorcing in 1947. From 1942 she lived at Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.
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The environmental activist
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. 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.
Writing
McArthur wrote a weekly column, Wildlife and Landscape, for her local paper. She also started the Lunch Hour Theatre in Caloundra, a monthly event for which she wrote scripts based on environmental, biographical and historical subjects. Books authored (and illustrated) by McArthur include: