Isobel Bennett

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Dr Isobel Ida Bennett AO (July 9, 1909 – January 12, 2008) was one of Australia’s best-known marine biologists. She assisted W J Dakin [1] in 1952, with Australian Seashores (becoming a coauthor in later editions ^[1]), regarded by many as " the definitive guide on the intertidal zone, and a recommended source of information to divers". ^[2] She wrote nine other books, and was one of the first women to go south with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE). ^[3]

[edit] Life and career

She was born in Brisbane in 1909 and educated at Somerville House before being told by her parents to leave school at 16 and enroll at a business college.^[4] After working in a patent office and for four years at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Sydney, she joined the Zoology Department of the University of Sydney in 1933. From that time until 1948, she worked as secretary, librarian, demonstrator and research assistant to Professor W.J. Dakin, and then as research assistant to Professor P.D.F. Murray.

From 1950 she regularly led students to the Heron Island and Lizard Island Research Stations on the Great Barrier Reef and did field work on the Victorian and Tasmanian coasts. In 1959 she made her first visit to Macquarie Island with the ANARE relief ship, returning in 1960, 1965 and 1968. From 1959 to 1971, she was a Professional Officer at the University of Sydney, and received the first Honorary Master of Science from the University of Sydney in 1962. She was a temporary Associate Professor at Stamford University in 1963 ^[5] and a delegate to the 11th Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo in 1966.

She retired in 1971, but remained an active author and researcher. From 1974 to 1979 she worked with the New South Wales Fisheries Department, and during that time, carried out fieldwork and surveys at the coastal rock platforms at Jervis Bay and Ulladulla, and on the coasts of Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and Flinders Island.

In 1982 she received the Mueller Medal from ANZAAS, and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1984 for services to marine biology. She received the Whitley Memorial Award from the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales in 1988 for The Great Barrier Reef, for natural history photographs, The Australian Seashores, best text, and the third edition of A Coral Reef Handbook for best handbook. She was made an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of New South Wales in 1995.

Her papers and a collection of around 500 colour slides covering the last edition of Australian Seashores have been donated to the National Library of Australia and around 400 remaining slides to Pittwater Council.

A coral reef, a genus and five species of marine animals have been named after her.

Other than the editions of Australian Seashore, she wrote the following books: