Noel Burnet

Noel Burnet (4 March 1904 – 24 June 1953)^[1][2] was an Australian environmentalist and founder of the Koala Park Sanctuary, a privately owned and run wildlife park located at West Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Australia.^[3] He was a Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales.^[4]

Biography

Burnet was born in Sydney, the first of three children of Kathleen (née Bradley) and Charles Alfred Burnet.^[5] He attended Newington College, commencing in 1916,^[6] under the headmastership of the Rev Dr Charles Prescott. In the early 1920s, Burnet was living in Brisbane when he first came into contact with koalas. He was a resident of a boarding-house when he was given his first pair of koalas and he placed them on a tree in the garden. Fortunately, the tree was of the right species upon which the koalas thrived.^[7] After moving back to Sydney he established Koala Park later in the decade and in 1929 he married Emily Lucas.^[8] In 1930 he opened the Koala Park Sanctuary to the public.^[9] Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester visited the park in 1934^[10] and was "intensely interested in the bears". His photograph, with Burnet and a koala, appeared in the 8 December edition of the Sydney Morning Herald. On his death he was survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter, who carried on the management of the Koala Park Sanctuary.^[11]

Publications

• The native bear book of Australia (Sydney : W.A. Pepperday & Co, 1934.)^[12]
• Some Australian fauna (Sydney : W.A. Pepperday & Co., 1932.)^[13]
• The Bluegum family at Koala Park (Sydney : W.A. Pepperday & Co., 1932.)^[14]

References