Gardiner, Gordon Ernest   (1917 - 2000)

Born at Goodwood (Adelaide), SA, of English parents on 4 June 1916; he died on 2 April 2000 in Adelaide.

His family moved to Blackwood and he attended Coromandel Valley Primary School, and was later awarded a scholarship to Scotch College.

At Blackwood he lived alongside the dense scrub of Craigburn Estate and roamed the hills and also, from the family shack at Sellicks Beach, he explored the coasts.

He worked as an apprentioe engineer at Forward Downs & Co, and in 1946 started business as Gardiner Engineering Co.

At Forward Downs he had travelled to places where mining machinery was sent and so developed a love of the outback. In his own business he manufactured items for pastoralists and others in the bush.

Gordon joined the Field Naturalists Society after an invitation from Darrell Kraehenbuehl to join a Botany Club outing to Mount Remarkable and the Beetaloo Valley area in 1958.

He took an active interest also in the Camera Club and led many excursions, over two to several days, to the Gawler Ranges, Mount Remarkable, the Southeast. Innamincka, etc. He also took part in a survey in the south-east to help acquire areas for national parks.

Gordon joined the newly-formed Nature Conservation Society of South Australia which arose from a meting at which a future Conservation Council was mooted. He soon became its Treasurer.

He continued to lobby for increased open space and green belts, and extended his efforts to the Outer Metropolitan area, Eyre Peninsula and the Northern and Southern Flinders Ranges.

At the time the South Australian Conservation Council was in the making and Gordon was one of a nucleus committee for its initiation, as the Field Naturalists' representative. Warren Bonython became the first President of the Conservation Council and Gordon the second.

His involvement in research on the history of the sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) trade was aimed at saving any remaining trees. He has also been involved in saving8 trees of two species of Codonocarpus.

Around 1970 Gordon married his second wife, Elise Wollaston, and together they undertook many trips into the outback.

Source: Extracted from:
Field Naturalists' Society of South Australia, Nature Conservation Award, 1993
Sth. Aust. Nat. Vol.68 No.1 & 2, Sept/Dec 1993 p.15
The Ryerson Index - GARDINER Gordon Ernest
Portrait Photo: extracted from: https://www.myheritage.com/names/gordon_gardiner

Collecting localities for 'Gardiner, G.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 549 specimens