Selk, Grosvenor   (fl.1966-79)

Grosvenor was a quiet, unassuming man who confided that he had discovered his true passion (Botany) after he had retired from working for Shell in places like Paris and Iran. Grosvenor had a pivotal role in the development of both the gardens and herbarium at Kings Park.

Grosvenor's accession books (held at KPBG) commence in 1966, and I assume he commenced working for Kings Park Herbarium in an honorary capacity. However, in 1970, the Director recommended that Grosvenor be paid $1.50 per hour for his work in the Herbarium. In 1972 Pauline Fairall asked for a review of the hours and rates of pay of the part time botanists and it was agreed that Grosvenor would receive $1.75/hour for a maximum of 24 hours per week and Pauline $2.75 for a maximum of 20 hours per week. Both were employed as casual labour, which probably accounts for the lack of records.

In 1976 the board voted to increase Grosvenor’s guide fees conducted outside working hours to $4.00 per hour!

When Grosvenor resigned on 30/9/1976, because of his wife's illness, it was noted that he was "Part- time botanist in charge of herbarium, trained by Mrs P. Fairall, undertakes identifications and liases with State Herbarium and acts as a guide" (Kings Park Board Minutes, October, 1976).

It is assumed that Grosvenor retired from his paid role as he continued his association with the Park, both as a Kings Park Guide and in 1978 he prepared an index to the Herbarium collections.

Grosvenor also worked outside the Herbarium as he re-labelled all plants along the nature trail, checked labels for most trees and new plantings and lead bushwalks during spring.

He also made collections (see below), co-ordinated identifications of the labelled specimens for the Annual Wildflower Show with botanists from the WA State Herbarium and prepared an herbarium display for the show.

Grosvenor Selk's Herbarium Curation and Collections
When Grosvenor left the Kings Park Herbarium, he noted in the Annual Report of 1977 that it contained 18,316 mounted specimens. These included the following sets of plant specimens: 16,263 native Western Australia, 14 exotic trees, 374 horticultural exotics, 264 Kings Park Arboretum, 302 Kings Park bushland (natives and weeds) and from the gardens - 170 Californian, 166 Mediterranean, 381 South African and 308 Eastern Australian species.

Seventy five collections of Grosvenor's are held in PERTH, but his collection numbers range up to 2,982, from 1966–1978. Grosvenor's herbarium accession books are held at KPBG and record his first collection as Melochia pyramidata made on 10 April 1966 from The Nursery at Kings Park and his final collections were from the gardens at Hollywood Village Retirement Centre on 30 June 1979. During this period Grosvenor collected mainly from the gardens and bushland of Kings Park to enable plants grown in the Botanic Garden to be identified and labelled. However, he also collected at Boya (1967), Mandurah (1967, 1971, 1972), Safety Bay (1968) and Bushmead (1967, 1968).

Grosvenor is commemorated with Hibbertia selkii, a lovely plant endemic to the Stirling Ranges.

Source: Extracted from: 'Grosvenor Selk - Kings Park Herbarium Curator and Volunteer', by Greg Keighery
Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter 142 (March 2010) p.6-9
Portrait Photo: none known.

Collecting localities for 'Selk, G.' from AVH (2021)

Data from 79 specimens in PERTH, excluding Kings Park