"So Much that is New"

Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929), biologist and anthropologist, was elected to the chair of biology at the University of Melbourne in 1887. Until he joined the Horn Expedition to Central Australia his work was all in the field of biology, but on this expedition he became associated with F. J. Gillen, a Sub-Protector of Aborigines at Alice Springs, who had won the trust and friendship of the natives by his kindly attitude to them. Thenceforth the two men worked together, making extensive anthropological collections, laying valuable foundations in the scientific study of the Central Australia and Northern Territory tribes, and publishing several monumental works on their investigations which to-day are greatly esteemed and much sought after. He died in Tierra del Fuego, seeking the remnants of the Indian tribes there. Spencer was a man of diversified interests - he was a trustee of the Melbourne Public Library, an honorary director of the National Museum, and a councillor of the Royal Humane Society, the Victorian Artists Society and the Victorian Football League.