There are two versions of William Crooke’s Biography by Peter MacFie
ADB citation
William George Crooke, founder of Mt Field National Park. Supplementary Volume, Australian Dictionary of Biography.
ADB online
Crooke, William George (1846 – 1920)
THRA Citation
William Crooke, journalist, conservationist and ‘father’ of Mt Field National Park: Peter MacFie, Tasmanian Historical Research Association. 1994 (presented at meeting, but not published at the time)
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Excerpt
The bluestone obelisk at the start of the path to Russell Falls, Mt Field National Park, is dedicated to the Park’s founder, William Crooke. The memorial is in a dark and obscure corner, near the original entrance to the Park, and close to the place where, in 1917, an official ceremony was held to declare open Tasmania’s first National Park. Like the half hidden memorial, William Crooke’s role as an early conservationist is all but forgotten, yet he was responsible for the 1915 Scenery and Preservation Board Act, Tasmania’s first heritage and wilderness protection legislation, which has been described since as ‘the most advanced park legislation in Australia’ for its time, and held rank for over 40 years. [1] He lobbied for the formation of ‘a People’s Park’ at Mt Field, supervised by its own Board. Three years later, in 1920, with the Park’s management undergoing acrimonious change, William Crooke died aged 75.
Mt Field National Park is Crooke’s most visible legacy, but few people know of his influence on early conservation. He needs recognition for this and many other humanitarian social reforms he worked for in the Edwardian era Included was a concern for the housing and working conditions of low income earners, and the plight of deserted wives. But his interests extended further; he was a member of the Australian Natives Association, an active Federalist, a supporter of women’s rights and promoter of railway branch lines. Most of all, he loved the outdoors and the conviviality that came with recreational fishing, and supported the establishment of parks based on overseas examples.
In 1924, Crooke’s obelisk was unveiled by Premier J. A. Lyons, who praised Crooke for his ‘… unselfish interest in the creation of this great national reserve in Tasmania known as National Park…’.[2] Special guests at the unveiling were 600-700 Hobart school children, whose appreciation and enjoyment of the Park was a major concern of Crooke.
The eulogy repeated the sentiments made at the time of the Opening Ceremony in 1917. The Weekly Courier on September 2, wrote
…He was in many matters years ahead of current thought and had to fight his way through many obstacles erected by stodgy minds. He was intensely patriotic, wonderfully progressive, and courageous. He was one of that type that will not admit defeat ….where the public .(interest).. is at stake, and his tenaciousness carried him very often to a wise success where a weaker nature and less fearless man would have given up in disgust.
Hobart’s Mercury and Tasmanian Mail repeated similar feelings. The papers lost their fishing correspondent of 20 years who wrote under the pen-name of ‘Jollytail.’ These and other articles by Crooke were read in ‘mainland, English and American journals…’ Many of these articles went further than just fishing articles, advocating conservation controls, public involvement and education, all delivered with an assertive, almost cocky confidence.
All his ideas will for ever be a monument to his zeal and energy as a citizen. But for his dogged advocacy we should not have had that magnificent playground and sanctuary for our native flora and fauna….
End of Excerpt
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Footnotes from excerpt
[1] Mosley, P.39
[2]Daily News 20/6/1924 P.3
Indexed entries for pdf version
Acts: Animals and Birds Protection Act 1919
Acts: Fisheries Act
Acts: National Parks Act 1916
Acts: National Parks and Wildlife Act 1970
Acts: Scenery and Preservation Board Act 1915
Acts: Victorian Fisheries Act of 1890
Acts: Waste Lands Act
Alston, Ellen
Amherst Primary School
Animals and Birds Protection Board
antimony mines
Athenaeum and Free Library Society
Atkins, ?
Australasian Federation League
Australian Antarctic Expedition 1912
Australian Natives Association
Australian Natives Federation League
Australian Newsprint Mills
Australian Ornithological Union
Backhouse Tarn
barracouta
Beattie, John Watt
Beatties Tarn
Belcher, William (Bill)
Belton, James
Bird, Bolton Stafford.
boarding houses
boarding houses:Falls View
boarding houses:Park House
boarding houses:Park View
boat-house
boiling down places
Boredom, Rev. ?
Botanical Gardens
Bottrill, W. E.
Brent, ?
Broad River
Broken Hill
Browning, C.
bunyips
Burke, Edmund
bushfire control
bushmen
Butler, A. L.
Butler, W. F. Dennis
Calder, James
Carnegie MacMullen, James
Cascade Brewery
Chapel Street Primary School, Prahran
Chaplin, ?
Chapman, Miss ?
Chartists
chemical places
Children’s Excursion Association
Children’s Excursions
Children’s Excursions
Citizen’s Committee
Citizens Moral and Social Reform League
Clark, George
Clark, James
conservationists
convict taint
Cook, ?
Cook, J.
Cosgrove, Robert
Costerfield
Costerfield Primary School
Costerfield Wesleyan chapel
Counsel, E.A.
couta
Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair
Cradle Mountain National Park
Cradle Mountain—Lake St Clair Reserve
Creswick Church of England school
Crooke memorial
Crooke, Caroline (Mrs Robert)
Crooke, Charles
Crooke, Ellen (Mrs William)
Crooke, Rev. Robert
Crooke, William
Crooke, William Bayard
Crooke’s Creek
Crouch, Rev. G.S.
Crowther, Dr Edward Lodewyk
Cuthbertson, Margaret (Mrs A.W.)
Davis, A. C.
Dawes, H. E.
Derwent College
Derwent Valley Railway
distribution of trout fry
Dobson, Emily (Mrs Henry)
Dobson, Henry
Dodd, John
Dog Valley
dogs
Drew, Caroline
Duneed Primary School
Earle, John
Ellendale
Emerald Hill
Emerald Hill Primary School
Emmett, E.T.
Federation
Fenton, Michael
Fenton’s Gap
Field, Edward
fire arms
fires protection
Fish Inspectors
Fish Protection and Anglers Society
Fisher, Andrew
Fisheries Board
Fisheries Board,
Fisheries Commission
fishing
Fitzgerald, George Parker
Flagstaff
Florentine Valley
Flynn, Errol
Flynn, Thomas T.
Forestry Commission
Fowler, T.W
Franklin
Franklin River
Freycinet Park
Freycinet Peninsula
Freycinet Reserve
Gamble, Walter M.
Gant, Tetley
George Street Primary School, Fitzroy
Gibson
Gifford, E. E.
Gordon River
Government Tourist Bureau
H.R. Nicholls
Harcourt, E.V.
Hayes, John Blyth
Hean, ?
Hitchin, ?
Hobart
Hobart City Council
Hollow Tree
Horseshoe Falls
HR Nicholls Society
Hudspeth, Wilfred H.
Huon pine
huts
Impression Bay
impropriety
Independent Order of Good Templars
Irvin, Kate
Johnstone, R.M.
Jollytail
Junee
K Col
Kendall, Henry
King George V
Knight, H.W.
Labor League
Labor Party
Ladle, Rev. ?
Lady Barron Falls
Lady Barron Falls Creek
Lady Barron Falls Track
Lake Barker
Lake Belcher
Lake Belton
Lake Dobson
Lake Dobson huts
Lake Fenton
Lake Fenton boat house
Lake Fenton huts
Lake Fenton Track
Lake Jollytail
Lake Nicholls
Lake Pedder
Lake Pertobe
Lake Seal
Lake Webster
Lake Webster hut
Le Soeuf, Dudley
Lee, William
Liberal Party
Lord, Clive E.
Loveluck, ?
Lyons, Joseph Aloysius
lyre-birds
Manny’s Marsh
Marriott, Charles
Marriott, Edith
Maxwell, B.
Maxwell, Eustace
Mercer, Bishop ?
Mill Falls
Monto’s Marsh
Morton, Alexander
Mountain Park
Mountain River
Mt Field
Mt Field East
Mt Field National Park
Mt Field Range
Mt Field West
Mt Field West hut
Mt Wellington Park
Mueller, F. J. H. von
Mulcahy, Edward
Murchison, Rev. W.G.
National Association
National Park
National Park Association
National Park Board
National Park Special Board
National Park village
national parks
National Parks Association
Neale, William Lewis
New Norfolk Council
New Norfolk Council.
New Zealand Fishing Commission.
Newdegate, Sir Francis
Nicholls, Henry Reynolds
Nicholls, Henry Richard
Nicholls, Herbert
Noetling, Fritz
North Tasmanian Angling Club
North West Bay River
obelisk
official opening
Pack Track
Paton, ?
philosophy of conservation
pigs
poaching
poetry
pollution
porpoises
Port Arthur
Portland Primary School
Prahran West Primary School
Premaydena
Public Works Commission 1909
Public Works Department
railway
Railway Department
Railway League
railways
rangers
Ransley’s Grass
Rayner brothers
Rayner Edward
Rayner, Eliza
recreational fishing
Rest House
Risdon
Rodway Ranges
Rodway, Leonard
Royal Commission into Tasmanian Fisheries
Royal Society
Russell Falls
Russell Falls access
Russell Falls River
Russell Station
salmon
Saltwater River
Scenery and Preservation Board
Scenery Preservation Board
school conditions
Seafield Primary School
Seager, Phillip S.
Seager’s Lookout
Seal, Matthew
Shackel, ?
Shoobridge, Henry W.
Shoobridge, Louis
skating
skiing
slaughterhouses
Smith, Louis Lawrence
snaring
snow
Sorell
South Hobart
Southern Tasmania Railway League
Southern Tasmanian Anglers’ Club
Southern Tasmanian Railways Association.
Southport
St George’s Church, Battery Point
Stops, W.J.T.
sugar-gums
tanneries
Tasmanian Constitution
Tasmanian Field Naturalists
Tasmanian Fisheries Commission
Tasmanian Museum
Tasmanian Tourist Association
Tattersalls lottery,
teachers
temperance movement
The Clipper newspaper
The Domain
The People’s Friend
Thoreau, Henry
timber millers
tourism
Tourist Association
tourists
tracks
Trap Valley
trappers
trout
trout fry
Tyenna
Tyenna River
University of Tasmania
vandalism
Victorian Fish Protection and Anglers Society
Victorian Fish Protection Society
Walker Tarn
Walker, James Backhouse
Webster, Alexander George
Webster-Rometch’s coaches
Weindorfer, Gustav
Wertheimer, Arnold
Westerway
Wettenhall, Victor E.
White Cliffs
Whitman, Walt
Whittington, Archbishop F.T.
wilderness protection legislation
wildlife
wildlife care
Wodonga
Wodonga Primary School
Women’s National Association
Woods, ?
wool-washing
Workers’ Educational Association
Workers’ Political League
Working Men’s Club
World War I
Copyright Peter MacFie© 2018