William George Crooke

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)

Download pdf

Crooke Paper (2018-06-12).pdf

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

To read more, download paper or access the originals.

 

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

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