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Science and the making of VictoriaRoyal Society of Victoria
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Royal Society of Victoria 1854-1959

Introduction

Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science

Philosophical Society of Victoria

Philosophical Institute of Victoria

Royal Society of Victoria

Acknowledgements


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Royal Society of Victoria (continued)

The same year saw the resignation through ill-health of Mr F. A. Cudmore, honorary librarian from 1926. A meticulous worker and one who thoroughly appreciated the importance of this library in the scientific life of the State, Mr Cudmore was also responsible for the compilation and publication in 1934 of the author index of the Proceedings of the Royal Society and the earlier societies. Mr Cudmore bequeathed a considerable sum of money to the Society to be used for part payment of the salary of a trained librarian.

With the centenary of the Royal Society approaching, it was agreed to publish a special centenary volume, which would be partly historical and the remainder papers. An approach to the government for special funds for this purpose was not successful, but their annual grant was raised to £500 at this time.

The work of the new building progressed so rapidly that arrangements were made for the official opening of the new block on 25 August 1954 by His Excellency the Governor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks. Prior to this opening, an agreement concerning the grounds was made which ended all the previous worries concerning this part of the property where outbreaks of fire had occurred during the summer months. The agreement was made with the Melbourne City Council whereby, in consideration of the Royal College putting the grounds in order and installing an adequate watering system, the Parks and Gardens department of the City Council would take them over and maintain them free of charge.

The visit to Melbourne of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh at the time of the Olympic Games was made the occasion, on 3 December 1956, for a symposium at the Royal Society on the subject 'Australia's part in the geophysical year in the Antarctic'. His visit to the Society in 1956 recalled the previous visit of an earlier Duke of Edinburgh to the Society in 1867. At this symposium, His Royal Highness officially opened the proceedings with an address on the importance of the Antarctic continent. Other addresses were delivered by Sir Marcus Oliphant, president of the Australian Academy of Science; Sir Douglas Mawson, 'Australian Links with Antarctica'; Mr P. G. Law, 'Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition'; and Dr D. F. Martyn, 'Australia and the International Geophysical Year'; and the whole of the proceedings published in the form of a special symposium volume. On the same occasion, His Royal Highness conducted an investiture in the Society's hall at which 23 polar medals were conferred.


Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Australian Academy of Science

People in Bright Sparcs - Law, Phillip Garth; Martyn, David Forbes; Mawson, Douglas; Oliphant, Marcus Laurence Elwin

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Pescott, R. T. M. 1961 'The Royal Society of Victoria from then, 1854 to now, 1959', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. 73, no. 7, pp. 1-40.

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