Dr. Mary E. White, D. Sc.

See BOOKS Below!

Mary White grew up in Southern Rhodesia and attended the University of Cape Town, where the subject of her M.Sc. thesis in Botany was Palaeobotanical. It was supervised by Professor Alex duToit, a “father” of Continental Drift, and from this chance association a lifetime’s fascination with Gondwana and its environments and biota has evolved. After University, an interest in systematic botany in Africa, travelling and living in the wilds with her geologist husband and young children, provided more background to understanding southern floras.

The White family came to Australia in 1955 and from 1956 until the 1980s Mary White was a consultant to the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra, reporting on field collections of plant fossils and producing 55 BMR Records. She also consulted to mining companies. (Part-time, while raising five children.) As a Research Associate of the Australian Museum in Sydney since 1975 she has curated the plant fossil collections, establishing a fully documented research collection of 12,000 specimens and writing scientific papers on her discoveries in the collection. This work showed her that there was no book that presented the big, interdisciplinary, picture of the evolution of a continent and its flora through time, and inspired The Greening of Gondwana. A new “career” began with its writing, three years after the death of her husband and when the family had left home. (The Greening was first published in 1986 by Reed Books; Third Edition, published by Kangaroo Press/ Simon & Schuster, 1998.)

Since 1984, Mary White has been a full-time writer and lecturer, presenting her interests in the prehistoric world and the evolution of the Australian continent and its biota for the enjoyment of everyone interested. The Nature of Hidden Worlds and Time in Our Hands (and four children’s books) followed The Greening of Gondwana. An account of how Australia became the driest vegetated continent, After the Greening. The Browning of Australia,1994, won the Eureka Prize. (The Nature of Hidden Worlds has been republished as Reading the Rocks , 1999.) Listen ... Our Land is Crying, on the Australian environment, its problems and solutions, followed in 1997 and its companion volume -- Running Down: Water in a Changing Land – in 2000. Listen… and Running Down explain how the geological history of the continent pre-determined many of the problems that European-style land and water use have caused.

Mary’s latest book – on the Biosphere; bacterial origins for Life; symbiosis; the microbiology of soils; the significance of microscopic organisms in maintaining a living Earth and how Australian ecosystems function – Earth Alive ! From Microbes to a Living Planet -- was published in 2003.

Macquarie University granted Mary a Doctor of Science degree in recognition of her contributions to Science through her books in 1995. The Queensland University of Technology granted her the degree of Doctor of the University in 1999.. Wollongong University granted her a Doctor of Science Degree in 2001. She received the Riversleigh Medal “for excellence in promoting understanding of Australian prehistory” in December 1999, a NSW Tall Poppy award in 2001 for her contributions to Australian Science and the ANZAAS Mueller Medal in 2001.

In September 2003 Mary started a new phase in her life, moving from Sydney to Falls Forest Retreat at Johns River on the mid-north coast, a large property with wonderful forests, rainforest gullies, and river cascades and an eco-business comprising six townhouses and a conference center. The forests on the Retreat have been covenanted and protected for all time and the property and business will have an increasingly educational role – enabling fulfilment of a lifetime’s ambition to conserve biodiversity and inspire an interest in, and love of, the natural world.

ISBNs for Educational Books by Mary E. White:

Most titles available through UNIREPS and Bookshops:

Listen…Our Land is Crying: Australia’s Environment Problems & Solutions: 0 86417 844 1

Exploring the big picture of land use in Australia, the degradation of land and water resources and also some of the wonders of the continent, this provides a prescription for ensuring a bright future for Australia.

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Running Down. Water in a Changing Land: 0 7318 0904 1

Gives a deep-time perspective to the story of the co-evolution of water resources, the environment and the animal and plant life it supports. Examines the past and present status of the continents water systems and the impact of European land use on our two main supports- water and soil.

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• The Greening of Gondwana : The 400-million Year Story of Australia’s Plants: 0 7301 0475 3 Third edition: 0 86417 895 6

• Earth Alive! From Microbes to a Living Planet 1 877058 05 X

Currently out of print but available in Public & Educational Libraries:

• Blossom. A Possum’s Story: 0 207 15104 0

• Australia’s Prehistoric Plants and Environments: 0 454 00671 3

• The Nature of Hidden Worlds: Animals and Plants in Prehistoric Australia and New Zealand: 0 7301 0275 0 Reprinted as Reading the Rocks. Animals and Plants in Prehistoric Australia and New Zealand: 0 7318 0806 1

• Australia’s Fossil Plants: 0 7301 0259 9

• Time in Our Hands: 0 7301 0370 6

• Muttaburrasaurus. An Australian Dinosaur in its Time & Space: 0 86770 100 5

• Amphibians of the Triassic: Tadpole Hunting 220 Million Years Ago: 0 86770 102 1

• After the Greening. The Browning of Australia: 0 86417 585 X