Kartzoff, Michael Eugene (1908 - )

Born in Russia on 27 February 1908 and migrated to Australia in 1926. 

He completed the two-year course for the New South Wales Certificate of Agriculture at the Bathurst Experiment Farm.  For a time he worked as a jackeroo in the northwest of the State and during the depression years (1931-35) prospected for gold in the Araluen district (the locality of Eucalyptus kartzoffiana).  He was employed by the Forestry Commission of New South Wales in 1940 but soon saw service in the A.I.F. (1940-45) during World War II.  

In 1946 he was appointed a seed collector under W. A. W. de Beuzeville, and until 1953 travelled all over the State on seed collection and making ecological observations.  Later he held positions as Forester, and apart from district work was in the Fire Control Section of the Commission (1958-66), Extension Officer (1966-72) and then District Forester, Dubbo, and relieving District Forester, Metropolitan.  After his retirement in 1973 he became a consultant on the environment and on arboriculture.  In addition to internal papers for the Commission he published Nature and a City, the Vegetation of the Sydney Area (1969), which was recommended reading on some courses at the University of Sydney and prescribed for the Town Planning Certificate.