Phillips, Marie Elizabeth (Betty) (1917 - 1977)

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1917, died in Goulburn, New South Wales, in 1977.

Ecologist with the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme in the 1950s.

Appointed Botanist at the Canberra Botanic Gardens (now Australian National Botanic Gardens), Australian Capital Territory, in June 1960, succeeding Erwin Gauba. She was largely responsible for a major acceleration in the development of the herbarium (CBG) and for devising a rigorous cross-referencing system tying the living collections to vouchers in the herbarium. She collected widely, both for living collections and herbarium purposes, in southern, eastern and western Australia. She retired in December 1973. Her collections were lodged in CBG, now transferred to CANB.

Extracted from: A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS. [consult for source references]