The Errol Flynn Blog

Theodore T Flynn
(1883-1968)

Theodore Thomson Flynn arrived in Hobart early in February 1909 to become the first lecturer in Biology at the University of Tasmania. He was born at Coraki in New South Waleson 11 October
1883 but moved to Sydney as a boy. he lived in Newtown very close to the University where he would later launch his career. When only fifteen he joined the State education Department as a pupil teacher and his first school was at Hillston in the far west of New South Wales. He won his first scholarship at the end of 1901 that earned him entry to Sydney Training College for Teachers,
that was then attachedto Fort Street Model School. Further success there earned him another scholarship to study science at Sydney University. There he was a distinguished scholar, winning the John Coutts Scholarships, the Macleay Fellowship offered by the Linnean Society of NSW and the Medal for Biology in 1906. He formed a close friendship with a young lecturer James Peter Hill and two collaborated until Hill’s death in London 1954. After leaving university he held positionsas a science master in High Schools at Maitland and Newcastle then taught chemistry and physics at West Maitland Technical College. When appointed to the position in Tasmania he was Macleay Research Fellow at the Linnean Society of New South Wales.

The University of Tasmania first considered a course in biology in 1906 when its Council appointed subcommittee chaired by Dr. E.L.Crowther to examine the matter. Crowther consulted
Melbourne University about the expected costs and with the Council’s approval approached the Premier for £300 a year to finance it. When the Government agreed to provideadditional funds Council agreed to implement the new course and placed an advertisement in the Melbourne Argus on 15 December 1908. Crowther’s Sub-Committeesubmitted the names of three applicants to the Council – Flynn and Ewen MacKinnon, who were both graduates of Sydney University, and A.E.V.Richardson of Adelaide. The Council judged them to be in that order, a significant accolade for Flynn
in the light of the illustrious later record of Sir Arthur Richardson in Australian science.

Although he eared that the salary of £250 per annum was barely adequate to cover his household costs, the appointment came at a most opportune time. A fortnight before leaving for Hobart
Flynn had married the beautiful and vivacious Lily Mary Young, the daughter of a Sydney based master mariner and descendant of Midshipman Young of the Bounty. Lily later changed her name to the more exotic Marelle. Flynn’s financial needs were exacerbated in June when his son Errol was born in Queen Alexander Hospital.
The erratic behaviour of both mother and son were to cause the biologist endless concern.

Flynn’s early research interests were in marsupials and soon after his arrival he joined the Field Naturalists Club on an Easter excursion to Wine Glass Bay. He was very industrious but also
gregarious and friendly, enjoying dancing and tennis as well as his academic interests. A contemporary
observer described him as tall dark and ‘Irish’ in appearance and ‘active as a whipsnake’. Another said he was genial and students found his lectures interesting ‘he is one of thefew members of staff who sometimes attends University dances’. A fellow boarder at Pressland House in 1931 remembers him as ‘a very fine well groomed man’ who always wore a black bowler hat. He ‘took great pride in himself’, led a good life and ‘was greatly admired by the ladies of Hobart’. Errol remembered his father as lean, angular, full of charm and with a certain professorial quietness. He was certainly an industrious worker and totally committed to scientific research.

The University hurriedly built a new Department of Biology at the Domain site with three laboratories (one for Flynn and the others for teaching junior and senior students), a lecture room, a museum and an office for the professor. The building was heated and the benches covered in plate glass. A paved yard contained cages for animals and an area for plants. Flynn’s extravagant plans for the Department soon outstripped the budget forcing some revisions but resulted in a welcome increasein Government finance.

Right:
The University of Tasmania when Flynn arrived. Left Flynn with students (he is on the extreme left)

Flynn was initially appointed on a rolling one-year contract that was renewed in 1910 but the modest salary left him in a deteriorating financial situation. This position led him
to tender his resignation at the end of January 1911. At the time the University Council was proposing to approached the trustees of the late John Ralston (1850-1908) of St Leonard’s Tasmania
seeking support for the University from funds set aside in the will for charitable purposes. The Council had a mind to establish a school of geology and these external funds would allow it to achieve its objective. It was also reluctant to lose Flynn and probably at the instigation of Crowther sought to use Ralston funds to boost the biology position to full professor. Flynn was sent to Launceston by the Council to join with Dr Crowther in discussions ith the Ralston Trustees. The result was the appointment of Flynn as the Ralston Professor of Biology in 1911, the fourth chair established by the University. The agreement with the Ralston Trustees provided £350 to establish a laboratory, £500 pa for salary and £100 pa for materials for three years. Flynn was allowed an annual vacation
from teaching of not less than 3 months and not less than one term free to undertake research. The research component was to be in:

 ‘(a) diseases of plants and animals, (b) anatomy and development of marsupials unique to Tasmania, (c) any other research approved by the Trustees.

In essence he had his salary doubled and had half the year free to pursue personal research; the generous nature of the position caused some envy amongst the staff. In 1921 a new agreement with the trustees provided £600 pa for 5 years for a professor of biology to research and added a new research interest when (b) was complete; (d) research on commercial food fisheries in Tasmania.’

Flynn joined the Royal Society of Tasmania and was elected a Trustee of the Museum and Botanical Gardens in 1911. In September 1912 he became Honorary Curator and appeared to act in that
role until the appointment of Clive Lord late in 1918. During this time Flynn appeared to ignore any difference between the collections of the Museum and those of the University, a matter that caused some dispute after Lord took up his position. His interest in marine biology was broadened when he boarded Sir Douglas Mawson’s vessel the Aurora in November 1912. Flynn was the biologist
on a cruise from Hobart to Macquarie and Auckland Islands an Theo found his sea legs in the first nine days when the Aurora battled southerly gales. Thankful to arrive he telegraphed Lily and wrote a letter to his brother-in-law in Sydney.

In 1914 Flynn was elected to the committee of the University Progress Association this brought him into contact with Lyndhurst Giblin which in turn led to Joseph Lyons and the Labor Party.
The efforts of the Association produced an expansion of staff, one of the new lecturers being a Melbourne Economist, Morris Miller. Another eminent economist  Douglas Copland joined the staff in 1916 and his protege, Torliev Hytten, formed a firm friendship with Flynn.

Fisheries Commissioner

Flynn’s association with these economists and their Labor Party connections inevitably drew the professor deeper into public policy. His interest in marsupials and membership of the Field Naturalists
made him a leading figure in the conservation movement. At the end of 1914 the country was then at war ‘with a relentless foe’ and was entering ‘the most serious drought yet experienced….and thus the resources of the State were not as buoyant as could be desired’. Tasmania had a new Labor Government led by John Earle with Joseph Lyons as Treasurer. Lyons took a keen interest  in fisheries, one of his first Parliamentary roles was in a Select Committee investigating the legalization of pots in the lobster fishery. The election of the Labor Government drew Flynn into public life. One of the many
community functions to aid the War effort was Carnival Queen competition run the Lord Mayor of Hobart. Enid Lyons, the new wife of the Premier, was one of the entrants and accompanied by six year old Errol Flynn. When three positions on the Fisheries Commission became vacant the Government appointed Flynn.

When Parliament resumed in June 1915 the War, the drought and the condition of the State’s finances restricted the introduction of the reforms. Cabinet had discussed fisheries in December 1914 and it now got a request from the Fisheries Commissioners for an inquiryinto the supply and price of fish. As result a Royal Commission was issued to Flynn. Because the Chief Secretary Ogden was reported to favour a state rawler Flynn included in the inquiry a study of the stateowned trawlers in New South Wales.

Flynn exhaustively reviewed
Tasmanian fisheries and found –

‘The fishing industry has always languished in the State of Tasmania. No attempt has ever been made, except in a spasmodic way, to exploit in any large commercial way the vast resources of fish that
exist in most easily accessible grounds along the Tasmanian coast. No island State has ever yet reached full development without the thorough exploitation of its fishing resources’

He was now convinced that there was ‘ample possibility of supplying the Tasmanian public with large quantities of this delicate and highly nutritious food,’ and to ‘export to the ready market of the mainland’, and still allow ‘sufficient supplies for local canning, smoking, and curing establishments.’

Flynn found the chief obstacles to development to be restrictions on the use of some forms of fishing gear, the absence of large vessels and a lack of ‘technical knowledge’. Fishermen needed instruction i n new fishing methods and advice on the ‘movement and migration of fish’. A ‘Government Department responsible to the Minister’ was also essential to achieve proper development.

Flynn’s report also outlined how fish was transported and sold in Tasmania and the role of the municipal fish markets.

‘For some time past  the fishing industry has received no help whatever from the Government. On the whole the conditions are such that, while the public complain of the high price of fish, the dealers state that the supply is inadequate, and the fishermen themselves as a rule say that the prices they
receive are not such as to afford them a decent living.’

He pointed out hat ‘almost  all the edible fish in the Tasmanian seas are suitable for canning’ and several canneries had been established; but all had failed due to inadequate capital or lack of technical skill. Flynn’s analysis of the development question bears a similarity to both the 1882 Royal Commission and the Brendan O’Kelly’s 1997 report. The Fisheries Commissioner’s response was to
call for direct Government assistance to enforce its laws and stress the need for revenue for experimental work; but the more progressive of Flynn’s recommendations were ignored. Although all boats had been required to be licensed for many years no licence fees could be charged, the Commissioners requested the Government to reverse this situation.

Before the Royal Commission Report was tabled Walter Lee’s Liberals defeated the Earle Labor Government. Flynn’s report was debated in the House of Assembly in November 1916. The report
was not well received by the Liberals, the Premier said it was a waste of time and its recommendations were worthless. ‘He was very dissatisfied with the report … he read from the minutes of the report holding it up to ridicule … The whole thing was a ridiculous farce and he did not intend giving effect to any of the conclusions’. The former Premier, Captain J.W.Evans, criticized the selection of Flynn as Commissioner – ‘he was not the right man for the position’. Lyons and James Ogden mounted a defence based on the unacceptable price of fish – ‘a silver trumpeter to feed two people costs
two shillings and sixpence… The object of the inquiry was to try and find out whether the community could be served with cheaper fish’. They chided the Government ‘Was it the duty of the Government to look after the welfare of the people or to sit back and smile?… They were keen about a Mines and Agriculture Department then why not a Fisheries Department’.

Whilst the war continued Lee had little opportunity to review his decision, but lack of Government interest  in the Report simply encouraged Flynn to resume his interest in other subjects. His academic research still centered on marsupials and this earned him a D.Sc. from the University of Sydney. When Errol was born the Flynns rented a large semi-detached villa, Mildura, in Warwick Street.
Later they lived in Darcy Street South Hobart. During her first pregnancy Marelle was avoided social contact but soon recovered her vivacity. She was beautiful, athletic, fun loving
and had theatrical ambitions, spoke both French and German, played the piano and loved dancing. Errol later said she was both religious and hypocritical—denouncing his wayward life but prepared to enjoy a somewhat bohemian life style when it suited her. Marelle was pregnant again in 1919 and late in the year went to Sydney to stay with her parents. Norah Rosemary Flynn was born
in Kirribilli on 2 December.

Flynn regularly travelled to England and on his visit in 1920 to conduct research at London University he was accompanied by the whole family. Errol, who had attended several schools in Hobart between 1917 and 1919 was sent as a boarder to South West College in London. Marelle and Rosemary settled in France and Errol remained unhappily at boarding school in London and Theo returned to Hobart alone..

Professor Flynn was alone and depressed. His personal turmoil spilled over into his work and he was criticised by the University for lack of attention to his classes, his accountsand ‘neglect of his income tax obligations’. After lectures he could sometimes be found at the nearby Heathorne’s Hotel. After his next annual visit he returned with Errol in tow and the pair moved into a house in the Glebe. Errol spent some time at Friends School and then a year at Hobart High School before being expelled. In desperation Flynn called on old acquaintances in Sydney to have his errant son enrolled as a boarder at North Shore Grammar School. With his estranged wife in France, Thomas Flynn devoted his life to the University and fisheries.

Flynn and th eTasmanian Labor Governments

When J.A. Lyons became Premier in October 1923 he and his Attorney-General, A.G. Ogilvie, set about reforming Tasmanian fisheries. Their first move was to appoint replacement members to the Fisheries Commissioners without the advice of the existing commissioners. Tom Murdoch, the influential MLC, was one of those appointed. The triumvirate of Ogilvie, Flynn and Murdoch moved to bring about fundamental change. Whereas Murdoch’s role was confined to the public sector Flynn was prepared to work in the private sector as well. Flynn’s reinvolvement in public affairs gave him a new lease of life. One of Lyon’s initial acts as Premier was to take up a theme from Flynn’s Royal Commission Report. He gathered together leading industrialists and formed the State Development
Board to promote economic development. A key member was Sir Herbert Gepp who had come to Hobart in 1914 as the first manager of the Electrolytic Zinc Company.. Flynn and Gepp had common interests and mutual acquaintances and worked closely together. Gepp, Lyons and Flynn shared a common understanding of the role of science in industrial development, and the responsibility of the State.

Flynn had already developed a proposal to utilise the untapped pelagic fish resource that had been described by Johnston in 1882. He convinced A.J. Nettlefold a Hobart businessman and alderman
on the viability of his proposal and the two put their case to Premier Lyons early in July 1924. Lyons was impressed and called an urgent meeting of the Hobart members of the Board to consider the proposal. Neither Herbert Gepp, Henry Jones nor Secretary Addison were present but Lyons discussed with J.H. Butters, C. Selby Wilson, Malcolm Kennedy and David Kennedy his idea of ‘catching, preserving and canning sardines’ and other pelagic fish at St. Helens. Dunalley was a thriving fishing port but there was no other significant fishing settlement between it and Victoria.

Flynn had pondered the question of why, if the availability of pelagic fish had been established so long ago, was there no industry exploiting them. He was not the first to do so and certainly not the last. His answer was that the absence of scientific information on the biology and behaviour of Tasmanian fish was the cause, thus he and Nettlefold sought from the State Development Board ‘the assistance of the government with a view to undertaking a scientific investigation in order to prove the most suitable months of the year for fishing, the habits of the sardines, the best methods of fishing forthem and other data at least desirable if not necessary.’ They estimated that capital of £150,000 would be needed for the venture – to build the factory, obtain vessels etc. and to tide the venture through
seasons when fish might not be available.

In addition to the lack of scientific information Flynn believed that British migrants were needed to bring skills not then available in Tasmania. ‘The lack of a hereditary fishing population’ he wrote in 1927 was also a major factor in inhibiting the development of Tasmanian fisheries. Thus Flynn told the Board that about 50 immigrant families would also be required.

The Board enlisted the Fisheries Commission and its Water Bailiff Tom Challenger to evaluate the project. A Committee comprising of Dr. G.F. Read (Chairman), Flynn and H.W. Knight (Secretary to
the Fisheries) was appointed in July 1924. The Commissioner of Police made available the services of Water Bailiff Challenger and a continuous investigation was carried out from September to November 1924. Whilst their report was being prepared Flynn discussed fish canning with the Tariff Board and reminded them that despite imports of over £1 million of fish a year, mostly canned, Australia had not a substantial fish cannery. The report of the Committee was submitted to the Board in April 1925 and included the following: during the last eight months, it (George Bay) is one vast quivering mass of darting shoals that seem to come and come and never end their coming. Indeed it is a revelation. Our investigations go to show that the fish come into the Bay about late August
or early September lasting for a least 8 months….Further we know that these fish also exist in huge shoals in the open sea outside the bay from which they pass in an apparently continuous stream
inwards.

The report convinced the State Development Board. Premier Lyons wrote to Professor Flynn, ‘if you can suggest any reasonable means by which this Government can further your enterprise,such suggestions will receive my favourable consideration.’ With this endorsement Tasmanian Fisheries Development Pty. Ltd., was registered on the 4th September1925 with a capital of £5000 – 100 shares at £50 each, 90 shares being takenup. The Directors being Flynn, F.C.Shaw, C.O.Chambers of Victoria and Jos.Nichols’. The Fisheries Commissioners supported the proposal and Government
concessions to the company. With his project approved Flynn urged the Development
Board to now investigate ‘the whole question of Tasmanian Fisheries.

Whilst the Board supported the project they urged that the first stage be confined to the production of fishmeal, fish oil and fish manure (a low-grade meal). Flynn contestedthe reservations
concerning canning, and it is interesting to compare this decision with the development of fish plants at Triabunna in 1974 and 1985.

A New State Fisheries Administration

Albert Ogilvie, the Attorney General in the second Lyons Labor government, took up another aspect of Flynn’s Royal Commission and discussed a new fisheries administration with Flynn and
Murdoch in October 1924. The management of fisheries was in turmoil for all the regulations were found to be invalid, as were all of the decisions taken by the Commissioners in the preceding 30 years.

The election of the Labor Government had revived the debate about the use of craypots. The Commissioner sinitiated another inquiry on the subject in May 1925 with Flynn as a member. The
Committee reported in June and the majority again found against the pots but Murdoch and Flynn submitted a minority report recommending that pots be legalised under certain conditions including prescribing the design of the pots. The recommendations in the minority report were almost identical to those ofLyons in 1913 and a 1916 report by Flynn.

The ineffective handling of the craypot question and the fiasco over the Regulations strengthened the resolve of Ogilvie and Lyons to legislate for the replacement of the Fisheries Commission with a new body and then legalise the craypot. Safely re-elected with an increased majority and recalcitrant Legislative Council mollified, Ogilvie instructedColonel Lord, the Police Commissioner and Flynn to consult with the Parliamentary Draftsman on a new Fisheries Bill.

Ogilvie introduced a Bill to completely overhaul fisheries administration and rewrite the Fisheries Act in October 1925. The Bill implemented many of the recommendations Flynn had made as Royal Commissioner. It left the Commissioners responsible for inland fisheries only. Another board composed of three members would control sea fisheries. The Sea Fisheries Board would be very small but not a department in its own right and would operate as an adjunct of the Police. Its chairman would be the Police Commissioner, its secretary the Secretary of the Police Department, and its rules would be implemented by Police Officers. Ogilvie announced that the boards would not cost the taxpayers anything. The Sea Fisheries Board could keep all its revenue for one year but then would have to pay half to the Treasury. Board members would be part-time and honorary but could receive £50 per annum from the revenue collected. The separation of inland and sea fisheries and the lay nature of both boards followed closely the English administrative model except that in England the members were elected and the jurisdiction covered smaller areas in the main.

In Parliament the Leader of the Opposition (McPhee) defended the status quo and questioned whether the change would do anything to develop the fishing industry but other members of his party
including the former Premier J.W.Evans supported the view that it was now time to separate freshwater and sea fisheries administration. Ogilvie admitted he had some doubt about the size of the Sea Fisheries Board and agreed to an amendment to increase it to five providing the Police Commissioner was still the Chairman. Ogilvie and Lyons had been forced to omit the legalisation of crayfish pots
from the Bill due to the opposition led by Robert Cosgrove. They decided to leave it to the new Board to make the decision but certainly appointed a Board that who would allow their wider use. Cosgrove attempted to forestall this strategy by moving an amendment to the Bill that would insert a clause prohibiting their use. McPhee supported him but they could only gather two other supporters and their amendment was lost. Somewhat surprisingly when the Bill reached the Legislative Council later in November there was no debate on craypots and no objection to the creation of the two boards; the prior agreement of the angling bodies certainly contributed to this. W.B.Propsting, who had proposed a similar arrangement someyears earlier understandably supported the Bill and with the aid of Tom Murdoch ensured that the measure passed smoothly.

Ogilvie’s original intention was that the three member Board should be Lord, Flynn and Murdoch. Flynn was to provide the development impetus and the scientific support. He was formally offered the position as soon as the Bill was passed and he immediately accepted but pointed out that ‘it had been suggested in some quarters’ thathe was ineligible due to section 5(4) of the Act which had been
inserted in the Legislative Council on the motion of C.J.Eady. The section forbade persons ‘beneficially interested in the sale of fish’ from being members of the Board in order to avoid conflicts of interest, of which Flynn himself had reported on in 1916.

Flynn was a Director of Tasmanian Fisheries Development but he argued that the object of the company ‘is only the development of prospects of an industry. It is not intended… to sell fish in any way.’ Nevertheless he suggested the question be placed before the Crown Solicitor. Flynn’s interpretation of what the company intended to do may have been correct but the Crown Solicitor found that the
Articles of Association of the company expressly declared that the objectives were to carry on fishing, fish canning and preserving for profit and thus the professor was ineligible. Ogilvie accepted the advice and Flynn was not invited to join theBoard. Flynn’s exclusion did not prevent Ogilvie’s law firm Okines and Ogilvie from being appointed solicitors to the Board. Subsequently he regularly
prosecuted illegal fishing cases on behalf of the Board until he became Premier in 1934. Flynn was appointed scientific adviser.

The Labour Government had provided whole-hearted support by legislating to give Flynn’s company exclusive rights to a substantial area of the east coast waters. Ogilvie had introduced the Fish Canning Encouragement Bill on 19 November 1925 by stressing that it gave concessions for fish for canning purposes only and did not create a monopoly. Other enterprises could be established on other parts of the coast  and it ‘did not interfere with ordinary fishermen in any way’. The Bill received bipartisan support but in traditional fashion fishermen   objected to any concessions to others and were able to stir up parliamentary opposition. On this occasion Messrs. Culley and Sheridan, with some support from Sir Walter Lee objected and pressed for a Select Committee to consider the Bill.
Ogilvie sought to save the Bill by conceding the removal of crayfish from the list of species the company would have exclusive rights to in the concession area. When the debate resumed the next day Ogilvie agreed to also remove barracouta from the list but Culley persisted pressing for the inquiry ‘to ascertain whether it was in the best interests of the fishing industry that the company should
set up operations’. The debate dragged on and finally Cabinet agreed to a Select Committee enquiry to be chaired by Robert Cosgrove.

The Committee heard evidence from Flynn, N.P. Johnson, who formerly operated a small cannery at St. Helens, Knight, Clive Lord and J.E.C. Lord from the Fisheries Commission and five fishermen.

Finally the project was approved on three conditions:

– the concession area was reduced by excluding the area between Cape Tourville and Schouten Island.

-the company was required to spend at least £35,000 of capital to retain their licence and was prevented from taking or selling fish for consumption in Tasmania as freshfish;

-the prospectus must be approved by the Minister.

The recommendation for changes was accepted and the Bill became law as The Fish Canning Encouragement Act1925.

The Bill passed, Flynn set off for London to raise the capital accompanied by another director R.G. Narelle ‘a prominent American businessman and President of Atlantic Lighterage Co. of New York.’ Lyons instructed the Agent-General to give all assistance to the partners but on the understanding that the Government was not associatedwith the flotation of the Company. Flynn was also commissioned by the new Sea Fisheries Board to bring back the latest advice on fisheries management. The first attempt to raise capital on the London market failed and Flynn returned to Hobart.

While Flynn was in Europe the new Sea Fisheries Board was holding its first meeting. Despite being asked to gather information abroad, and his position as scientific adviser, nine months passed and Flynn still had not been invited to attend a Board meeting. He wrote to the Chairmen privately questioning the action and was told that he was not a member of the Board and ‘he would be asked to attend when required’. In disgust he wrote to Ogilvie tendering his resignation. Flynn reported to the Minister that he had told Lord it is impossible to say in advance whether scientific advice would be required at any meeting. ‘I am sorry for this position because you know how hard I have worked to bring about the present Fisheries Laws and Government’.

Ogilvie was able to convince him to withdraw the resignation and to restore Flynn’s relationship with the Board that considered his proposals at the next meeting on the 27 September, but the incident revealed a fatal flaw in the structure of Board. None of the Board members had a scientific background and none any training in the management of fisheries or the behaviour of fish stocks under exploitation. They were no better equipped than their predecessor and perhaps less so, relying on the advice of Sgt Challenger. The Chairman had apparently no idea that the regulations they had worked so hard on, particularly the minimum size of crayfish was just  the kind of subject on which scientific advice was vital.

Flynn outlined ‘a very ambitious program of research’ for the Board. He proposed a comprehensive study of the biology and ecology of both the oyster and crayfish and for ‘marine fish, times and places of breeding, development, recognition of larval forms etc.’ The Board’s response to the proposed program was to find that ‘it could not see its way to incur expenditure in undertaking so extensive a scientific investigation’ but would give further consideration to the oyster work. Despite this finding the Board had spent some time in July discussing what to do with its revenue and had decided to invest £600 in stocks redeemable in October 1928 and £400 in a fixed deposit, leaving £2250 in hand. His other proposals were also effectively ignored. When the Board offered him a salary of £25 –
half the amount they paid themselves and the Secretary. Flynn again felt affronted but Ogilvie kept him involved.

Flynn continued to be investigator, promoter and adviser; he reported on the biology of bream in November 1927 and was asked for his opinion on the availability of cuttlefish following an enquiry
from Argentina. He also met the British delegation of bankers reviewing theeconomy known as the ‘Big Four’ and provided them with a written statement.

Flynn and Gepp in developing national fisheries

While Lyons Ogilvie and Flynn strove to promote development in Tasmania the Commonwealth Government also began to take a serious interest in fisheries. The Tasmanian Government provided virtually no funds for the management or development of fisheries for the fifty years after 1890. After federation the State looked to the Commonwealth Government to finance fisheries development.

The loss of the Endeavour had quenched the Commonwealth’s early enthusiasm for fisheries development for many years until Herbert Gepp urged on by Flynn took on a national role. In 1916 Gepp was appointed to the Advisory Council of Science and Industry and remained an influential participant in the evolution of that body through the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry to the Council for Science and Industrial Research. In 1926 he attended an Imperial Conference in London to give further consideration on how the British Government’s £1 million annually ‘to promote inter-Imperial trade’ should be used. Gepp was now chairman of the Development and Migration Commission established to facilitate the initiative and link Australian industryto an Empire marketing scheme The Conference proposed that fisheries development should be a part of the scheme and commissioned a Fish Report.

After the Conference Gepp accompanied Prime Minister Bruce to a meeting with the British Prime Minister, Lord Balfour, where they discussed the possibility of the Secretary of the British
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, visiting Australia to promote further scientific co-operation.,

Sir Frank Heath visited Australia in 1925 and talked with Flynn and appears to have concurred with much of his fisheries development philosophy. Heath’s report was the basis for the establishment of CSIR and it included recommendations that the new organization undertake fisheries research in addition to its other activities. Heath proposed that Tasmania be the centre for national fisheries program.

A National Fisheries Research facility

Tasmania was not the only State to covet a fisheries research station and Flynn’s eminence on the national fisheries scene was not unchallenged. The acceptance of the Heath Report provided the Victorian Government with an opportunity to act on one of recommendations of their 1919 Royal Commission. The Premier of Victoria wrote to the Prime Minister urging the establishment of a ‘central marinebiological laboratory’; the request was referred to the Executive of the newly formed CSIR. The Executive deemed the matter to be an economic problem and therefore the province of the Development and Migration Commission; ‘later it (CSIR) might be prepared to conduct scientific research’ in fisheries. W.A.Haswell, Professor of Zoology at the University of Sydney, lobbied for the facility to be located in Sydney, as did the NSW Director of Fisheries D. G. Stead.

In March 1926 the Acting Director of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry, Gerald Lightfoot, prepared a confidential report on the consequences of the Heath Report. It largely concentrated on the establishment of a fisheries research station. He recommended that David Stead be invited to prepare a further report. Stead was highly critical of any suggestion that fisheries
research should be centred in Tasmania. It was obvious, he stated ‘that the fisheries station should be in such a position as will enable it to be used for the practical training of investigators
and scientific and commercial fisheries men generally.’ To Stead the coast of New South Wales was both the most highly developed
fisheries area and where current and potential development was centred.

‘It would therefore be highly unreasonable, unscientific and altogether an unpractical thing to construct such a station where the section of the people needing it most could not have access to it….If the first fisheries station to be established in Australia is set up in Tasmania and far removed from the centres of population and of observation, there is but little doubt that it will develop into the type of marine biological station in which economic work is scarcely considered at all….We have waited so long for the development of a fisheries station in Australia that we cannot afford to play with the question by establishing some institution in our ocean ‘backblocks’ so far removed from the ordinary scientific and commercial life of the community, as to be of littlepractical use.’

He concluded that Heath’s suggestion clearly indicated an absence of familiarity with the outstanding factors controlling the distribution of economic organisms in Australian waters and modestly
concluded ‘I am constrained to point out that I am the only Australian investigator who has dealt broadly in a private or public capacity with general scientific and economic fisheries investigations….Incidentally I may state that the only established great deep sea fisheries of Australia were made possible as a result of the preliminary investigation work carried out by myself.

Stead’s virulent criticism was echoed 50 years later when it was again mooted that the national fisheries and oceanographic laboratories be moved from Sydney to Hobart.

The Development and Migration Commission

The reluctance of CSIR to take an interest in fisheries left the field in the hands of Gepp and the DMC and so allowed Flynn to strongly influence national fisheries policy. After a survey the economy of Tasmania by the Commission, the CSIR and the State Development Board fisheries was listed as both a national and Tasmanian development priority.Interest was further enhanced by the response in England by Flynn’s venture.

When Gepp visited Tasmania in the first half of 1927, Flynn was again overseas promoting his project but on his return he presented a major submission to the Commission, entitled ‘Fisheries
Development in Tasmania’. His views were consistent with those expressed in the Fish Report; he stressed the high imports of fish and the dearth of an Australian fish processing industry. Australia needed and could sustain a fish meal industry. In his mind the lack of development was a consequence of the paucity of scientific knowledge and lack of a fishing population. Currently, due to the collapse of the Russian market for British herrings, skilled fishing labour could be encouraged to migrate to Australia. Flynn also referred to the suitability of Tasmania for fisheries, fisheries research and
fisheries education. He maintained that the research needed to support the development of fisheries should be coordinated with teaching and concentrated at one university, not duplicated throughout Australia.

In September 1927 Gepp hosted a major national conference on the development of Australian Fisheries immediately after the Fish Report became publicly available. The Sea Fisheries Board authorised the Chairman and Professor Flynn to represent them. The Victorian request and the urging of Flynn prompted Gepp to include the subject of the research station on the agenda. The highlights of Flynn’s earlier submission to the Commission were repeated almost word for word in the opening addresses by Senator MacLachlan and Gepp. The Conference ran for six days but found that the matters were such that seven sub-committees were needed to continue the work. Flynn and Lord were each elected to four of them.

Flynn chaired the Sub-Committee to investigate the marine biological station, four of the six other members were also university professors (Nicholls (WA), Goddard (Qld) Agar (Melb) Harrison (Syd)), in contrast to the Conference itself where the academics were in a minority. Taking advantage of the ANZAAS Conference in Hobart the Sub Committee met there in January 1928 and not surprisingly reported that due to ‘the diversity of conditions and problems biological stations should be established at various points on the Australian and Tasmanian coasts’, the stations to be of equal status but not necessarily of equal size. They should be managed by the local Professor of Biology, the Museum Director, Director of Fisheries, and representatives of the State and Commonwealth Governments. There should also be a Marine Biological Council of Australia and a Federal Bureau of Fisheries.

Not dissuaded Gepp and Flynn proposed to the Premier Lyons that the State should share the costs (estimated to be £6000 capital and £1500 a year) with the Commonwealth. Lyons was reported to be ‘favourably disposed’ to the idea and agreed to discuss it in Cabinet. Plans were prepared for the Tasmanian station but whilst being considered the Lyons Government was defeated at the polls in May 1928. The plans are now in the Archives of the University of Tasmania. Flynn’s ambition to build a national fisheries research station in Tasmania were finally thwarted by CSIR. Professor Dakin (University of Sydney) approached the head of the organisation, David Rivett, in May 1929 with a proposal to establish the research station near Watson’s Bay, in Sydney Harbour, in collaboration
with the University of Sydney. Rivett was impressed and wrote to his colleague Arthur Richardson saying that we should ‘put it before the Fisheries Conference at its next meeting and try and carry the whole thing through, incidentally killing the previous unpractical and rather foolish schemes which have been or are floating around amongst the members of that rather heterogeneous assembly.’
In 1935 Dr Harold Thompson was appointed to head a CSIR Division of Fisheries and the national fisheries research program started. In 1970 it was transferredfrom its original site in Sydney to Hobart.

By early 1928 Flynn’s Company was still only a prospectus so an approach was made to the Development and Migration Commission for assistance. His proposal for the establishment of a fish canning
and fish preserving industry, including the possibility of securing skilled fishermen and operators from England and Scotland, was exactly the kind of activity the Commission wanted to promote. Following the first national Fisheries Conference Gepp asked F.L.McDougal to closely follow fisheries matters in Britain, these investigations confirmed Flynn’s view and revealed considerable interest amongst British fishing companies in establishing operations in Australia. One owner was prepared to bring his fleet of 14 trawlers and crews if the Government would guarantee duty-free entry, assisted passage for crews and families (700 people) and some ‘further aid from private capital or Government’. Gepp lent his support to Flynn’s scheme but the defeat of the Lyons Government
and the economic depression spelt trouble. Although the new conservative Lee Government, somewhat reluctantly, extended the period of the concession the required capital remained out of reach.

By 1929 Gepp’s Commission had been in operation for three years when he chaired the second session of the Australian Fisheries Conference in Sydney in July. Considerable progress had been made in overcoming the lack of information that the first session in 1927 blamed for the lack of fisheries development. The sub-committees established in 1927 had reported. Flynn worked diligently for the Conference writing both the Biological Station Committee and Preserved Fish Committee reports and with Roughley the Oyster Report. He was againan important figure in the deliberations of the Conference that again centred on the low level of fish consumption in Australia and the high level of imports.

The Conference resolved that in order to utilise the nation’s fish resources the Federal Government should immediately set up an organization with equipment to conduct scientific, statistical and practical investigations of commercial and potentially commercial fisheries. The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries was recommended as a model for the proposed Australian national organization. The proposed ‘Australian Bureau of Fisheries’ should have an ‘investigation trawler’ to continue the work of the Endeavour and a competent man appointed Director ofFisheries. Flynnmay well have seen himself in this position.

All too late

The defeat of the Bruce-Page Government in November 1929 signalled the end for the Development and Migration Commission and the power of Herbert Gepp. As Gepp’s influence waned Joseph Lyons’ career reached new heights. After his defeat in Tasmania in 1928 he had moved into federal politics. In 1929 he was acting Treasurer in the new Scullin Labour Government. Two years later he abandoned the Labor Party to join the UAP. In 1932 he became Prime Minister and in October 1933 committed theCommonwealth Government to a program of fisheries research. He pledged a sum
of £20,000 to procure a vessel specially designed for exploratory work on pelagic fisheries. In addition experiments on fish canning and the testing of other methods of preserving fish would be carried out. The Commonwealth would also cooperate with the States in a study of the distribution of fish products.

Unfortunately T.T.Flynn did not hear his former friend’s backing for an idea he had proposed seventeen years earlier. In addition to his national responsibilities Flynn had continued to advise the Tasmanian Fisheries Board until 1930. He sent them the results of his research and reported on fecundity of crayfish and commented on the Roughley report on oysters until the Ralston Trustees ‘for some reason’ asked him to ‘discontinue work on fisheries and to concentrate on other aspects of the research program’. Realations between the University and the ralston Trustees had been deteiorating for some time due to the Universities failure to actively seek complementary funding and finally they decided cut the funding for Flynn’s position from the level of professor to lecturer.

Not prepared to accept these changes Flynn returned to Sydney and wrote to his his former teacher J.P.Hill in September 1930. They decided he should take a year’s leave and come to London
to seek another position. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a grant in January 1931 to conduct marsupial research with Hill. In June of that year he left Australia to take up thechair of Biology at Queens University Belfast. He was able to continue his marsupial research and later return to his marine research as founding director of the University’s marine research station at Portaferry. Flynn was a fellow of the Linnean and Zoological Societies of London and the International Institute of Embryology and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. For his work as Casualty Clearing Officer during the War he was awarded the MBE in 1945.

Flynn spent twenty years in Ireland. Marelle and Rosemary spent most of this period with him but Errol made a life for himself at first adventuring in New Guinea and then in films. He
became an international star living in America and later in Jamacia. He married three times and had four children.

In 1947 Rosemary married Charles Warner a staff officer in the United States Air Force. Theo Flynn retired in 1948 and went to Jamaica to manage Errol’s Estate near Port Antonio. Theo bothenjoyed sailing on Errol’s yacht Zaca but Marelle was never comfortable too far away from London and Paris. She would regularly return to Europe from Jamaica when Rosemary lived in Germany. Most ofher family suffered with heart disease and Marelle had a heart attack in 1950. She rebuilt relationship with her family and spent Christmas with her sister in Florida in 1950. She was aninveterate traveller particularly enjoying driving herself through Europe and in 1951 her motoring resulted in a serious accident and Charles Warnerlaidon the resources of the Air Force to fly his mother-in-law to
hospital.

From. Frederick A. Aldrich comes an account of one of Theo’s early cruises with Errol. ‘the father was invited to join his son on a cruise to the seas off Mexico and Guadalupe
to “study marine life”. T. L.T. Flynn accepted and, along with the much respected, yet controversial American ichthyologist, Dr. Carl Hubbs, the planned cruise, sorry, expedition, got underway. Hubbs was from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at La Jolla, California. (Incidentally, one ofhis former graduate students and a member ofthe staff of the Academy wasresponsible for the identification of the fishes from our Amazon efforts). Complete with nets, dredges, seines, submarine lamps, traps, water glasses and aquaria, the Zacca, Errol Flynn’s 118-foot schooner, set sail in August 1946.

The crew was probably unique. There was Jerry Courneya, to film the expedition. A drinking buddyof Flynn’s, John Decker, was “signed on” as artist, as Higham puts it, “to paint marine specimens”. A poor choice, I’d say. Decker was reputed to be a “way-out” painter whose work adorned the walls of restaurants frequented by Flynn’s pre-jet days jet set. One such painting of Decker’s is a portrait
of Queen Victoria, the head being one with the features of W. C. Fields. Then, there was Nora, Flynn’s second wife, “great with child”. Also present was the archer, Howard Hill, whose skills with the bow and arrow thrilled me in Flynn’s movie “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, when I was in my teens. All the time I thought it was Robin of Locksley’s arrow that split the shaft of his opponent’s arrow in the target at Basil Rathbone’s “archery contest“!

As they got underway, Professor Flynn must have looked out to sea from beneath his red, bushy eyebrows, with the sense of excitement he had had so many years before whenhe was biologist on the cruise of the Aurora to the South Pole. But this cruise was different. There was booze and drugs, a near miscarriage, and precious little science. The seas were rough, and both Nora Flynn and Decker
suffered badly from seasickness. So badly, in fact, that they – and what amounted to a mutinous crew – left the Zacca at Acapulco, Mexico. But some “science” there was. Hubbs made observations that figured largely in his major publication on the behaviour of flying fishes. Among the San Benito Island s they observed the behaviour of sea lions, seals and sea elephants. No fewer than fifty new or unusual species of fish were taken.

T. L. T. Flynn was in the custom of assigning patronymic names to new taxa he described. He continued his custom and three new herrings of the genus Gibbonsia he named G. errolae (for his son), G. norae (for his daughter-in-law) and, in honour of theschooner, G. zacae. Yes, it was quite a trip.

Whilst in Jamacia Theo involved himself with civic affairs including sitting on the bench as a JP. But he remained interested in research and made enquiries about some link with an American university. Marelle never fully accepted Errol’s life style and was anxious to return to England. In 1954 J P Hill ‘Theo’s teacher, research collaborator and best friend’, died in London. Theo and Marelle hurriedly flew back to arrange his papers and lodge them in appropriate libraries. Prompted by Hill’s daughter Theo arranged another Rockfeller Grant to allow him to spend two years in London finishing some of her father’s papers.

T T Flynn suffered a mild stroke in 1959. He and Mareele had left Jamacia the previous year and Errol was most  concerned for in the eight years they had spent in Jamacia the two had
become very close. Errol died later in the same year and the grieving parents moved to Italy for an extended holiday. Theo liked the climate and the life and so they sold their house in St. Albans, Hertfordshire and a bought a penthouse in Vermimiglia overlooking the sea. However the elevator was tempremental and climbing the stairs to the seventh floor was too much for two peolple nearly
seventy years old one with a bad heart and the other having had a stroke. Charles Warner had returned to the Pentagon and Rosemary settled back into life in Washington. So Theo and Marelle returned to England. Around 1961 they moved to Woodingdean, near Brighton in Sussex. Marelle died  there in january 1968 after being hit by a car outside her home some weeks earlier. Theo went to stay
with Rosemary and Charles for a year and a half and then moved to a nursing home at Liss, Hampshire where he died aged eighty-five on 23 October 1968.

— Tina

A Biography of Theodore Thomson Flynn!

by
Tina Nyary
on Sun 23 Oct 2011 09:42 AM PDT  |  Permanent
Link
 |  Cosmos

I hope this works! Within this article is also
interesting information on Errol.

Biography of
Theodore Thomson Flynn

Unnamed lantern slides from Theodore Thomson Flynn's personal collection, thought to be T.T.’s father John Thompson Flynn, his mother Jessie and himself as a child, but this has not been confirmed.

Theodore Thomson Flynn was born in Coraki, New South
Wales on 11 October 1883, son of John Thompson Flynn and his wife
Jessie, née Thomson. Educated in Sydney, he received his BSc from the
University of Sydney in 1909, and taught high school science before
being appointed to the Newcastle and Maitland Technical Colleges as a
lecturer in chemistry and physics. His appointment to the lectureship in
Tasmania began what became an eminent career in biology. 

	Lily Flynn (later named Marelle) with baby Errol aged five months, 1909.
Theodore Thomson Flynn’s wife Lily who later changed her name to Marelle.	Queen Alexandra Hospital, Hampden Road, Battery Point, Hobart, c.1909 when Errol was born there.

Flynn’s wife Lily (later called Marelle) accompanied him
to Tasmania, and their son Errol
was born at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Hobart, on 20th June 1909.
Errol attended several schools in Hobart, and reportedly trapped
bettongs for T.T. Flynn’s research into the reproductive biology of
marsupials. 

In 1910, the university received a substantial donation
from the estate of John Ralston, a wealthy pastoralist from St Leonards,
who left £8,000 to further scientific research. These funds, the first
major bequest to the institution, were directed towards support of the
new discipline of biology. The majority of the funds went to endow a
chair, and the remainder were spent on a biology laboratory and the
purchase of equipment. Flynn became the Ralston Professor of Biology and
inaugural chair of the fledgling department in 1911.  

Indenture of T.T. Flynn’s appointment as Professor of Biology at the University of Tasmania on the 29th June 1911

Under the original terms of the agreement, Flynn was to
carry out research into
1. “diseases of plants and animals
2. anatomy and development of marsupials unique to
Tasmania
3. any other research approved by the trustees”.
In 1921, a new agreement with the Ralston Trustees added a
4th category of approved research:
4. research on commercial food fisheries in Tasmania.

Photographs of the University of Tasmania around
the time of T.T.Flynn's employment:

University of Tasmania, 1907	University of Tasmania – Domain site

Plan of the University of Tasmania – 1928 enlarge

 

Top: Photos of the original Biology building, the lower storey was built in 1909, the upper storey in 1936, Bottom: the entrance and the Zoology (left) and the Botany laboratory (Right) (V.V. Hickman photographs)
Aerial photo of University of Tasmania, 1939 – enlarge

Tasmanian Field
Naturalists Club
‘Soon after his arrival in Tasmania in 1909 Flynn had joined
the Field Naturalists Club. ..In 1909 Flynn had participated in the
Easter excursion to Freycinet Peninsula, where he led the discussion on
invertebrates. In November he addressed the monthly meeting on the
subject of flounder. This is an early indication of his interest in
marine biology and fisheries. He told members that there was plenty of
scope for dredging in the Derwent Estuary to collect specimens for
study. In 1910 Flynn led the Club Easter excursion to Wineglass Bay. The
steamer Koonookarra was used during these Easter camps for dredging
marine life under his leadership. Field Naturalists, under his direction
carried out some of the first scientific dredging along Tasmania’s
coastline.His ten year involvement with the Field Naturalists culminated
in his election as Chairman in 1918, and again the following year’

As well as the Field Naturalists Flynn developed
other important links with the wider Tasmanian scientific community
outside the University. He was first elected to the Council of the Royal
Society in 1911 …[and] through [this] position became a Trustee of the
Tasmanian Museum and Botanical Gardens in 1911. Flynn took on the work
of curator and was active in supporting its functions and adding to the
collection.’

Tasmanian Field Naturalists – Easter camp-out April 1909 Photograph of group of 84 Tasmanian Field Naturalists with T. T. Flynn on the far left (see detail below) (Sir William Crowther Collection, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office).

T.T.Flynn (detail) (Right) Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club illuminated address Theodore Thomson Flynn was one of the signatories to this illuminated address presented to Leonard Rodway by the Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club, congratulating him on being appointed a Companion of St Michael and St George in 1917 and expressing the club’s gratitude for his work and support.	Leonard Rodway
	(left) ‘Field Naturalists, under the direction of Professor TT Flynn of the University of Tasmania, carried out some of the first scientific dredging along Tasmania’s coastline. The only man who can be identified is the photographer Beattie, a member of the Club who took many photographs of their activities.’ The Companion to Tasmanian History – online version.
(Right) Tasmanian Field Naturalists dredging expedition 1913 W. Lewis May [centre] in the battered hat, & Professor T.T. Flynn on the right at Safety Cove onboard the Koomela in 1913. (Private Collection – May family).

Thylacine skull (Thylacinus cynocephalus)
Flynn held the post of honorary curator of the Tasmanian
Museum from 1912-1918. The Museum has in its collection a complete
thylacine skeleton collected by T.T Flynn in 1919. He was one of the
first advocates for the protection of the thylacine. In 1914 he
suggested that some should be captured and placed on an island, a
strategy being considered today as a means of protecting the Tasmanian
devil. (S. Jones – School of Zoology)

Thylacine skull collected by T.T Flynn in 1919 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collection.

Birth of the Kangaroo
by T. T. Flynn, 1928
‘Flynn became famous for his work on the embryology of marsupials and
echidnas. He became determined to educate the public that kangaroos were
not born on the nipple and went so far as to publish a Workers
Educational Association (then a forerunner of Adult Education) booklet
on the Birth of the
Kangaroo. I fear that it was not too widely read because around
1950 the locals in Ouse still adhered to the incorrect view.’ (E.
Guiler – School of Zoology)

Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi)
‘Professor T.T. Flynn published a paper on the
reproduction of the Tasmanian bettong that summarized much of his work
over the previous 10-15 year period in 1930. His infamous son the
film-star Errol Flynn, often assisted his father in capturing bettongs.

‘When school finished, I raced home to be at his side, to
hurry out into the back yard, where we had cages of specimens of rare
animals…Through Father’s activity I made my first venture into commerce.
He bought all the kangaroo rats [bettongs] he could get hold of for
Hobart University. I learned to set box traps in the hills of near-by
Mount Wellington. He paid a shilling a head.’ (Errol Flynn, My
Wicked, Wicked Ways). No further scientific work was carried out
(on the Bettong) for the nearly 50 years or so until I started my
studies in the late 1970s.’ (Randy Rose, School of Zoology)

Bettong skeleton (Bettongia gaimardi)
Bettong – Bettongia gaimardi Specimen of baby on pouch from School of Zoology collection. ( NB : pouch specimen says cuniculus)	Bettong – Bettongia gaimardi Furry mount from School of Zoology collection.

Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)
Flynn’s first paper on the anatomy of the Tasmanian
devil was written in 1910 from a specimen given to him by Colonel JEC
Lord. In the introduction to the paper he indicated that he had
intended to delay publication until he could dissect a number of
specimens but had found that the species was already so scarce that
further specimens could not be obtained. In these circumstances Mrs.
Roberts’ Beaumaris Zoo in Battery Point was a most valuable facility. In
1910 she had been asked by the Director of the Sydney Zoo to try and
obtain specimens of the devil and the thylacine for the London
Zoological Society. This prompted her to begin holding these animals in
her zoo and to try to breed the devil in captivity’.

‘Flynn was particularly interested in discovering all he
could about Tasmanian marsupials, as he feared for their survival. After
he left Tasmania the devil population grew quickly but while he was at
the University they were quite scarce’.

Tasmanian Devil skeleton (Sarcophilus harrisii)

Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii)

Specimens and scientific papers
Flynn is considered to be one of the pioneers of research
into the reproductive biology of marsupials and monotremes. He published
an important work on the early cleavage of the monotreme egg, and was
awarded a DSc in 1921 for his work on the embryology of marsupials. His
interest in the placental structure of blue-tongued lizards is echoed
today by the School of Zoology’s strong research focus on the ecology
and evolution of viviparous lizards. 

In addition, he published an eclectic series of papers on
the fauna of Tasmania, including sea spiders (Pycnogonida) and
a freshwater sponge. Flynn also described a fossil whale from Fossil
Bluff on the north coast of Tasmania. The
fossil Prosqualodon davidis is c.23 million years
old, and is held in the collection of the School of Earth Sciences,
UTAS.

Flynn’s classic paper on the yolk sac and allantoic placenta in the
barred bandicoot which appeared in the prestigious Quarterly Journal
of Microscopical Science in 1923 was awarded the University Medal
when presented to the University of Sydney as a thesis for the degree of
Doctor of Science.

Professor T.T. Flynn Illustrated Tasmanian Mail, 19 April 1923	Henry Crouch brass binocular microscope (c.1890) and microscope slides prepared by T.T. Flynn from the School of Zoology.
Lantern slides from T.T. Flynn’s collection brought back from Queen’s University, Belfast by Eric Guiler.	Detail of Henry Crouch brass binocular microscope
University staff and students with car Group of staff and students at the University on the Domain c. 1924. Professor Flynn is in the back row on the far left. (Tasmaniana Library, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office) – enlarge	The brass car pump belonged to the Departmental car shown in this photo. (Pump now held in the School of Zoology)
University staff group photo 1924 University staff, 1924; (l. to r., top) Dr. A.L. McAulay, H.P. Tuck, C. Malthus, Prof. J.B. Brigden, J.A. Johnson, Prof. Burn, Prof. D. Copland,; (centre) A.R. Hewer, P.L. Griffiths, Lt-Col. Thomas (Registrar), E.A. Counsel, C.C. Dudley, G.S. King, L. Rodway; (bottom) Prof. R. Dunbabin, Prof. Williams, W.J.T. Stops (Vice-Chancellor), Sir Elliott Lewis (Chancellor), Prof. McDougall, Prof. T.T. Flynn, Prof. Lucas
	(left) Flynn Tarn Photograph by Fred Smithies of Lake Rodway and Flynn’s Tarn (named after Professor Flynn and Leonard Rodway, two of the most important biologist of their time) from the summit of Cradle Mountain. (Archives Office of Tasmania)
S.Y.Aurora	Flynn Lake, Macquarie Island, named after T. T. Flynn – enlarge map

Aurora Expedition to Macquarie Island

In May 1910 at a meeting of the Royal Society Flynn
seconded the motion to set up a committee to promote Sir Douglas
Mawson’s Antarctic expedition. He and Mawson had been at school and
University together in Sydney. In November 1912, Flynn joined Mawson’s
Australian Antarctic Expedition as the biologist in charge for the
second summer research cruise on the S. Y. Aurora.

The decision to accept the leadership of this program was
somewhat rash. His experience in marine research was limited and
confined to the inshore waters off the east coast of Tasmania and
Sydney. He could not have been prepared for the tumultuous seas between
Macquarie Island and Tasmania in a vessel not built or crewed for the
task, but having found his sea legs he began the dredging program.
In June 1913 he addressed the Royal Society on the results
of the five weeks of dredging and illustrated it with lantern slides.
Flynn’s Antarctic connection is commemorated in the name of Flynn
Lake on the west coast of Macquarie Island.

He developed a considerable interest in marine science,
and became a strong advocate for science-based development of fisheries
in Tasmania and at the national level. He undertook a review of the
Tasmanian fishing industry, and proposed some priority scientific
projects, including comprehensive studies of the biology of the oyster
and the crayfish, to underpin effective fisheries management.

In 1931, the Ralston Trustees cut their funding to
support only a lectureship. Flynn left the university to take up a chair
at the Queen’s University, Dublin, where he continued scientific
research for anther ten years before retiring in 1948, that event being
noted in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, Vol 162,
July 24th 1948.

T.T. Flynn, Queen's University Dublin

T.T. Flynn and his wife Marelle taking friends from St Albans to visit Errol’s film set.	Detail: T.T. Flynn and his wife Marelle
Errol Flynn and T.T.Flynn	T.T. Flynn on Errol's yacht 'The Zaca', 1952

Impressions of T. T. Flynn

‘T.T. was full of pranks and at one staff dance he produced a small
marsupial out of his pocket much to the consternation of all. Something
must have gone wrong with the joke when he appeared with a black eye’
(Eric Guiler – School of Zoology)

‘Flynn established a research reputation for zoology in
Tasmania and the Department has always flourished in this field. He was a
flamboyant teacher in a time when the University had several such. He
stands tall among his successors being a stronger character than most of
them. In some respects he was careless of administration but in those
days the running of the University was largely left to the Heads.’ (Eric
Guiler)

‘The rapport was with my father. He looked Irish. He had
red, bushy eyebrows, black hair; he was lean, angular, full of charm,
good will, and a certain professorial quietness. He spoke with a clipped
British accent, tinged with touches of Irish brogue.’ (Errol Flynn,
My Wicked, Wicked Ways)

‘Vernon (VV) Hickman, who succeeded Flynn in 1932, was a
student in the early years and remembers Flynn as an excellent teacher
who took a great interest in his students: at least those who showed an
interest in the subject.’ (Anthony Harrison, ‘Climbing to the top:
T.T. Flynn in Tasmania, 1909-1931’ )

‘Theo Flynn was tall, slim, broad shouldered and
blue-eyed; softly spoken, charming and witty. He was very industrious
but also gregarious and friendly, enjoying dancing and tennis, as well
as his academic interests’…Guiler knew him as a ‘very powerful
personality full of drive and energy that led him into many adventures,
credible or otherwise’.(E. Guiler, Sunday Tasmanian, 8 July
1990).

Transcription & letter (pictured below) about
T. T. Flynn to Professor Eric Guiler from Louis Bisdee, July 1990

Kelvin Grove,  
Melton Mowbray,  
Tasmania 7030.  
16/7/90 

Dear Professor,
Having read the article in the Sunday Tasmanian
(8th July 1990) on the life of Professor Flynn it has prompted me to
write to you with a little information about the Professor. He boarded
at the same guest house where I was, Pressland House in Melville Street,
Hobart. That was in 19?1. He was at the Tasmanian University just above
the Hobart Railway Station on the Domain. He was a very fine well
groomed man. Always wore a black bowler hat. He never ever mentioned his
wife but he was always greatly admired by the ladies of Hobart. He
seemed to take great pride in himself and led a good life. He used to
tell me about his son Erroll. Apparently he was often a great worry to
his father. Father never knew where he was or what he did but he always
had an appointment to meet outside McKeans boot shop in Elizabeth Street
(now the Mall) at twenty minutes past eight. They had very little to
say to each other except of course Erroll was always ‘broke’. The
meeting took place every Friday evening. He thought a lot of his son, so
I guess Erroll was the cause of father having difficulty in meeting his
debts. I thought this information might be of interest to you. At the
time I was working in a wholesale grocery business in Hobart. Times were
bad: right in the big Depression.

Yours faithfully,
Louis F. Bisdee

Pressland House ‘Pressland House’, Melville Street, Hobart as it appeared in an advertisement in Walsh’s Almanac of 1899. This is where Errol and his father boarded in the 1920s when Errol attended Hobart High School.

The Geology Department’s
acquisition of the remains of Prosqualodon davidis Flynn 
Prosqualodon davidis was described in 1923 by
Prof. Flynn who was Professor of Zoology at the University of Tasmania. 
When originally found in Miocene sediments at Fossil Bluff, it was
virtually complete.  After description, it was held in the Zoology
Department collections in the old part of the Sandy Bay campus, near the
sports oval.  It was one of the best-preserved squalodont whales
known.  There is some confusion about the name (davidi or davidis)
but I believe the latter is correct. 

In approximately 1966, I was visiting Dr John Hickman of
the Zoology Department and passing through a roofed, but otherwise open,
space when I noticed what appeared to be bone from Fossil Bluff.  I was
told that the fragments were the remains of the specimen studied by
Flynn.  I was horrified by both the condition of the specimen and lack
of care.  The bone was breaking up under the influence of varying
temperature and humidity.  Pyrite oxidation probably was the cause. I
came back to the Geology Department, reported to Prof. Carey, and we
quickly arranged for the remains to be brought here and placed in our
vault where better (if not perfect) care could be taken of the
specimen. 

When brought over, we found that most of the original
specimen did not exist and we were told that much of it probably had
been taken to the rubbish tip at some stage.  More horror! Dr John
Cosgriff, a vertebrate palaeontologist, was here at the time and took
some steps to improve the condition of what was retrieved but the
remains are a sorry remnant of the original. The Tasmanian Museum and
Art Gallery has an excellent cast of the skull and that is worthy of
study. 
 
[Notes by Patrick G. Quilty AM, Honorary Research Professor,
17 June 2004].

Flynn, T.T., 'Squalodont Remains from the Tertiary Strata of Tasmania' from Nature, November 25th, 1929

T.T. Flynn' s photograph of jawbone of fossil whale Prosqualodon davidis

Whale fossil specimen

Prosqualodon is a whale, not a dolphin.  It is
referred to as a primitive toothed whale probably with lifestyle and
body shape very similar to a modern dolphin – an example of convergent
evolution. It is a squalodont with triangular, sharklike serrated teeth
and thus unlike modern dolphins although modern dolphins probably
evolved from this group. [Patrick G. Quilty].

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— Tina