Edmund Dwen Gill

Edmund Dwen Gill (11 December 1908 – 13 July 1986) was an Australian geologist, palaeontologist, museum curator and sometime Baptist minister of New Zealand origin.

Life

Gill was born in Mount Eden, Auckland. He was educated at Gisborne High School before going overseas to study at the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne College of Divinity. In December 1935 he married Kathleen Winnifred Brebner in Warrnambool, with whom he had three sons and a daughter. He eldest son was Adrian Gill, a leading oceanographer and meteorologist, who predeceased him by three months.

Career

Gill first worked for the Baptist Union of Victoria as a director of their youth and religious education departments. However, he became increasingly interested in science and studied zoology part-time at Melbourne University. In 1944 he was appointed an honorary associate in palaeontology at the National Museum of Victoria. His views on evolution were incompatible with those of the Baptist Union and, in 1948 he resigned from the ministry, becoming Curator of Fossils at the museum. He went on to become Assistant Director in 1964 and Deputy Director in 1969.

Gill’s work covered a broad range of scientific disciplines, including, geology, geomorphology, palaeontology, archaeology, palaeoecology and Aboriginal prehistory, with a special focus on the landscape of Victoria. He travelled and lectured widely, and published about 400 scientific papers. When he retired from the museum in 1973, he became a research fellow in the CSIRO Division of Applied Geomechanics, and continued to work on coastal processes.

Honours and awards

• Australian Natural History Medallion (1973)
• Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
• Fellow, Geological Society of London
• Fellow, Geological Society of America
• Foundation member, Geological Society of Australia
• Foundation member, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies
• Vice President, Anthropological Society of Victoria
• President, Royal Society of Victoria