Augustus Frederick Oldfield

{{Short description|English botanical collector (collected in Australia)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Augustus Frederick Oldfield (1821–1887) was an English botanist and zoologist who made large collections of plant specimens in Australia.

Oldfield was born on 12 January 1821 in London, England.{{Cite book|last=Henderson|first=M. H.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1057548290|title=A greater prize than gold : Augustus Oldfield, 19th century botanical collector and ethnographer in Australia|others=William G. Henderson|year=2018|isbn=978-0-6482222-3-1|edition=1st|location=[Leschenault, W.A.]|oclc=1057548290}} He made botanical collections in Tasmania, the coastal regions of Western Australia, and on the Nullarbor Plain. Records of his journey note him walking from Sydney to Melbourne, and collections at Twofold Bay, the Huon Valley and mountains in Tasmania, and other regions in the 1850s and 60s. The large body of material in the west of the country was collected from King George Sound to the Murchison River, and he travelled across the Nullarbor to Adelaide.{{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Robert |last2=Jane Emberson |first2=Jane |last3=Hopper |first3=Stephen |last4=McMillan |first4=Peter |last5=Pieroni |first5=Margaret |last6=Patrick |first6=Susan |last7=Seddon |first7=George |title=Leaf and branch : trees and tall shrubs of Perth |date=1990 |publisher=Dept. of Conservation and Land Management |location=Perth, W.A. |isbn=9780730939160 |edition=2nd }} Oldfield published a paper 'On the Aborigines of Australia' in 1865,Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London, n.s., vol. 3, 1865. a detailed survey of the cultural practices of the peoples living near Port Gregory.{{cite book|last=Oldfield|first=Augustus|editor=H. Henderson.|title=On the Aborigines of Australia |edition=limited ed. reprint, 2006|year=1861|publisher=Hesperian Press|location=Perth|isbn=0-85905-359-8}}{{cite web|url=http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/oldfield-augustus.html|title=Oldfield, Augustus F. - botanical collector|last=Orchard|first=A. E.|work=Collectors & Illustrators (extract)|publisher=Australian National Herbarium|access-date=26 December 2010}}

He died on 22 May 1887,{{cite web|url=http://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000681b.htm|title=Oldfield, Augustus Frederick|year=2010|work=Biographical entry|publisher=Encyclopedia of Australian Science|access-date=26 December 2010}} after returning to London in 1862.{{cite web|url=http://www.jdhooker.org.uk/collectors3.htm#Oldfield |title=Oldfield, Augustus Frederick (1820–87) |work=Hooker’s Australasian Collectors (Australia) |publisher=jdhooker.org |access-date=26 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927224403/http://www.jdhooker.org.uk/collectors3.htm |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}

His main collection was deposited at the National Herbarium of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, by Ferdinand von Mueller, other parts of his herbaria are held at Kew and Western Australia.

Joseph Dalton Hooker notes his contribution in Flora Tasmaniae as "a zealous collector and as a careful and acute observer". Charles Darwin communicated with Oldfield, through Hooker, on the subject of Indigenous Australians.{{cite book|last1=Darwin|first1=Charles|last2=Burkhardt|first2=Frederick|title=The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: 1863|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8SFZkjDyX-IC&pg=PA9|access-date=26 December 2010|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-59033-4|pages=9 n.|chapter=January 1863}} His name is commemorated in epithets of species such as Eucalyptus oldfieldii and Hakea oldfieldii.{{cite web|url=http://florabase.calm.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/2190|title=Hakea oldfieldii Benth.|work=FloraBase: Flora of Western Australia|access-date=26 December 2010}}