George Handley Knibbs

Who was George Handley Knibbs?

Sir George Handley "The Knibb" Knibbs CMG was an Australian scientist, the first Commonwealth Statistician and the first director of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry, predecessor to the CSIRO.

Knibbs was born in Sydney son of John Handley Knibbs, foreman, and his wife Ellen, née Curthoys. Knibbs joined the New South Wales Land Survey Department in 1877 and in January 1878 was appointed a licensed surveyor. In 1889 Knibbs resigned to take up private practice as a surveyor, and in 1890 became lecturer in surveying at the University of Sydney. Knibbs was elected a member of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1881, became a member of the council in 1894, from 1896 to 1906 was almost continuously honorary secretary, and in 1898-9 was president. Knibbs was also taking an active interest in other societies, and was president of the Institution of Surveyors at Sydney for four years in the period between 1892 and 1901, and president of the New South Wales branch and a fellow of the British Astronomical Society in 1897-8.

Knibbs had begun contributing papers to the Royal Society of New South Wales at an early age, at first on matters arising out of surveying, and then on problems of physics. In his presidential address delivered on 3 May 1899 Knibbs showed that he had spent time studying mathematics. In 1902 and 1903, as a royal commissioner on education, Knibbs travelled through Europe and furnished a valuable report, which led to his being appointed Director of Technical Education for New South Wales in 1905. He was also in this year acting professor of physics at the University of Sydney. In 1906 the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics was created and Knibbs became its first director.