Gerard Krefft

Who was Gerard Krefft?

Johann Ludwig Gerard Krefft, one of Australia's first and greatest zoologists and palaeontologists. In addition to many scientific papers, his books include The Snakes of Australia, A Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Australian Museum and A Short Guide to the Australian Fossil Remains in the Australian Museum. He published the scientific description of the Queensland Lungfish, considered a "living fossil".

Krefft was born in the Duchy of Brunswick the son of William Krefft, confectioner, and his wife Johanna, née Buschhoff. He was educated at St Martin's College, Brunswick, and as a youth was interested in art and wished to study painting. He was, however, placed in a mercantile house and about 1850 emigrated to New York. Krefft arrived in Australia in November 1852 and worked in the Victorian goldfields for some years before joining William Blandowski's explorations on the Murray River and Darling River in 1856-1857.

Krefft visited Germany in 1858 following the death of his father. Krefft arrived in Sydney, New South Wales in 1860 and was appointed Assistant Curator of the Australian Museum on the recommendation of Governor Sir William Denison. In 1864 he was appointed Director. In 1864 he published a Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum, and in 1865, as a pamphlet, Two Papers on the Vertebrata of the Lower Murray and Darling and on the Snakes of Sydney. These papers had been read before the Philosophical Society of New South Wales and, though the title did not show it, a third paper on the Aborigines of the Lower Murray and Darling was included in the publication. In 1869 Krefft brought out The Snakes of Australia and in 1871 The Mammals of Australia, both with plates by Helena Scott and Harriet Scott. His Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum was published in 1873.