Following is a story I was completely unaware of until my mum told me while I was on the Nuyina on my way to Macquarie Island (for the first time) as the Ranger in Charge for Winter 2024.
Dr Robert Carrick was a Scottish wildlife scientist who undertook research on Macquarie Island over several seasons throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He was one of the strongest advocates of the island's biological significance, particularly its importance as breeding habitat for penguins and other seabirds.
Dr Robert Carrick moved to Canberra to work for the CSIRO in the 1950s. He and his wife Chriss would frequently stay at “Edgewood” (a large holiday park owned and run by my grandparents in Batemans Bay, New South Wales) while he was undertaking bird research. Dr Carrick became a world-renowned wildlife scientist, in no small part due to his establishment of the first of its kind, bird banding scheme (now known as the Australian Bird Banding Scheme). My uncle, Rob Parker, a child at the time, willingly assisted Dr Carrick with his research by helping catch and band silver gulls. He demonstrated such useful skills as a research assistant that Dr Carrick offered to take him on an upcoming trip to Macquarie Island to assist with his sub-Antarctic bird research. Unfortunately, he was unable to attend, due to my grandparents being more concerned with him finishing school than embarking on adventures in the sub-Antarctic! My uncle’s envy of my current trip is thus compounded by his missed opportunity some 60 years ago!
Over the years, my grandparents and the Carricks became good friends. When the Carricks eventually returned to Scotland, my grandparents travelled overseas to stay with them and they remained close family friends until both Dr Carrick and Chriss Carrick passed away in 1988.
The Life of Dr Robert Carrick
The following information is an amalgamation of information taken from M.D (1988) “Obituary: Dr Robert Carrick”, Corella 12(4), 132, and Burgess, Verona (1988). Obituary: Dr Robert Carrick “Famed for his knowledge of Australian birdlife” and other articles from the 1950s.
Dr Robert Carrick did military service in World War II in Italy, Burma and India. He attended the Universities of Glasgow (BSc) and Edinburgh (PhD), becoming a wildlife biologist and Antarctic bird specialist. He lectured in zoology in Leeds and Aberdeen and was the founder of the Australian Bird Banding Scheme. He worked for the CSIRO Division of Wildlife Research between 1953–65, advancing studies on the Australian magpie and becoming a prominent species expert and renowned bird behaviourist. His meticulous field work enabled reference to his scientific data well over 25 years after it was collected.
Dr Carrick (assisted by his wife Chriss) studied magpies at Gungahlin (Canberra) between 1955-1965, which was some of the earliest banding and bird behaviour work done in Australia. He also worked on colonial nesting birds and seabirds, particularly the silver gull and crested tern and even did some work on rabbit behaviour. Dr Carrick’s work on seabirds was one of the first cooperative projects of the Australian bird-banding scheme that spanned the country. He was a passionate conservationist and was instrumental in the establishment of the Tidbinbilla Wildlife Reserve, ACT. He went on to become CSIRO officer-in-charge between 1953-60.
By 1957, Dr Carrick had visited Macquarie Island on at least three occasions as adviser on wildlife studies of ANARE. He later moved to the Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research in Adelaide, where he continued his studies on penguins, albatross and elephant seals and commenced an intensive study of silver gulls in their colonies in SA. During this time, Dr Carrick designed a bird band that could be read with binoculars, which enabled scientists to identify birds without catching them. Nowadays, we describe these easily visible bands as ‘darvic’ bands.
Dr Carrick is credited with putting modern biology in Antarctica on a sound scientific footing and played an important part in drafting agreed measures to protect the flora and fauna of Antarctica. His studies of the royal penguin and the wandering albatross on Macquarie Island and his publications on the elephant seal are said to be field studies of a critical nature which were far in advance on anything else done at the time.
As an authority on Antarctic fauna, Dr Carrick attended, as part of the Australian delegation, the first international (12 nation) conference under the Antarctic Treaty signed in 1959. The treaty preserved Antarctica for peaceful scientific research for all time and banned military weapons across the five million square mile continent.
In about 1971 Dr Carrick and Chriss retired to Scotland. They enjoyed travelling which gave them an insight into the urgency of emerging problems in conservation and during his later years, Dr Carrick planned the establishment of scholarships for black South African students to study such subjects at the University of Aberdeen.
Throughout all his ventures Dr Carrick was helped by his wife Chriss, who was his very able field assistant, his eyes (he was colour blind and Chriss played an unwritten vital role in reading colour bands), his listener, his critic, his companion and in his later years, his nurse when he was unwell.
The Carricks contributed so significantly to science and Antarctic conservation that their name lives on in “Carrick Bay”, Macquarie Island.
Carrick Bay, Macquarie Island
By 1957 Dr Carrick had made three summer trips to Macquarie Island. The Tasmanian Registrar of Place Names states that Carrick Bay in the southwest of Macquarie Island was named after Dr Robert Carrick “who made many visits to the island as a zoologist”. The name was reserved in 1971 and approved upon Dr Carrick’s death in 1988.
