Dr Joyce Vickery (1926) MBE
Dr Joyce Vickery (1926) BSc, MSc, DSc, MBE, a pioneer Australian female scientist, was one of Australia’s leading botanists, plant taxonomists and conservationists. She spent most of her working career (both before and after retirement) at the National Herbarium of NSW, Royal Botanic Gardens. Dr Joyce Vickery was integral in transforming of one of Australia’s oldest and most important botanical centres into a world-class scientific institution.
Joyce Winifred Vickery (1926) enrolled at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School in 1915 at the age of 6. In her final year at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School she was on the A Tennis Team, the Captain of the 1st Hockey Team, the Hockey Secretary, a Senior Prefect, and the winner of the 1926 Old Girls’ Union Prize.
After she finished the Leaving Certificate1, Joyce studied Botany at the University of Sydney, graduating with a BSc in 1931, a MSc in 1933, and a DSc in 1959.
While at the University of Sydney, Joyce was a demonstrator in Botany, she held a science research scholarship, joined the Linnean and Royal societies of NSW, and was a founder (1930) and president (1934) of the Sydney University Biology Society.
In 1931 Joyce and her close friend in the Department of Agriculture, Lilian Ross Fraser, bought a second-hand 1926 Chevrolet Tourer and explored the upper Williams River and Barrington Tops. From these trips they published a series of pioneering ecological papers.
Joyce’s appointment at the National Herbarium of NSW broke new ground in the NSW Public Service in several ways. She was the first woman to be appointed as a scientific professional officer and she flatly refused to accept the lower starting salary for a female officer. She fought for, and gained, a more appropriate higher salary based on her qualifications rather than her gender. Thereafter she conducted long-running battles with the Public Service Board over equal pay for equal work.
Also skilled in forensic botany, it was Dr Joyce Vickery’s testimony at the trial of Graham Thorne’s murder that led to the conviction of his murderer, Stephen Bradley. The only evidence was a fragment of red mortar and some seeds from the rug Thorne’s body was wrapped in. Joyce identified the seeds as from to two unusual cypress bushes and suggested that police look for a red house with these two types of bushes – this led them to the house where Thorne was murdered. Joyce’s forensic contribution was later recognised by the award of an MBE2.
Joyce Vickery was also an ardent early supporter of the nature conservation cause in NSW. She campaigned in the 1960s for the preservation of the fragile ecology of Kosciuszko State Park (as it was then known), for which she produced, at her own expense, an extensive report on grazing and erosion. Joyce was also closely involved in the campaign to set up the Elouera Bushland Reserve (now Berowra Valley National Park) and Muogomarra Sanctuary. Her practical support included a generous donation of an adjacent block to enlarge the Elouera Reserve.
Friends remember Joyce as good humoured, modest, loyal and an independent thinker. She displayed a great tolerance for others and was generous in her professional and financial support. Declaring in childhood that ‘she didn’t want any man hanging on to her coat-tails’, she never married. Imbued with her family’s ethics of self-discipline, loyalty and public service, she was generous in her professional and financial support of others.
In 1964 Joyce was awarded the W.B. Clarke Memorial Medal by the Royal Society of NSW in recognition of her many contributions to botanical science in Australia. Following her death, the Linnean Society of NSW named its research fund ‘The Joyce W. Vickery Scientific Research Fund’ in honour of her work.
1. The Leaving Certificate was the precursor to the HSC/IB.
2. Prior to 1975, Australians were recognised under the British honours system, also known as Imperial awards. MBE is equivalent to today’s AM.