73 
Some Pioneers and Qther Prominent Members 
Now I think we should learn something of those men who were 
pioneers of our Club. 
Professor S. B. J. Skertchly, the first President, though primarily a 
geologist, was interested in many other branches of natural history. Mr. 
Heber Longman wrote of him — "Behind his witticisms [and] his learning, 
. . . there was one big central fact — and that was his great love of nature 
and his delight in her inexhaustible treasures. ... He wrote many interest- 
ing articles of popular natural history in the 'Courier'. He did excellent 
work for the old Gould League of Bird Lovers. He was a good all-round 
Field Naturalist". "Into his natural history, he always put a touch of 
poetry, and as the text of his first address he quoted Keats' well-known 
line: 'The Poetry of Earth is Never Dead'." That line now appears on 
the cover of "The Queensland Naturalist". 
Professor Skertchly folt that the room in which a meeting was held 
influenced it. Early meetings of the Club were held in the basement of 
the old Technical College in Ann Street, with school forms to sit on and 
in very uninspiring surroundings; Professor Skertchly commented os 
follows: — "A room garnished with rows of benches , . . kills all sociability 
— it is too form-al. It savours of the college, it reeks of the class-room, 
and one could no more be pleasantly chatty amid its wooden parallels 
than one could tread a measure among church pews. . . Picture the bliss 
of this room with a long table running down its middle, with chairs or 
benches dotted irregularly as the island of the Cyclades. The table is 
adorned with the most heterogeneous assortment of birds, beasts, fishes, 
plants and stones, brought by ourselves. Picture us all wandering around, 
among them, each telling what he knew of the exhibits, or asking questions 
thereanent. The formal, necessary, business has been got through in a 
few moments, and for an hour or two lively and intellectual conversation 
buzzess all round the place and humanises it. That is my idea of club 
life. Here we could hatch our our scientific chickens, and send the 
selected pullets to market at the Royal Society, . . ." 
Professor Skertchly died in 1 926 and was buried in the Nerang 
Cemetery. His granite memorial stone, erected with funds raised by 
scientific societies of Brisbane, bears the quotation, "The Poetry or Earth is 
Never Dead". 
Mr. Henry Tryon was a founder of the Club and our second President, 
i.e., during 1907. He was an entomologist of note, but, like Professor 
Skertchly, was interested in many other branches of nature. On arrival in 
Queensland from New Zealand, he was appointed to the scientific staff of 
the Queensland Museum. Later he became Government Entomologist and 
Vegetable Pathologist in the Department of Agriculture and Stock. Mr. 
C. W. Holland wrote: "Mr. Tryon's services to the sugar industry alone 
were of great value. ... In 1884 he helped to establish the Royal Society 
of Queensland, of which he was first Hon. Secretary. Two years later he 
was the principal mover in the formation of a Field Natur'^lists' Section 
of the Royal Society which lasted until 1894. Early in 1892 . . . the 
Natural History Society of Queensland [was formed] and Mr. Tryon was 
its first President. . . . When, in 1888, a Royal Commission was appointed 
in New South Wales to report upon . . , the extermination of rabbits, 
Mr. Tryon was one of two Queensland representatives, ... He was the 
first to suggest the possibility of using natural enemies [to eradicate the 
prickly-pear] . . . and his suggestion led to the ultimate conquest of the 
pest." In his younger days Mr. Tryon was a regular attender at Club 
excursions and came to meetings till he was a very old man. He died in 
1 943 in his 87th year. 
Mr. C. W. Holland, the father of our present Hon. Secretary, became 
Hon. Secretary of the Club in 1907 and retained that position till the 
end of 1912, when he left Queensland as Secretary of the Travelling 
Prickly I’ecr Commission. Mr. Holland was the Club's auditor for many 
