Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict., 14, Pt. 2, 1946. 
OBITUARY 
DANIEL JAMES MAHONY 
Director, National Museum, 1931-1944 
Daniel James Mahony was born on March 25, 1878 ; he was the 
son of Daniel Mahony, a Councillor and Mayor of the Municipality 
of Eitzroy, Victoria. He was educated at Xavier College, Mel- 
bourne, later at Downside School, Somerset, in England. On 
his return to Victoria, he entered the Melbourne University 
where, from 1902 to 1904, he was lecturer in geology, mineralogy 
and palaeontology ; in 1905, he graduated in science with first-class 
final honours in those subjects. He took his Master’s degree a 
few years later. 
In 1906 he joined the staff of the Geological Survey of Victoria 
as petrologist and editor of the Survey publications, and in the 
succeeding twenty-five years contributed appendices on igneous 
rocks to several reports. He was largely responsible for the 
compilation of the lives of the founders of the Survey, including 
such well known geologists as A. R. C. Selwyn and others. His 
most important contribution to science while with the Geological 
Survey was with H. J. Grayson, concerning the geology of the 
Camperdo^vn and Mt. Elephant districts— a report on two Quarter 
Sheets surveyed by the students of the Melbourne University 
under the direction of Professor J. W. Gregory, and published as 
a memoir by the Geological Survey. With T. Griffith Taylor he 
published, in 1913, a geological reconnaisance of the Federal 
Territory. From time to time he also contributed to the Royal 
Society of Victoria, the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria, and 
the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, 
numerous papers on igneous rocks, and a few on ethnology. 
In 1916 he left for England to enlist in the Royal Artillery, and 
was on active service until 1919, rising to the rank of Captain. 
Later he acted as ‘Tocum tenens” for Sir Douglas Mawson at the 
Adelaide University during the latter’s absence with his Polar 
Expedition. 
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