Queensland Natural History Award, 2016
The Queensland Natural History Award is presented annually by the Queensland
Naturalists’ Club Inc. to give recognition to people who have made outstanding
contributions to natural history in Queensland.
It has been awarded since 1992.
The award consists of a medallion featuring the Bunya Pine tree and is set in a
polished block of Bunya Pine wood. The Bunya Pine Araucaria
bidwillii is endemic to
Queensland and is the symbol of the Club.
This award for 2016 recognises the outstanding contribution made over several
decades to natural history in Queensland by Mr. Lewis John Roberts of Shipton’s
Flat, near Mount Finnegan about 50 kilometres south of Cooktown.
Lewis has an encyclopaedic
knowledge of the plants and animals of north Queensland.
He has assisted many Australian and international botanists and
zoologists during their visits to north Queensland by locating the species for
which they were searching.
He is very highly regarded for his powers of observation, description and
illustration.
His collections of specimens are lodged in the Queensland Museum and other
institutions.
Specifically, I draw attention to his work in
locating at least nine new species of orchid, one of which
Cooktownia robertsii was named in his honour by David Jones in 1997.
A beetle
(Apterotheca robertsi), blind
snake (Ramphotyphlops
robertsi),
bug (Ctenoneurus
robertsi), cockroach (Shelfordina
robertsi),
freshwater crayfish (Euastacus
robertsi), land snail (Biomphalopa
lewisrobertsis),
lizard (Saproscincus
lewisi), spider (Carbinea robertsi) have
been named in his honour and a spider
(Aname
robertsorum) and plant (shrub, Family Rutaceae)
Zieria
robertsorum have been named for the Roberts family.
Lewis co-authored the description of Lygisaurus
malleolus (a small four fingered
skink) with Patrick Couper from Queensland Museum.
Lewis recognised it as a new species and told Patrick the characters that
diagnosed it from its nearest congener.