Burrow, Robert John Gordon (1877 - 1957)

Burrow was born at Albury, N.S.W., on 7 July 1877 and died at Ryde, N.S.W., on 4 September 1957.

He was educated at Newington College in the Sydney area. He was appointed to the New South Wales Public Service (Forestry Department, later Commission) on 1 April 1904 and it is recorded that he had risen to Assistant Forester, Narrabri, by July 1912 and to District Forester, also at Narrabri, by December 1916. He remained DFO until promoted to Inspector in May 1935, later to rise to Chief Inspector from May 1938. He is recorded in the Public Service List as having retired on 7 April 1941, but unconfirmed information is that he was re-employed as a temporary forester for a period (this would have been quite likely as 1941 was in the middle of World War II). The Public Service Lists state that they only refer to permanent public servants. Gordon Burrow (as he was usually known) was deeply attached to the Narrabri forests and, after cremation, his ashes were scattered there with permission of the Forestry Commission of the State.

His name is commemorated in Acacia burrowii Maiden (1919).

Source: Hall, N. (1978) Botanists of the Eucalypts. CSIRO, Melbourne.