de Jersey, Noel Jack   (1923 - 2016)

Born on 25th February 1923, in Tweed Heads, NSW; died on 26th of March 2016 at his Cedar Grove home, south of Brisbane, Qld.

His father was Headmaster of the Coolangatta State Primary School (SE Queensland, near NSW state border) where Noel began his early primary schooling. This he completed in 1935 at Goombungee State School, northwest of Toowoomba following his father's transfer there as headmaster.

Attending the Church of England Grammar School, Brisbane, from 1936 to 1939, in his final year, at sixteen years of age, he was Dux of the school. This led, in 1940, to Noel winning an open scholarship to The University of Queensland.

He found geology to be a relatively unexplored area of science and it totally captivated his interest.

Noel completed his BSc degree in 1942, and was awarded First Class Honours two years later, undertaking honours on a part-time basis at UQ, while spending half of his time monitoring the Department of Geology's seismograph station. Accordingly, he was able to collect and collate geophysical data, which resulted in his award of an MSc degree in seismology in 1945.

Subsequently, in the Department of Geology, he studied the fossil flora of the Ipswich Coal Measures, his work being published by the Department in 1947, with Dr O.A. Jones as a co-author.

In addition to his macrofloral studies, Noel, in 1946-1947, explored the new science of palynology, as he was intrigued by the fact that a spoonful of some types of coal could yield thousands of palynomorphs.

With the award of a highly competitive CSIRO scholarship, Noel undertook a PhD degree at Imperial College, University of London, from 1946 to 1948. His doctoral thesis was subsequently published as a Paper of the Department of Geology, entitled The Chemical and Physical Properties and Classification of some Queensland Coals.

Shortly after returning to Australia, he worked on coal petrology, initially at the CSIRO Coal Research Section in Sydney (New South Wales). Two years later, in 1950, Noel commenced his distinguished career at the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ, Department of Mines) in Brisbane.

In the early 1960s, Noel was promoted to Supervising Geologist in charge of the Coal Research Section of GSQ. However, the increasingly important palynological component of this section was split from the coal-petrology component. In recognition of his innovative expertise and of the potential importance of this emerging science to the geology and economy of Queensland, Noel was appointed to head and develop GSQ's newly created Palynology Section. In 1967, he was designated as Principal Geologist of the Palynolgy Section.

Following 'retirement' from GSQ in March 1983, at the age of 60 years, Noel went on to undertake some of his most outstanding science.

Further, Noel, in January 2013, a month or so away from becoming a nonagenarian, without any deterioration of his truly gifted mental capacity, as senior author, published a co-authored paper on the loca- tion of the Triassic-Jurassic System boundary and the Hettangian- Sinemurian Stage boundary in eastern Australia, again based on correlation with New Zealand palynofloras.

Overall, his contributions "in retire- ment" have facilitated more precise dating and correlation of the Triassic and Early-Middle Jurassic continental successions of eastern Australia.

Noel de Jersey, passed away in his 93rd year on the 26th of March 2016 at his Cedar Grove home, just over 40 km to the south of Brisbane.

Source: Extracted from:
Obituary by John L. McKellar, Geological Survey of Queensland,
Qld Department of Natural Resources and Mines
https://palynology.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/NL49-3.pdf
Portrait Photo: above website.