Spooner, Antony Godfrey   (Tony)   (1927 - 1997)

born in the United Kingdom at Kidderminster, Worcestershine on 28 October 1927; died suddenly in Adelaide, SA, on 21 December 1997, aged 70.

He was educated at Newport, South Wales and undertook his medical training at Guys Hospital, London.

After completing his internship, he worked for short periods at several institutions before being posted for two years to British Somaliland (now Somalia) for National Service duties. It was here that he learned much about the arid zone flora and animal life and it was possibly no surprise when he emigrated to Australia in 1964.

Because of his previous natural history interests it was inevitable that once settled in Adelaide he should join such clubs as the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia, the Botany Club of the FNSSA (of which he was a life-long member), the Nature Conservation Society, the WEA Ramblers and a local Astronomy onganisation.

But it was in botany that Tony excelled. He possessed a superb knowledge of the Mount Lofty Ranges flora, more especially the small annual sedges, native grass species and composites, and exotics from Europe and South Africa that are such a menace to our environment.

Tony was responsible for many new plant and lichen locality reconds in South Australia, venturing into many regional and outback districts such as the Northern Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, the Gawler Ranges, Everard Ranges, Murravy Malle Kangaroo Island, Flinders Ranges and the extreme South East of the State.

He possessed an excellent field knowledge of local plants which increased after his retirement, especially during his main volunteer task in the State Herbarium of South Australia, namely the elimination of the large backlog of unidentified Chenopodiaceae.

Source: Extracted from:
Medallion Award to Dr Tony Spooner, August 1998
https://asbs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/98-mar-094.pdf
Portrait Photo: 1980s, Lydia Fagg.

Collecting localities for 'Spooner, A.G.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 15,516 specimens