PRESENTING...SIR AUGUSTUS GREGORY - AUSTRALIAN EXPLORER, NOTABLE FREEMASON

Photos: Provided by the author and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_Charles_Gregory.

This will be a Hybrid event, online and in person at the Research Centre.

A zoom link will be sent to registered attendees the evening before the meeting.

Dr Gary Bacon, AM, OPGM will tell us about Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG, MLA, FRGS, DistGM, an icon Australian explorer, exemplary citizen and notable freemason.

The life of this extraordinary man (Birth: 1 August 1819: Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, England; Death: 25 June 1905: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) will be covered in three tranches, viz.:

- Explorer on the Australian Plateau

- Early Queensland State Administrator and Community Leader

- Patriarch of Queensland Freemasonry.

He has been referred to as the ‘Bradman of Australian Explorers’ but few today have heard of him. He was also Qld’s first Surveyor General and Land Commissioner in 1859.

(This was to be presented last October, but due to the ill-health of Gary Bacon, he is now presenting it in 2026.)

See also photo of Sir Augustus Charles Gregory at bottom of page.

SPEAKER: Dr Gary Bacon AM, PGM held senior research and management positions in New South Wales and Queensland Government forestry trading enterprises and in the land management division within Primary Industries. He served as elected National Secretary and National President of the Institute of Foresters of Australia (1983-87) and was awarded the 2000 N W Jolly medal. He chaired the Australian organising team for the 2005 International Union of Forest Research Organisations World Congress. For the last decade plus he was a JAS-ANZ auditor, Industry consultant and Adjunct Professor in the Environmental Futures Institute at Griffith University mentoring overseas post-graduate students. Gary was elected as the Grand Master of Queensland Freemasons and a Director of Masonic Charity (2013), appointed a Member in the Order of Australia in the Queen’s birthday list (2016) and joined the Presidents 100, Qld State Library Foundation (2017).