Clement Hodgkinson – Father of Victorian Forestry.

Clement Hodgkinson was as an English naturalist, explorer, senior public servant and surveyor.

Born at Southampton in 1818, he studied civil engineering in France before working at topographical fieldwork and mechanical drawing in England.

He arrived at Melbourne in December 1851 intending to become a pastoralist but instead joined the Surveyor-General’s Office in January 1852.

Clement rose to become Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey from 1861 to 1874 where he exercised virtually complete control over the daily management of almost all Crown land reserves in Victoria.

Hodgkinson was widely acknowledged by his contemporaries, including the influential State government botanist Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller, as the “Father of Victorian forestry”.

The parliamentary inquiry in 1864-65 “On the Advisableness of Establishing State Forests” was led by Hodgkinson, together with the Surveyor General – Charles Whybrow Ligar and the Secretary for Mines – Robert Brough Smythe. Their report wholeheartedly recommended setting aside large State forest reserves in the vicinity of the goldfields at Ballarat, Sandhurst (Bendigo), Castlemaine, Ararat, Maryborough, Inglewood, Beechworth and other centres.

Following the inquiry and despite spirited opposition from agricultural, mining and grazing interests, Hodgkinson was almost single-handedly responsible for creating the first Timber Reserves in 1867. Many of these areas are now among Victoria’s finest National Parks and include Sherbrooke Forest.

Hodgkinson also appointed William Ferguson in 1868 as the first “Caretaker and Overseer of Forests”. Among other things, Ferguson established the first State Nursery at Macedon in 1872.

Hodgkinson served on many committees of inquiry, not least being the 1871 Royal Commission into “Foreign Industries & Forest”, a subject of major interest. He formulated the subsequent legislation to form Forest Boards in 1871.

Clement Hodgkinson retired from public service in 1874 but briefly returned to civic duties in 1883 to sit on a new Committee of Management to inspect the City Gardens.

He was also involved in what would become the Royal Society of Victoria, which discussed and advised the colonial government on scientific issues.

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hodgkinson-clement-3774

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5771520