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Plant Pathology in Western Australia: The Contributions of an Australian Woman Scientist
Abstract
Very few women after the second World War made agricultural science their first career choice. Olga May Goss, however, in her 35 years in the Western Australian Department of Agriculture, saved more than one industry from ruin, thus contributing in no small measure to the economic prosperity of her state and her country. It was by chance that, after a serious illness, Goss was offered a post in the Department to work on plant diseases. The only woman in her Section, Goss faced personal as well as legislative discrimination; nevertheless over the years she tackled many problems confronting growers and through her research illuminated several areas of plant pathology, notably bacteriology and nematology. This article describes the career of this woman who was not only an excellent scientist but also a rare human being.
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The West Australian, 11 November 1980.
D. B. Trebeck, ‘Primary producer organizations’, in D.B. Williams (ed.), Agriculture in the Australian Economy, 2nd edn, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1982, p. 144.
A. Stoeckel & G. Miller, ‘Agriculture in the Economy’, in ibid., p. 168.
S. F. Harris, ‘Agricultural trade and trade policy’, in D.B. Williams (ed.), Agriculture in the Australian Economy, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1967, p. 316.
S. F. Harris, ‘Agricultural trade and its international trade policy context’, in Williams, op. cit., Ref. 2, p. 384.
A.G.L. Shaw, ‘History and development of Australian agriculture’, in ibid., p. 19.
G. H. Burvill, ‘Agriculture in the economy of Western Australia’, in G.H. Burvill (ed.), Agriculture in Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, 1979, p. 87.
K. L. Halbert, A Short History of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Perth, 1963, p. 11.
J.E. Jessup & R.B. Dun, ‘Organization and administration’, in Williams, op. cit., Ref. 2, p. 110, quoting the Industries Assistance Commission, Financing Rural Research, p. 126.
Ibid., p. 112.
F.G. Jarrett & R.K. Lindner, ‘Rural Research in Australia’, in Williams, op. cit., Ref. 2, p. 92.
Annual Report, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, 1909–10.
E. J. Underwood, ‘Professional and technical services to farmers and pastoralists’, in Burvill, op. cit., Ref. 7, p. 309.
G. H. Burvill, ‘The last fifty years, 1929–1979’, in ibid., p. 69.
A J. Millington, ‘Agriculture in the northern half, in ibid., p. 273.
W. R. Jamieson, ‘Vines and wines’, in ibid., p. 298.
G. C. Ainsworth, Introduction to the History of Plant Pathology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981, p. 3.
From an interview with Olga Goss. Unless otherwise indicated, all the statements made by Olga Goss are from interviews conducted by the author.
Information supplied by the Archivist, University of Western Australia, February 1994.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ainsworth, op. cit., Ref. 17, p. 5.
Annual Report of the Plant Pathology Branch for the Year Ending 30 June, 1946, submitted to the Under Secretary for Agriculture, Western Australia. These reports are held in the Plant Pathology Branch of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture. References to them are made as Annual Report, date.
Annual Report, 1947.
Annual Report, 1948 and 1949.
F. Fenner (ed.), History of Microbiology in Australia, Brolga Press, Canberra, 1990, p. 292.
Stated by Dr A.G.P. Brown, Principal Plant Pathologist, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, March 1994.
Stated by Dr George McLean, Principal Research Scientist, Department of Primary Industries and Energy, Bureau of Resource Sciences, Canberra, in a conversation with the author in February 1994.
Annual Report, 1951.
This information was supplied by Mr M. Hawson, former Senior Adviser, Horticultural Division, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, February 1994.
Annual Report, 1954.
O. Goss, Practical Guidelines for Nursery Hygiene, Australian Nurserymen's Association, Parramatta, 1978.
Stated by Mr Ralph Doepel, former Officer-in-Charge, Plant Pathology Section, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, in conversation with the author, January 1994.
Stated by Associate Professor K. Sivasithamparam, Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, University of Western Australia, in correspondence with the author, February 1994.
Stated by Dr Pat Barkley, Principal Research Scientist and Supervisor of Research, Plant Pathology Branch, New South Wales Department of Agriculture, February 1994.
Waldeck Nurseries Pty Ltd v. The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia, Appeal No. 317 of 1980. Information supplied by The Hon. Mr Justice Paul Seaman, of the Supreme Court, Western Australia, February 1994. The Hon. Mr Justice Seaman, who was the QC at the time, retains the highest admiration for the way in which Goss gave evidence not only in this but in two other court actions involving individual growers (Cutt v. Shire of Kalamunda, No. 2892 of 1973, a case concerning damage by flooding to the business of a gladioli grower; Duffy v. Wesfarmers Ltd, No. 1424 of 1982, then the longest civil trial in the Supreme Court of Western Australia). ‘She dealt effortlessly with the material, in a marvellously deceptive manner—if you met her in the supermarket you would think she was anybody's grandmother. But she is a woman of very superior intelligence with an acute aura about her.’
Dr George McLean (see Note 28) in a letter to the author in May 1994 stated his conviction that if Goss had published in other journals her total may well have been 75 or 100 publications. He believes that the published record does not give a true or accurate indication of her achievements.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) was established in 1949 as an Australian Government research organization, replacing the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
N. Allen, ‘The contributions of two Australian women scientists to its wool industry’, Prometheus, 9, 1, 1991, pp. 81–92.
Stated by Mr M. Hawson (see Note 30).
N. Allen, ‘The exception to the rule: the career of an Australian woman physicist’, Australian and New Zealand Physicist, 30, 12, 1993, pp. 305–309.
Jarrett & Lindner, op cit., Ref. 11, p. 84.
Associate Professor W. A. Shipton of the Department of Biomedical and Tropical Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University, and Mr L.K. Price, former Senior Laboratory Technologist, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, in conversations with the author in February and March 1994.
See, for example, N. Allen, Australian women in science—a comparative study of two physicists’, Metascience, 8, 2, 1990, pp. 75–85.
N. Allen, A microbiologist in industry: the career of an Australian woman scientist’, Prometheus, 14, 2, 1990, pp. 35–50.
Public Service Act, 1904–1963 (Western Australia), Regulations, Part I—Preliminary, No. 35.
N. Allen, ‘Test tubes and white jackets: the careers of two Australian women scientists’, Journal of Australian Studies, 52, 1997, pp. 126–137.
N. Allen, A pioneer of paediatric gastroenterology: the career of an Australian woman scientist’, Historical Records of Australian Science, 11, 1, 1996, pp. 35–50.
A. Lofthouse (ed.), Who's Who of Australian Women, Methuen, Sydney, 1982.
Stated by The Hon. Mr Justice Paul Seaman (see Note 36).
See Note 36.
S. G. Kohlstedt, ‘Women in the history of science: an ambiguous place’, Osiris, 10, 1995, p. 44.
J. Mason, ‘The Women Fellows’ Jubilee’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 49, 1, 1995, p. 132.
Ibid., p. 137.
M. Julian, ‘Women in crystallography’, in V.I. Birss, P.W. Codding & G. Rayner-Canham (eds), Women's Contributions to Chemistry: An Historical Perspective and Women at the Forefront, 76th Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference and Exhibition. Quebec, 1993, p. 5.
S.B. McGrayne, Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries, Birch Lane Press, New York, 1993, p. 243.
N. Allen, ‘Cross-national careers: the interchange of women scientists to and from Australia’, in D. Grant & G. Seal (eds), Australia in the World: Perceptions and Possibilities, Black Swan Press, Perth, 1994, pp. 92–96.
P. A. Kidwell, ‘Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: astronomy in the family’, in P.G. Abir-Am & D. Outram (eds), Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science, 1789–1979, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1987, p. 217.
Quoted in A. M. Kubanek, ‘Ellen Gleditsch—Norway's pioneer nuclear scientist’, in Birss, Codding and Rayner-Canham, op. cit., Ref. 55, pp. 72–73.
M. G. Ainley, ‘Last in the field? Canadian women natural scientists, 1815–1965’, in M.G. Ainley (ed.), Despite the Odds: Essays on Canadian Women and Science, Vehicule Press, Montreal, 1990, p. 34.
R. Bramley, ‘Kathleen Culhane Lathbury’, Chemistry in Britain, 27, 5, 1991, p. 430.
M. Ainley, ‘Mabel Frances Timlin, FRSC (1891–1976)’, Canadian Women Economists Network, November, 1995, p. 3.
W.A.S. Sarjeant, ‘Alice Wilson, first woman geologist with the Geological Survey of Canada’, Earth Sciences History, 12, 1, 1993, p. 125.
Ainley, op. cit., Ref. 60, p. 34.
Sarjeant, op. cit., Ref. 63, p. 125.
Ainley, op. cit., Ref. 60, p. 50.
N. Allen, ‘Australian women in science: two unorthodox careers’, Women's Studies International Forum, 15, 5/6, 1992, pp. 551–562.
For example, Mr Ian Cameron, Senior Technical Officer, Western Australian Department of Agriculture with whom she worked closely, said in conversation with the author in January 1994, ‘she had no equal’, she was ‘absolutely phenomenal’, ‘her like will never be seen again’. Mr Bill Dawson, Dawson's Garden Centre and Nurseries, Perth, said, ‘she left her mark’; Mr George Gay, Sunnyvale Plants, Perth: ‘she did way over and above what was expected, she was unbelievably helpful’; Mr Roger Middleton of Middleton's Nursery, Perth, a grower who knew her well: ‘if ever a woman deserved recognition, Olga Goss does. She was the most able and competent woman who ever came out of the Department of Agriculture’; Mr Ray Owen, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, later orchardist, Perth: ‘she was an enthusiastic worker, she helped the industry a lot’; Associate Professor W. A. Shipton (see Note 43): ‘she was very good to work with, very patient’. These are but some of the comments made to me. The countless people she helped all acknowledged her worth—the farmers, the orchardists, the nurserymen, the home gardeners, the vignerons of Western Australia.
Dr Pat Barkley (see Note 35).
Dr George McLean (see Note 28).
This was reported in the popular press. ‘Olga won the farmers over,’ The Australian Women's Weekly, 5 April 1978, p. 7.
Minutes of Nursery Association of Western Australia, 9 March 1978.
Stated by Mr Barry Waldeck, now of Fraser Nursery, Canning Vale, Perth. Mr Waldeck, formerly of Waldeck's Nursery, was for many years a member of the Executive Committee of The Nursery Industry Association of Western Australia.
Many offered me help in identifying them, including Dr A.G.P. Brown (see Note 27) and Dr Gordon McNish, Senior Plant Pathologist in the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and President of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society.