Ian participated in this work and again in early 1969, using a temporary field base at the head of Prydz Bay between Mawson and Davis. On his last trip to Antarctica in early 1970 he operated from a temporary base 250 km south of Mawson to work in the vast Prince Charles Mountains, a region in which he had first undertaken fieldwork during the spring of 1958 while based at Mawson.
Ian was awarded the Polar Medal by Queen Elizabeth in 1961. He was the Australian member of the Working Group on Geology of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) from 1964 to 1978 and served as its secretary in the period 1973–78. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1966 for his Antarctic work; and in 1970 he received a Bellingshausen Medal from the Soviet Academy of Science.
Ian’s initial work in the Mineral Resources Section of the BMR, together with other section members, was focused on producing a summary compilation of Australian mineral deposits, together with a second edition of the Mineral Deposits map of the Atlas of Australian Resources, Second Series, (published in 1965, with subsequent impressions in 1967, 1969, and 1970). The summary compilation, BMR Bulletin 72 — The Australian Mineral Industry: The Mineral Deposits, was published in 1965, just prior of the late-1960s and early-1970s mineral-exploration boom and is one of the few BMR bulletins who’s demand justified a second printing. Ian then supervised the compilation of the Metallogenic Map of Australia and Papua New Guinea (1972), this being the Australian contribution to the International Union of Geological Sciences’ Metallogenic Map of the World.
The frenzy of the late-1960s–early-1970s mineral-exploration boom escalated Industry demand for information on mineral resources (together with some free lunches for Ian and other BMR staff), prompting Ian to develop an interest in methodologies for storing and retrieving geological information. This interest resulted in him moving in 1970 to the BMR’s Information Section, responsible for the public provision of information about the Organisation’s activities and geoscience in general. His initial task there was to prepare a brief for a consultative study into the needs of a BMR-wide information storage-and-retrieval system. This was at a time when computing technology involved only mainframe systems, punch-card input and continuous-feed line-printers. However, given the way that computing technology evolved in the subsequent decades, and with the benefit of hindsight, it is fortunate that this project did not proceed.
Ian’s greatest contribution to Australia’s growth as a nation came when he was appointed Head of the BMR’s Mineral Economics Section in 1974. This Section was responsible for the compilation, analysis, and publication of information on Australia’s mineral assets, and for the provision of expert advice to both government and Industry. Its work was critical to the development of Australia’s mineral resources and to the policy and regulatory framework that the mining industry operates within today. As well as leading the Section, Ian was the commodity specialist for tin.
Ian’s role in the BMR continued to evolve, and by 1985 he was responsible for the coordination and broad supervision of the groups within the wider Mineral Resources Branch which undertook special studies of the industry and gave high-level technical assistance to senior BMR management. These specialist studies included the compilation and analysis of mineral commodities and resources, the development of related databases, and the publication and provision of information to Industry and the public.
Although Ian retired at the end of 1990, his extensive knowledge of Australia’s mineral resources continued to be in demand and for a time he worked as a consultant to the BMR and to the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources before finally devoting himself to various other new and life-long interests. The life-long interests including bushwalking, cross-country skiing, and the enduring conservation of the Canberra Alpine Club’s (CAC) heritage-listed Mt. Franklin Ski Lodge in the Brindabella Range. Ian and his wife Beverley had been members of the club since first moving to Canberra, and Ian was elected an honorary life-member in 1997 for his service and dedication to the club and its management. (The ski lodge was subsequently destroyed in the 2003 bushfires and was replaced by a large corrugated-iron interpretative shelter with a locked room accessible to ACT Parkes and Conservation, SES, Fire Service and the CAC, to serve as a base for future emergencies. In his capacity of “Franklin Officer” of the CAC, Ian was responsible for organising assistance by Club members in the building of the new shelter.) Ian’s role as an Officer of the Club brought him in close contact with ACT Parkes and Conservation, and his knowledge of the Brindabella Mountains was legendary, combining his love for geology, the bush, and the solace of the wilderness.
One of Ian’s new activities in retirement was that of ‘volunteer explainer’ at Questacon in the National Science Centre in Canberra, where he always delighted in helping classes of students visiting from all parts of Australia solve and understand its puzzling exhibits and demonstrations. He continued this work for many years and earned the status of Emeritus Volunteer. A later interest that started in 2016 was his participation in a collaborative project between the Geoscience Australia Library and the Antarctic Geoscience team to scan and transcribe the library’s legacy collection of Antarctic geological field-notebooks in order to make them discoverable and accessible for open online access. This exercise involved 57 citizen-scientist volunteers over five-and-a-half months, followed by validation of the transcriptions by retired geologist Ian Barwell. A series of short films featuring interviews with the original geologists who bring the content of the notebooks to life through reminiscences of their work in Antarctica accompany the transcribed notebooks (see: https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/search).
Ian’s career spanned an exciting period in the nation’s history and in the exploration of Antarctica. The exploration of Antarctica was still at an early stage in the 1950s and 1960s, and the minerals industry in Australia grew from being a minor player to becoming a major part of the economy during those and subsequent decades. He had the satisfaction of knowing his work met a need, and that he had opportunities to work in places that were little known both geologically and geographically. In addition to his membership of the Working Group on Geology of SCAR throughout the 1960s and 1970s (and its secretary from 1973 to 1978), Ian was also a member of several other committees concerned with Antarctica and the mineral industry, including the Australian National Committee on Antarctic Research, and the International Strategic Minerals Inventory Working Group. He was also a Foundation (and lifelong) Member of the Geological Society of Australia.
Following ANARE’s practice of recommending to the Antarctic Names Committee of Australia that geographic (and cryogenic) features in Antarctica be named after participants in its expeditions, four features bear Ian’s name there:
McLeod Massif: A large rock exposure in the Aramis Range, Prince Charles Mountains, Mac.Robertson Land. First identified and plotted from air photographs and first visited by ANARE surveys organised by geologist-in-charge of field operations, Ian McLeod, in 1969 and 1970.
McLeod Nunataks: Located in Enderby Land; identified in oblique aerial photographs taken by ANARE in 1956; first visited in December 1958 by dog-sled party (involving Ian).
McLeod Glacier: In Oates Land; Descends from the Wilson Hills into Davies Bay. Ian was the leader of the airborne field party who explored the area in 1961 from the supply ship Magga Dan.
McLeod Island: A large island 2 km north of Stornes Peninsula in Prydz Bay. Ian was in the ANARE team who surveyed the region in February 1958.
Ian is remembered as an absolute gentleman and a quiet achiever, always ready to lend a hand, and someone who got things done. His welcoming smile left a lasting impression on everyone he met, and he will long be remembered by his former BMR colleagues at their monthly lunches at the Yowani Golf Club.
Authored by Patrick Conaghan and Malcolm Robertson (May 2022, Updated July 2023)
Endnotes
This tribute and profile is based primarily on source materials supplied to the authors by Beverley McLeod, including a short biography of his professional career written by Ian McLeod dated June2007, entries from some of Ian’s Antarctic diaries, and the two portrait photos of Ian herein. Additional materials and information were supplied by former ANARE scientist Grahame Budd, and Ian’s UQ contemporaries Kevin McDonnell, and Tom Brown. Details of the 1953 UQBWC expedition to Hinchinbrook Island (including some quotations from which are used herein) are sourced from primary accounts of the trip by John Comino (1959) and Geoff Broadbent (1964), and from Rankin, R. (2002): Beyond the Horizon, Rankin Publishers, Sumner Park, Qld, pp. 137—142, (which provides bibliographic details of all published primary accounts of the trip on p. 203). McLeod’s dog-sledging expedition in the austral summer of 1958—59 is described in: McLeod, I. (1965): Sledging Journey — Amundsen Bay to Mawson, Antarctica. UQBWC Magazine, vol. 7, p.37– 43 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AkZ7lx23MXnv7mAToy25BH0Iw5uIOoi6/view?usp=sharing). Accounts of the 13th February 1960 helicopter crash in Antarctica and the rescue of its occupants by Ian are documented as follows: McLeod, I.R. (18/2/1960): Accident to VH-THC, Official report to ANARE (three pages, including the official Press Release to media by Phillip Law dated Saturday 13th [February], but date of accident mistakenly given as 16th February in McLeod’s report (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aBYkcR9a5JKyExnM9xc5sMe2mlHpJVeX/view?usp=sharinghttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1aBYkcR9a5JKyExnM9xc5sMe2mlHpJVeX/view?usp=sharing); Hudson, R.T. (1983): Antarctic Helicopter Accident. Aircraft. December 1983,p. 40–42 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G-vmkFi3heMKE_hE_qP_xkEgN4rgvDie/view?usp=sharing); Grahame Budd’s (30.05.2011) unpublished retelling of the accident (http://climbinghistoryoz.blogspot.com/2022/01/a-bad-day-at-office-summed-up-by-four.html) isa facsimile version (but with colour photos added) of David Cook’s 2009 article “A Bad Day at the Office”, (Aurora. June 2009, p. 21–22), but of a reformatted and slightly abridged (by David Cook, in December 1999) unpublished version of the 2009 Aurora article in which the last two paragraphs were omitted and a postscript added. Details of the Geoscience Australia Library project to transcribe the Antarctic geology field-notebooks are sourced from: Black, J., and Carson, C. (2018): Transcribing Antarctic geological History. Australian Antarctic Magazine, Issue 34. In a three-part interview with medical doctor and Antarctic expeditioner Ingrid McGaughey (recorded in Canberra in June 2011), Ian recounts many details of his geological career, and with a particular focus on his work in Antarctica, This interview can be accessed at: https://amplify.gov.au/transcripts/statelibrarynsw/antarctic_expeditions//Antarctic_IanM
The authors thank Michael Meadows of Living Rock Press, Qld, for posting the source articlesmentioned above variously on the web and on his blog (Climbing History Oz) and for creating the hyperlinks thereto.
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