From the Little Darwin collection of unusual ephemera comes this rare l924 book list , above, offering novels, each costing six shillings (60 cents) , from a pioneering Brisbane bookseller, ornithologist , naturalist and astronomer , George Henry Barker . Born in 1880, George began work in l897 at the famous Sydney bookshop of Angus and Robertson ( now defunct ), where he became friendly with George Tyrell, another prominent bookseller . In l907, Barker and his father opened up a bookshop in Albert Street ,Brisbane , in premises rented for 30 shillings ($3) a week , with several cases of secondhand books on extended credit from George Tyrell. As business expanded , the shop shifted , added a new section dealing with technical books , a lending library and catered for students .
A foundation member (1924) and sometime president of the Queensland Booksellers' Association, Barker was also instrumental in forming the Australian Booksellers' Association; as its president (1949-51), he led a group of Australian booksellers to Britain to negotiate trading terms.
As well as being a member of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union for nearly half a century, and secretary (1922-56),he was treasurer and president (1940-41) of its Queensland branch . A member of the Royal Society of Queensland and of the Astronomical Society, Barker was foundation treasurer (1930-46) of the Queensland National Parks Association. Greatly interested in ground orchids, he was an office-bearer of the Queensland Orchid Society.
Barker contributed a number of articles to Emu and the Queensland Naturalist ,two of which were in collaboration with another prominent ornithologist, H. G. Barnard . Born at Rockhampton in l869, Barnard , whose father was a keen collector of butterflies , moths, beetles, birds’ eggs , some of which were sent to the Australian Museum .
Inspired by his father, Barnard made numerous collecting trips for various collectors — such places as Ferguson Island, the Trobriands and Woodlark, off the east coast of New Guinea- were visited in 1894 and1895, and Port Darwin and Cape York . In January 1913 he went to Brunette Downs, on the Barkly Tablelands, Northern Territory, and after five months he worked down the McArthur River to the little township of Borroloola, which he described as wild country , and returned to Rockhampton via Port Darwin in March 1914.
At the age of 84, he wrote that a long life spent mostly in the bush and wild places had given him a vast knowledge of birds and their ways of life..., “ one learns to love them not only for their cheery ways but also for their great assistance to man in destroying pests.”
• One of the novels offered in the Barker catalogue was THE BOY IN THE BUSH , by D.H. Lawrence , published l923, described as a masterpiece of the Australian bush,with all the color and mystery of background which made KANGAROO memorable. The denouement, it said, being as daring as it is characteristic . Kangaroo was seen as a self autobiographical novel based on the three months Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, spent in Australia , and contained sceptical comments about fringe politics in Sydney which involved fascists, bankers and other prominent people . In l986 it was adapted as a film starring Colin Friels, Judy Davis and Hugh Keays - Byrne .
