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European personnel and five Pacific Islanders to recruit 50 able bodied Aboriginal men from among those he had
met previously, to organise them into a coast watching force reporting to a radio outpost station he later established
at Caledon Bay. The men were taken to Katherine for training before being deployed along the coast. By the end of
1942, however, the immediate threat to Australia had gone and the force was disbanded in 1943. Thomson, by then
a Wing Commander, was posted in Irian Jaya and charged with establishing the extent of Japanese infiltration of
the area to the west of Merauke. During his second patrol in the area, villagers attacked his party and wounded him
in his left arm and shoulder, resulting in him being invalided from service as permanently unfit in 1944. For his
services in New Guinea, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
The war not only affected Thomson’s health, but also coming on top of the long absences from his family in
previous years, eventually led to the end of his first marriage in 1954. On return to civilian life, he rejoined the
university and settled down to writing. He produced two long accounts of his time in Arnhem Land, receiving the
Cuthbert Peel Grant of the Royal Geographical Society in 1948 for geographical work in Arnhem Land and, in the
following year, the Harbison-Higinbotham Prize of the University of Melbourne for his book, Economic Structure
and the Ceremonial Exchange Cycle in Arnhem hand. In 1950, he received his doctorate in anthropology from the
University of Cambridge. In the following year he received the Patron’s Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical
Society, London, and in 1952 the John Lewis Memorial Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society of
Australia, both for his contributions to the geographical exploration and knowledge of Arnhem Land; and in 1953
the Rivers Memorial Medal for field-work, from the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Immediately after the war Thomson had become involved in opposition to the Woomera Rocket Range on
the grounds of the disruption it would cause to the 1800 or so Aborigines still living out of regular contact with
whites. Although the campaign was unsuccessful, it undoubtedly focused his attention on the desert people and he
determined to work with them, as they were now the only people living beyond the frontier of European settlement.
It was 10 years before he was able to realise this ambition, but between 1957 and 1965, he led three expeditions
into the Western Desert to work with a few Pintubi families, documenting their material culture and diet. In 1961,
he became a founding member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, serving on its Interim Council and
in 1962, he was appointed to a personal chair at the University of Melbourne. At the same time, he was actively
engaged as a member of the Aborigines’ Welfare Board of Victoria, to which he had been appointed as a special
member, but resigned in 1967 after ten years of frustration.
Thomson was a rugged and determined individualist with a somewhat austere nature, a sensitivity to criticism
and a tendency to passionate commitments. These traits, combined with a penchant for dealing only with the
highest authorities, made him a difficult and demanding colleague to whom few were indifferent. In the absence
of a full-scale department of anthropology at the University of Melbourne, for which he was partly responsible,
he remained isolated from the mainstream of the profession in the post-war years. It was, therefore, a surprise
to the profession to discover, following his death at home on 12 May 1970, the extraordinary richness and
scope of the ethnographic and photographic collection he had built up. Its importance resides not only in its size
and comprehensiveness—5700 artefacts, 10 580 negatives and 4 500 pages of field notes—but in the superb
documentation and the complex interrelationships between all aspects of the collection. It is undoubtedly the single
most important ethnographic collection in Australia and an important part of the heritage of both black and white
Australians.
His twin sons from his first marriage and three daughters and a son from his second marriage to Dorita Maria
McColl survived Thomson. He was cremated and his ashes scattered over Caledon Bay.
N Peterson, ‘Donald Thomson: A Biographical Sketch’, in N Peterson (ed) Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land, 1983; H Scheffler, ‘Published
Work of Donald Thomson’, in P D F Thomson, Kinship and Behaviour in North Queensland, 1972; C Hogarth, ‘Donald Thomson in Irian
Jaya’, Grad Dip Thesis, James Cook University, 1984.
NICOLAS PETERSON, Vol 1.
THOMSON, JAMES MILN (JIM) (1921– ), scientist and educator, was born in Perth, Western Australia, on
14 March 1921, the son of John Thomson and his wife Lillian, nee Speller. Educated at Christ Church Grammar
School in Perth and the University of Western Australia, he graduated from the latter institution as Bachelor of
Science (Honours) and later Master of Science and Doctor of Science. On 19 February 1944, he married Diana,
nee Gregg. They had two sons and two daughters. Following his graduation Thomson had a distinguished career
as a marine biologist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation between 1945
and 1963. From 1963 to 1965, he was Director of the Marineland Oceanarium and thereafter until 1986 he held
a series of senior positions at the University of Queensland, including Professor of Zoology, Dean of the Faculty
of Science and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Biological Sciences). In 1986, he was made Emeritus Professor. He also
belonged to various councils and committees concerned with education and science and was the author of many
publications.
From 1986 to 1988 Thomson served as Warden of the University College of the Northern Territory, an institution
created as the result of a decision by the Northern Territory Government in August 1985 that it would fund a
university college that could commence teaching in 1987. The College would initially operate from the former
Darwin Primary School and offer Arts and Science degrees from the University of Queensland. He took on the
task of establishing the College with great energy and enthusiasm and proved most effective. The difficulties were
many. These included hostility both from sections of the staff at the Darwin Institute of Technology and from
Commonwealth authorities concerned with higher education.