Meagher, David Anthony   (1956 - 2023)

Born on 11 October 1956 in the melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe; died on 10 August 2023 at his home, 'Moss Hollow', in south Gippsland.

He attended University High School, Melbourne, then did a science degree at Melbourne University.

He began his scientific pursuits as a physicist specialising in architectural acoustics - highlights he often mentioned were working on Hamer Hall and the David Bowie concert at the Melbourne Cricket ground - before undertaking a post-graduate degree in editing and publishing and moving into science publishing.

He was a member of the Australian Fellowship of writers and a lecturer in editing at The royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Bryophytes became david's passion under the mentorship of the late George Scott, and he later completed his MSc on taxonomy of the liverwort genus Bazzania and PhD on the bryophyte flora of Lord Howe Island.

His broad knowledge of Australian bryophytes was extraordinary. He was well-respected by bryologists around the world.

In the last twenty years, david published over 60 papers, most with him as the single author but several in collaboration with other Australian bryologists. He described twelve new species of Bazzania, including nine in Australia, two in Papua New guinea and one in New zealand.

With colleagues he named two new moss species and reported several range extensions and new records in the Australian wet Tropics. David's fieldwork on flora and fauna extended to Tasmania, Victoria, New South wales, Queensland, lord Howe Island, the kermadec Islands in the South Pacific, and the mid-west of the USA.

He published his 2003 Field guide to Mosses and Allied Plants of southern Australia (with naturalist and photographer, the late Bruce Fuhrer), and died before he could complete a field guide to mosses of the Australian wet Tropics.

He was very interested in the conservation of rare and threatened bryophyte species and he was very proud of his membership of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Bryophyte Specialist group.

David's classical background - he learned latin and greek at school - sparked his interest in the etymology of scientific names, resulting in two publications on the etymology of generic names of Australian mosses, liverworts and hornworts, as well as of snakes and freshwater fish.

He participated in and helped organise many of the Australian Bryophyte workshops and was the driving force behind the establishment of the Australian Bryological Network.

He was regarded as a bit of a polymath, - he also painted, wrote poetry, and played the banjo.

Source: Extracted from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376952077_David_Meagher_1956-2023
https://myfamilymemories.com.au/watch/dr-david-anthony-meagher/
file:///Users/murray/Downloads/_bde00046p009.pdf
BRYOPHYTE DIVERSITY & EVOLUTION Bry. Div. Evo. 46 (1): 005-009 Obituary David Meagher (1956–2023)
Portrait Photo: 2011, M.Fagg, ANBG Photo Collection.

Collecting localities for 'Meagher, D.A.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 4,758 specimens