Mjöberg, Eric Georg   (1882 - 1938)

was born on 6 August 1882 in Halland County, Sweden; he died on 8 July 1938, in Stockhlm, Sweden.

He gained a licentiate at the Stockholm University in 1908, and his doctorate at Lund University in 1912.

He led expeditions to North West Australia in 1910/11, and to Queensland in 1912/13.

A lecture tour in the USA lasted from 1916 to 1917 after which he was Swedish consul in Sumatra, Indonesia, in 1920.

He worked for the Deli Experimental Station at Medan in Sumatra from 1919 to 1922.

He was curator of the Sarawak State Museum in Borneo from 1922 until 1924.

Australia

In the early 1900s he set off to the Kimberley region of Western Australia in an attempt to prove his Darwinian human evolution theory. In Western Australia, he became obsessed with the Aboriginal people, and what started off as collecting native flora and fauna for research, soon led to the desecration of sacred burial grounds and the smuggling of human remains back to Sweden.

Historians have described Mjöberg as aggressive, arrogant and devious, a leader who made enemies with local Aboriginal people, pastoralists and even his own scientific team.

After 1911, he made a second expedition to Australia's east coast: Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, removing one set of remains from each.

Death

He died in poverty in Stockholm after a long, undiagnosed illness during which he had constant nightmares reflecting his experiences in the Kimberleys, including a sense of being pursued by Aboriginal people and contact with the Wondjina - creation spirits of the Dreamtime. During this time he was forced to sell part of his collection.

Source: Extracted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Mj%C3%B6berg
Portrait Photo: c.1920, Wikipedia.

Collecting localities for 'Mjoberg, E.G.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 8 specimens in Australian herbaria.