page_title: 1928 Great Barrier Reef expedition
section_title: Personnel
hierarchical_section_title: 1928 Great Barrier Reef expedition / Personnel
caption_attribution_description: Yonge, C. M. (Charles Maurice), 1899-1986 Persistent URL nla.gov.au/nla.obj-145095643
context_page_description: 1928 Great Barrier Reef expedition, also known as the Yonge Expedition or the Low Isles Expedition was a thirteen-month scientific program beginning in 1928, which was promoted to study the Australian Great Barrier Reef.
context_section_description: C. Maurice Yonge, a marine invertebrate researcher, was encouraged to join a proposed expedition to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 1927. He was eventually appointed its leader. Twelve scientists including Yonge, his wife Dr Mattie Yonge who would act as medical officer, as well as Frederick Russell, a naturalist with the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth and his wife Gweneth, Dr Andrew Orr and Dr Sheina Marshall, naturalists at Millport Marine Laboratory, Dr Thomas Stephenson, lecturer in zoology at University of London and his wife Anne, Geoffrey Tandy a botanist with the Natural History Museum who would collect marine plants and animals joined the expedition. 
  Others included James Steers, lecturer in geomorphology who acted as the expedition’s surveyor. He was assisted by Michael Spender and E.C. Marchant. G.W. Otter and Aubrey Nicholls would be assistants, and Frank Moorhouse of the University of Queensland would provide local marine biology knowledge. They arrived at the two islands of Low Isles on 16 July 1928 and encamped there for thirteen months. Sidnie Manton and Elizabeth Fraser would join the expedition for four months and work with the shore party. The expedition was unique in its inclusion of female researchers.
  The Australian Museum also sent five people to help with the research throughout the year – Tom Iredale, Gilbert Whitley, William Boardman, Arthur Livingstone and Frank McNeill. Indigenous workers were hired from the nearby Anglican mission at Yarrabah to work on Low Isles in support of the team. They included Andy and Grace Dabah who worked as handyman and cook and were later replaced by Claude and Minnie Connolly. The children of the Dabah and Connolly families also lived with their parents during the time they supported the expedition. Harry Mossman and Paul Sexton from Yarrabah were hired as crew on the research vessel Luana. The Luana was used to carry out scientific studies on and in the water as well as carry provisions to and from the mainland.
  The expedition was divided into four parts. Researchers investigated ocean conditions, taking hydrographic measurements, recording meteorological and tidal data and monitored plankton. They observed the growth rate of the corals and the marine life around it. They collected specimens including plankton as well as conducting dredging and trawling around the reef. Trochus shell was collected and studied and at the time a trochus farming industry was proposed. Black-Lip pearl oysters, Beche De Mer and rock and mangrove oysters, as well as the fish populations of the surrounding areas were assessed for potential economic development. Other studies considered a sardine fishing industry for the region and the turtle industry of Heron Island, near Gladstone. Boring of the reef had been undertaken around Michaelmas Cay in 1926 to determine the age and thickness of the reef, which helped the geological research.
caption: Thomas Stephenson with apparatus for photographing corals, Low Islands, Queensland, circa 1928 - C.M. Yonge (26544167848)
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