People Australia

Erwin Gauba, by Lindsay Pryor, n.d.

Erwin Gauba (1891-1964) horticulturist

Birth: 25 November 1891 in Langenbruck, Austria. Arrived in Adelaide, South Australia on 19 November 1941. Death: 7 June 1964 in Canberra, ACT.


• Graduated in botany in Vienna. Taught French in Alexandria, Egypt. Professor of Botany at the Karaj College of Agriculture (later the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran) until 1940s.
• Established the first modern herbarium in Iran and helped to develop the College's botanic gardens.
• Captured with his family by the Allies on 18 September 1941 and interned.
• Put on a prisoner of war ship to South Africa but diverted to Australia. He arrived in Adelaide on 19 November 1941 on board the New Zealand troop ship Rangitiki and was interned at Loveday (near Renmark, SA) in the mallee where he started collecting herbarium specimens in 1941 (first specimen 20 November 1941).
• Transferred to Tatura Camp near Shepparton, Victoria on 31 January 1945 and released in Melbourne on 17 September 1946. After the war his wife and daughter were repatriated to France and then Austria, but Gauba acquired British nationality by naturalisation on 10 May 1948 while employed as a gardener at the town of Research in the Dandenongs near Eltham, Victoria.
• 
He moved to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, became a close research associate of Lindsay Pryor, and was appointed (Temporary) Botanist for the Department of Interior in 1950, mainly for the Canberra Botanic Gardens (later Australian National Botanic Gardens).
• His wife and daughter rejoined him in Canberra. He and Pryor amassed a substantial herbarium, much of which was later transferred to the Canberra University College (later Australian National University). Over 700 specimens remained in the Botanic Gardens.
• Gauba left the Department of Interior to join Pryor at the University as a part-time lecturer in 1960. 


Sources
Personal communication from Lindsay Pryor to Murray Fagg, 25 September 1987
; A.E.Orchard (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS. [consult for source references]
H.W.Lack (2000), Karl Heinz Rechinger— a life for botany. Flora Mediterranea 10: 11–64.
National Archives of Australia: Prisoners of War and Internees Information Bureau - Directorate of Prisoners of War and Internees; MP1103/1, Registers containing 'Service and Casualty' forms (Form A112) of enemy prisoners of war and internees held in camps in Australia, 1939–1947; R36476, Prisoner of War/Internee: Gauba, Erwin; Date of birth - 25 November 1891; Nationality - German, 1941–1946.
National Archives of Australia: Department of Immigration, Victorian Branch; B78, Alien registration documents, 1948–1965; 1948/GAUBA E, GAUBA Erwin - Nationality: Austrian - Arrived Adelaide per Rangitiki 19 November 1941, 1948–1948.
Family Notices: Deaths, Canberra Times, Monday 8 June 1964, p. 18.