Ewers, William Hector (Bill)   (1934 - 2005)

Born on 24 March 1934 in Adelaide, SA; died on 7 March 2005 in Warrnambool, Vic.

Bill's father, William David Ewers, was a school teacher, who had married Joyce Coombe.

Bill attended a composite class at Dublin Primary School from the age of 4 where his father was the Head and only teacher.

Later, on returning to Adelaide Bill attended Adelaide Boys High School, completing his Leaving Honours Certificate in 1951.

He subsequently gained a scholarship to Adelaide University where he completed his B.Sc.

His early collections, 1956-1958 are collected in SA and are in the State Herbarium of South Australia and mostly Angiosperms.

After graduation Bill joined his friend John Ling at Fisheries and Wild Life Victoria and spent time in Gippsland around the lakes following the breeding and migration of trout.

His collections 1958-1959 are in the John T. Waterhouse Herbarium of University of NSW and are mostly cryptogams, many of them mosses.

His next move was to Sydney, where as Master of Basser College, he completed an M.Sc. at UNSW in Parisitology and Tropical Medicine in 1963.

In March 1962 he is appointed to the Commonwealth Department of Health as 'Senior Biologist, Third Division' in NSW.

He married Susan Genevieve Ling* and the family moved to Port Moresby, PNG.

Bill was appointed as a lecturer and was involved in setting up the Science Department of the newly formed University of Papua New Guinea (established in 1965).

In 1971 the book 'Parasites of Man in Niugini' by William Hector Ewers and W.T. Jeffrey is Published by Jacaranda Press.

He spent a year of sabbatical leave at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Kuala Lumpur.

With approaching independence in PNG in 1975, an appointment as a lecturer in biology at the Warrnambool College of Advanced Education (WCAE), Victoria, gave Bill and family the opportunity to return to Australia.

Bill became a Senior Lecturer in Biology at WCAE which later transitioned to Deakin University, Warrnambool Campus.

Bill's interest in lichens was sparked by the desirability to monitor pollution from a new aluminium smelter in Portland, western Victoria established in 1986. Bill collected lichens from the vicinity before the smelter started operation and these had to be identified - and it was then that he became hooked on these organisms.

In 1989 Bill spent 6 months at the Australian National University working with Jack Elix, while on study leave from WCAE.

During the period 1985-1991 Bill collected lichens from South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and New Zealand. In 1989 he obtained a grant from the Royal Society of Victoria to conduct lichen field work in Gippsland.

On his retirement from Deakin University in 1992 he donated over 8,000 lichen collections to the Cryptogam Herbarium of the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra, now incorporated into the Australian National Herbarium (CANB).

His last cryptogam-herbarium-history collection is in 1998.

Bill had many extra-curricular interests. He enjoyed a contented life persuing his interests in philately, music and the arts [he was an accomplished landscape artist], animals, plants, bird watching as well as collecting lichens.

* (Susan Ling died in 2022, and had been a volunteer at Warrnambool Botanic Gardens after Bill's death)


Lichen species named in Bill's honour:
Buellia billewersii Elix, from New Zealand, described in 2016.
Buellia ewersii Elix, from Victoria, described in 2017.
Dimelaena ewersii Elix, from Victoria, described in 2017.
Pertusaria ewersii A.W.Archer & Elix, from Queensland, described in 1996.
Protoparmelia ewersii Elix & P.M.McCarthy, from South Australia, described in 2018.
Sclerococcum ewersii Elix, P.M.McCarthy & Hafellner, from New South Wales, described in 2019.
Xanthoparmelia ewersii Elix, from South Australia, described in 2006.

Source: Extracted from:
Jack Elix, pers.com. with M.Fagg (2026).
The Chronicle (Adelaide, SA) Thu 29 Mar 1934 Page 45 - Family Notices
The Advertiser (Adelaide,) Sat 22 Dec 1951 Page 5 Leaving Honors Examination Results.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National) Thu 29 Mar 1962 [Issue No.21] Page 1085 APPOINTMENTS, NSW, Department of Health.
CALENDAR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES 1966 VOL. 2, APPENDIX 2, MSc - Ewers, William Hector, 1963.
Parasites of Man in Niugini, William Hector Ewers; W. T. Jeffrey
Published by Jacaranda Press, Milton, Qld, Australia, 1971 ISBN 10: 0701681276 / ISBN 13: 9780701681272
https://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/history-cpbr/cryptogam-herbarium-history.html
Portrait Photo: none found.

Collecting localities for 'Ewers, W.H.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 10,695 specimens