Ross Storey - much more than a coleopterist

Abstract

Although Ross Storey was widely known as the custodian of the Department of Primary Industries (QDPI) Mareeba Insect Collection and for his Coleoptera taxonomy, it is less well known that he played additional significant roles within the entomology group at Mareeba and the wider community on the Atherton Tableland. This area of far north Queensland, just to the west of Cairns, is unique for its varied rainfall, soil types and elevation across a distance of less than 100 Ian from north to south. The Mareeba-Dimbulah Irrigation Area, fed from Tinaroo Dam, originally supported the largest tobacco growing area in Australia. This area has subsequently moved over to crops like avocados, bananas, longans, lychees and papaya and is now particularly known for its mangoes. The higher areas around the town of Atherton, with their rich red basalt-derived soils, have long been known for dairying and maize, peanut and potato production. More than 60 different crops are now grown across the Atherton Tableland. Since the early 1980s, when the new QDPI facilities were completed at Peters Street in Mareeba, this centre has been the hub of agricultural research in the district. Several other groups have shared this centre over the past 25 years, including the Queensland Departments of Environment and Natural Resources (which have both undergone numerous name changes), the Northern Australian Quarantine Strategy of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service and, briefly, CSIRO. Ross had a particular affection for the Tablelands and Mareeba, which his colleagues will recall he frequently reminded everyone was 'The centre of the Universe'