Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria
William Lockhart Morton (1820-98) was a resident in the pastoral districts of Victoria from 1842. This well-informed, resourceful man interested, himself in a wide range of topics. Among other things, he invented a swing gate for drafting sheep, investigated the pastoral potential of the land between the Lachlan and Darling Rivers, and advocated the introduction of useful animals and agricultural seeds to Victoria.
In June and July 1861 he made an extensive tour of the Wimmera and Mallee
region, basing himself at Pine Plains Homestead, and making trips as far afield
as Horsham and Lake Hindmarsh in the south and the Pink Lakes in the north.
His account of these travels, published in the Yeoman and Australian Acclimatiser
under the title 'Notes on the tour of the Wimmera district', gives a vivid
account of his proceedings: the nesting habits of Mallee Fowl, collecting
dew for drinking water in the desert, and potential agricultural use of gypsum,
and particularly the vegetation he saw. He gave to Mueller the specimens collected
on these travels, as well as his later excursions through New South Wales
Extracted from: Flora of Victoria, Vol. 1, Chap 5, 'Botanical Exploration of Victoria', by J.H.Willis & Helen M. Cohn (1993). [consult for source references]