TAG 166 - Geological Society of Australia

O B I T U A R I E SSylvia Whitehead1921–2012Silvia Whitehead, well known petrologist, mineralogistand economic geologist, as well as a GSA FoundationMember, died on 12 November 2012 at the age of 91.Silvia Gladys Bosselmann was born in Kerang inrural northwest Victoria and her father explicitlydiscouraged her from tertiary education. NeverthelessSilvia entered the University of Melbourne andgraduated BSc with a major in Geology and Chemistryin 1942. She then continued studies in geology with anMSc in 1943. Her thesis on the genesis of sand duneson Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula was supervised byES Hills. Most of her necessary fieldwork was done byImage courtesy Silva Whitehead’sfamily.bicycle. In 1943, Silvia married a fellow geology student, Reg Whincup, who wastragically killed in action the following year when Silvia was expecting her firstchild. As a single mother with a son, Silvia then entered the workforce as Curatorof Minerals at the National Museum of Victoria and was the first full-timeappointee to that post. During this period, she also lectured in gemmology.In 1950, Silvia married another geologist, Bob Whitehead. With Bob’s postingwith BHP in Whyalla, South Australia, Silvia left Victoria and spent the period1950–1958 as a mother raising three sons. During the same period she joinedGSA. In 1958, she rejoined the workforce with BHP in Whyalla as a petrologist,moving between Whyalla and Melbourne until 1965. Her work at this timecentred on banded iron formations sourced by BHP primarily from Iron Monarchin South Australia’s Middleback Ranges. The geological staff in Whyalla alsogave attention to the assessment of carbonate rocks to meet blast furnacespecifications: limestone from Rapid Bay, dolomite from Ardrossan andmagnesite from Balcanoona. High-grade calcareous sand was also identifiednear Coffin Bay on southern Eyre Peninsula as being ideal for use as flux in thesmelting of fine-grained iron ore.In response to an upsurge in mineral exploration by the private sector in1965, the Whiteheads were induced to join Anaconda Australia Inc. The companyacquired an exploration tenement in the Puttapa area in the Flinders Ranges.Bob Dalgarno, also employed by Anaconda at this time, has the followingrecollection.At the end of June 1965, I was asked by new employer, Anaconda, to choosean area of about 20 square miles where I thought diapirs may result inmineralisation worth focusing on. I defined a block on the crown of the Puttapadiapir because of similarities to the Wirrealpa diapir where Cambrian limestoneshost base metal occurrences. The boss was Bob Whitehead who directed me togo with his geologist wife, Sylvia, to Puttapa for one day to demonstrate the areato her. This was my first day with the company and I met Sylvia, for the first time,at Beltana on 5 July and proceeded to ‘show’ her what I knew ofthe area. At end of day we boiled a brew on the subsequent siteof the zinc opencut and Sylvia queried me on a block of stainedwhite mineral beside the billy. ‘Barytes’ I offered with confidence,being used to the veins around Oraparinna. I then droveoff to the Willouran Ranges. Sylvia had not commented, but afew weeks later I received an assay registering 38% Zn. I doubtSylvia and I ever spoke afterwards of her discovery as it turnedout one of the most tumultuous and disastrous years for herprivately. Anaconda broke up its Adelaide office in September.At Puttapa, stream sediment sampling undertaken by Silviaconfirmed anomalous lead and zinc. Follow-up rock samplingand detailed mapping then disclosed outcrops of what wouldprove to be the world’s largest willemite deposit, a rare zincsilicate lacking sulfides. Silvia’s report and maps were lodgedwith the SA Department of Mines in 1967.In 1968, Silvia’s second husband, Bob, died, and with twochildren remaining at home Silvia joined the Australian Mineral DevelopmentLaboratories (AMDEL) as a petrologist, based in Adelaide where she remaineduntil retirement in 1981. This period signalled a return to her earlier interests,the study of rocks and minerals under the microscope, reporting on samples thatwere mostly referred to her from SA Department of Mines.During her long career, Silvia demonstrated great talents in the laboratoryand in the field. She was especially a great believer in seeing and feeling therocks in the field, despite having many home-bound obligations. Silvia was alsoheld in high esteem by her peers for integrity, knowledge, ability and interest.She was quietly unassuming, friendly, a gracious hostess at home; she alsodisplayed great fortitude in adversity and dogged persistence in meeting manypersonal challenges. She is survived by sons Peter Whincup and RichardWhitehead, four granddaughters and a grandson. Her youngest son, Brian, nowdeceased, was also a geologist.RK JOHNS and CR DALGARNO with final compilation by BJ COOPER andadditional information from P WHINCUPCondolence – Guy ThulbornOn behalf of all their colleagues in the Geological Society of Australia,condolences are expressed to Sue Turner and Tony Thulborn on the lossof their son, Guy (1986–2012), in November 2012. The extensivepaleontological fieldwork undertaken by Sue and Tony over many yearsin many parts of the world often included Guy, and with his keen eyehe made numerous significant discoveries.50 |TAG March 2013