Beadle, N. C. W. (Noel Charles William), 1914-1998

N.C.W. Beadle is recognised as having played a pivotal role in the development of Australian botany.

He produced the first authoritative account of the vegetation of western New South Wales in 1948, The Vegetation and Pastures of Western New South Wales, whilst working as a Research Officer and Botanist with the NSW Soil Conservation Service.  This work was later incorporated in a thesis for which the University of Sydney awarded him a Doctor of Science.

Beadle was appointed as the Foundation Professor of Botany at UNE in 1955.  As an eminent botanist and ecologist, he built up a multi-disciplinary department centred around a core of plant taxonomy and ecology. He worked at UNE until his retirement in 1979.

He was awarded The Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1982. In 1985 the Medal of the Ecological Society of Australia, and in 1988 the Soil Conservation Service of NSW made Beadle a special presentation in recognition of his contribution to the service, and to dry land ecology.

UNE appointed Beadle Emeritus Professor of Botany in 1980 and in 1993 he was made a Fellow of the University of New England.

A final legacy was the donation of a large block of land by Beadle to the people of Armidale, which was turned into a park containing native plants from the region. The park is named Beadle Grove in his honour.