Vale Max Downes

Station Year Season
Heard Island 1951 Winter

With much sadness, the ANARE Club advises the passing of Maxwell Crichton Downes on 17 October 2024.

The funeral will be held at the Wattle Park Chalet,  1012 Riversdale Road, Surrey Hills 3127 on Monday 28th October 2024 at 11.00 am AEDT.

The livestream link is: https://streamlivemedia.com.au/maxwell-downes

(Notified by Liz Downes, 19 October 2024)

Maxwell Crichton Downes (28/10/27 – 17/10/24)

Biologist, Heard Island 1951

We have sad news, Dad passed away on Thursday 17 October 2024, eleven days before his 97th birthday.

He was a man of science and family, with a deep love for the bush, its history and our relationship with the animals within it. His curiosity, enthusiasm and passion throughout his adventurous and varied career as an ecologist, collector and historian, meant that he met and inspired people from all walks of life.

He was a loving husband and partner to Winifred whose loss in 2005 was deeply felt. He will be greatly missed by his children Greg, Malcolm, Elizabeth and Eleanor and their partners, grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Funeral details to follow.

With love

Greg, Malcolm, Liz and Eleanor.

Max Downes

Biologist, Heard Island 1951

Max Downes visited Heard Island four times, having developed a lifelong fascination with the island. At the age of 23, he joined the 1951 ANARE to Heard Island as biologist, studying its birdlife. He participated in the 1963 ANARE with Grahame Budd and returned in 1987 to celebrate his 60th birthday on the Island. In 2002 a family party – Max, his wife Winifred and two children, visited Heard Island on a Russian ship. From 1953 to 1968 he was in charge of the game management program for the Victorian Fisheries and Game Department, working on ducks, quail and bustards and initiating the system of State Wildlife Reserves across Victoria. In 1968 the family moved to PNG, where Max organised the government’s wildlife management program, working with PNG villagers to manage crocodiles, deer, butterflies and birds of paradise. In 1976, Max returned to Victoria, and in retirement, is still an active researcher currently working with Field and Game Australia and other hunter organisations, supported by the Victorian Government, to establish the Australian National Hunting Archive.

David Parer

ANARE Club Membership

Max Downes joined the ANARE Club in 1958.

Contributions to Aurora Journal

ARTICLE TITLE AUTHOR Journal / Link PAGE
LETTER RECEIVED: HEARD ISLAND HISTORY Max Downes Aurora Journal Winter 1974 50
ANARE RESEARCH NOTES 97.  Indexing sealers logbooks from Heard Island by Max Downes Fred Elliott Aurora Journal Spring 1997 21

Antarctic Place Names

Downes Glacier

Heard Island (xnatmap.org)

Narrative:

A broad glacier on the north coast between Saddle Point and a moraine east of Cape Bidlingmaier.

Named For

Named after M.C. Downes, a biologist with ANARE, Heard Island in 1951 and 1963.

Location

From Australian Antarctic Division, Gazetteer