Donald Thomson

Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson OBE (26 June 1901 – 12 May 1970) was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist. he is known for his studies of and friendship with the Pintupi and Yolngu peoples, and for his intervention in the Caledon Bay crisis.

Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson was born on 26 June 1901 in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton.

Thomson went to Scotch College, Melbourne, before earning a B.Sc. in zoology and botany at the University of Melbourne in 1925. In 1927 he studied at the University of Sydney, earning a diploma in anthropology in 1928.

While still a school student, he joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1917. He served as press officer in 1923, and then as assistant editor of its journal, Emu from 1924 to 1925.

After two trips to Cape York, Queensland, Thomson joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, and in 1932 joined the University of Melbourne as a research fellow, obtaining his PhD in 1934.

When he graduated in 1925 he joined the Melbourne Herald as a cadet. After earning his diploma in anthropology in 1928, he set off on an eight-month journey, working with and recording the Indigenous people of Cape York. On his return, he was falsely accused of dishonesty, because of the loss of some funds, which was later traced to fraudulent activity by a staff member of the Australian Research Council. This unhappy episode forever damaged his relationship with other anthropologists at Sydney.

Thomson lived at the property of Worlingworth, Eltham from the 1930s. The c.1922 residence and surrounding farm site is considered historically significant and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Databases because of its association with Thomson.

In 1932–33, as the Caledon Bay crisis erupted, Thomson offered his services to the Australian Government to resolve the crisis, and to the surprise of the government succeeded in doing so. His success had long-term ramifications for the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and is regarded as the crowning achievement of his life.^{[further explanation needed]}