Bert Macklin

In 1911, Donald Thomson at 10 years old was a lone figure in Melbourne’s Bayside, with its billabongs and creeks meandering to the sea. In his ‘Naturalist’s Diary’, he recorded his collection of wildflowers to wattles, seabirds to tiny blue wrens, mammals and reptiles, to fish and insects of every shape and hue. By 16, he was part-time editor of...