Australian Dictionary of Biography

Clifford Stuart Christian (1907–1996), agricultural scientist, was born on 19 December 1907 at St Albans, England, youngest of four sons of English-born parents Thomas William Christian, mechanical engineer, and his wife Lily Elizabeth, née Hinton. Chris migrated to Australia with his family as an infant, arriving in Brisbane on 22 March 1910. Having passed the State scholarship examination in 1921, he attended Brisbane Boys’ Grammar School, proceeding in 1925 to Queensland Agricultural College, Gatton. He then gained a scholarship to the University of Queensland (BScAgr, 1930), where he lived at King’s College and was a member of the university rowing eight (1929). At the University of Minnesota, United States of America, he gained an MSc (1932), and met Agnes (Robbie) Robinson, a fellow student, whom he married on 8 December 1933 in a civil ceremony in Canberra. The couple were to have four daughters: Barbara, Kathryn, Carol, and Wendy.

In May 1933 Christian was appointed a junior plant geneticist in the division of plant industry at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (from 1949 CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) in Canberra. In 1936 he was posted to Gatton college to research pasture plant improvement, gaining a promotion to research officer (genetics) in 1938. Robbie found herself living in a place where there was no reticulated power for electric fridges, so the ever-practical Chris built rather than bought a kerosene version. In 1943 he was transferred to the CSIR’s agrostology branch in Canberra.

From a narrow disciplinary focus on plant genetics Christian’s career and thinking expanded to encompass a multidisciplinary and systems approach, epitomised by what he became best known for, the land systems classification or integrated resource survey approach. This required a diverse team working closely in the field, a method then new in theory and practice. It became known as the ‘Australian’ or ‘CSIRO’ method and was adopted by international agencies such as the Food and Agricultural Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This ‘original approach to a big problem’ (Casey 1972, 4) was the Commonwealth government’s latest response to the long-standing perception of the threat of an empty north of Australia.

At the behest of the recently formed (1945) Northern Australia Development Committee, CSIR was allotted the task of surveying the region to determine its potential for agricultural development. In 1946 the Northern Australia Regional Survey Section (from 1950 Land Research and Regional Survey) was established, and Christian was made officer-in-charge (1950–59), a dramatic change in scope from his previous appointment as principal research agrostologist. The task he faced was to efficiently survey vast and remote areas for their agricultural potential. The methodology depended on ‘recognising distinct and recurring landscape patterns, initially on aerial photos, and then confirmed on the ground by detailed observation of geology, geomorphology, soils, vegetation and hydrology’ (Mackenzie and Fleming 1997). In Christian’s words the integrated land survey was ‘a method devised originally for broad-scale surveys of very large regions, with the object of determining development possibilities and providing a basis for further research’ (1952, 140).

Descriptions of the work gloss over its logistical challenges. With air transport, jeeps, camp, and mess equipment provided by the army, Christian and his team met the tough climate and unmapped rough terrain with a sense of purpose and curiosity. In less than six years the unit surveyed and mapped over 220,000 square miles (570,000 sq. km) of northern Australia, and later extended its activities to portions of southern Australia and the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Conscious that land surveys on their own were not sufficient to advance the unfulfilled vision for northern agriculture, Christian was instrumental in establishing agricultural research stations at Katherine, Darwin, and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and, with the Western Australian government, the Kimberley Research Station at Kununurra. Although believing in the potential for northern agriculture, he was also a realist, advocating a thorough and nuanced understanding of diverse landscapes, together with an awareness of potential environmental impacts of large-scale agriculture. In 1957 Christian became founding chief of the CSIRO’s new division of land research and regional survey housed at the base of Black Mountain, Canberra. He was appointed a full-time member of the CSIRO Executive in 1960, retaining the position until his retirement in 1972.

Internationally Christian influenced land classification, arid zone research, and agricultural development. UNESCO and the Indian government invited him to visit India in 1958 to advise on the establishment of the Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Rajasthan. His report to UNESCO emphasised four themes, all of which recur throughout his career: the need for research to reflect the interaction of the many factors of the environment; for applied research to be relevant and grounded; for multi-disciplinarity and collaboration; and the risks of development to the environment. Referencing human ecology, he sought to integrate socio-economic issues and research into the design of the Rajasthan institute. He emphasised the need to understand human conditions, including ‘social customs, traditions, religion and beliefs’ (Christian 1959) in order to solve development problems. Crucially he also recognised the ‘delicate’ balance between land use and the environment, and that ‘changes in exploitation of resources can be disastrous’ (Christian 1959), particularly in arid and semi-arid zones.

With the growing international realisation in the 1960s of the harmful effects of humanity on the planet, Christian’s interests broadened to incorporate conservation. His efforts to moderate human impact on the environment spanned organisations, including the Australian Conservation Foundation. He was leader of the Australian delegation to UNESCO’s 1968 Intergovernmental Conference of Experts on the Scientific Basis for Rational Land Use and Conservation of the Resources of the Biosphere which involved most arms of the United Nations and sixty-three member States. Subsequently he chaired the Scientific Policies and Structures Commission which was established by the conference.

Following his retirement, Christian maintained an interest in the development of northern Australia as an adviser (1975–77) to the Ranger Uranium Environmental Survey. His reporting highlighted the region’s rock art as of world importance and requiring protection. His ground-breaking work on land surveys had brought him widespread recognition and awards, including an Australian medal of agricultural science (1961), the Farrer memorial medal (1969), and an honorary doctorate of agricultural science from the University of Queensland (1976). Appointed CMG in 1971, he had been a foundation fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (1975). He received his CMG on crutches, having fallen from the roof of the eccentric house he was building at Guerilla Bay on the New South Wales south coast; the house was shaped to limit removal of the old banksia trees on site, and no corners were ninety degrees. Ironically, given his role in agricultural development across the world, he was perhaps proudest of his participation in this little coastal haven’s anti-progress association, members of which would meet in their terry towelling hats and sandals to push against local shops, tarred roads, and a public phone.

A scientist ‘with an extraordinary breadth of vision’, Christian ‘respected the opinions of others but would not hesitate to act when the moment was right’ (Canberra Times 1996, 6). Through science he sought to improve the world for people, specifically to feed them. In retirement he pursued his love of chess and photography and was a long-time member of the Australian Photographic Society. Survived by his wife and their four daughters, he died in Canberra on 6 June 1996. A CSIRO laboratory at Black Mountain was named for him in 1997 to honour his contribution to agricultural science.