This article was published:
Thistle Yolette Stead (1902-1990), biologist, educator and wildlife preservationist, was born on 29 July 1902 at Mosman, Sydney, second of three daughters of English-born Charles Thomas Harris, newspaper employee, and his Sydney-born wife Ilma Richardson, née Rokes. Thistle’s father was general manager of the Sydney Morning Herald in 1929-33. She attended Mosman Superior Public and North Sydney Girls’ High schools and
Constance Le Plastrier, a teacher at
Harris taught science at Murwillumbah Intermediate (1925-28), Broken Hill (1929-30) and St George Girls’ (1930-38) high schools. At Broken Hill she met Albert Morris, an experienced amateur botanist who introduced her to the flora of the western regions and led her to an appreciation of the importance of ecology. She established a naturalists’ society there but had a more lasting impact on St George Girls’ High School and the Kogarah district, where she initiated a campaign to plant native trees and shrubs. In July 1939 the Sydney Morning Herald carried an enthusiastic article on her 'Vision of a Garden City'.
Resident in Sydney from August 1930, Harris became actively involved in many conservationist organisations. She joined the council of the Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia and was active in the Australian Forest League; she compiled and edited the publication Junior Tree Warden for many years. In March 1938 she took up a lecturership in biology at
David Stead was 41 and the father of seven children (including the writer Christina Stead), when he met Harris. They formed a close relationship. David’s second wife,
Becoming well known through her books (published using the name Thistle Harris), Stead was a passionate advocate for conservation, ahead of her time in stressing the importance of education about the environment and the value of growing Australian plants in suburban gardens. The Teaching of Nature Study (1954), Naturecraft in Australia (1956)—for bushwalkers, teachers and students—and Gardening with Australian Plants (3 vols, 1977-80) helped to raise awareness in the general community about Australian flora and fauna. The Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria awarded her its natural history medallion for 1963.
Stead loved the outdoors and often spent weeks camping in remote areas.
In 1980 Stead was appointed AM. The
Joan Webb, 'Stead, Thistle Yolette (1902–1990)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stead-thistle-yolette-15520/text26732, published first in hardcopy 2012, accessed online 2 October 2023.
This article was published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 18, (Melbourne University Press), 2012
View the front pages for Volume 18
29 July,
1902
Mosman, Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
5 July,
1990
(aged 87)
Summer Hill, Sydney,
New South Wales,
Australia
Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.