Description

Extended Data

DAAO URL

https://www.daao.org.au/bio/emily-harriet-pelloe

Birth Place

Victoria, Australia, Victoria (?)

Biography

wildflower painter, author, naturalist, journalist and equestrienne, was the daughter of Mr and Mrs J.S. Sundercombe of Victoria. The family moved to Western Australia in about 1893. Emily married Theodore Pelloe in 1901; they returned to Victoria when he was transferred to Mildura as a bank inspector. Emily was passionately fond of horse riding and competed successfully at several state Royal Shows. She and a woman friend were renowned for riding 1,000 miles to Sydney and back in 1916. After returning to WA in 1917 she combined her love of riding in the bush with the study of wildflowers, painting and sketching while her horse grazed nearby. She was a self-trained but very competent botanist, assisting the young Charles Gardner in studies that later equipped him for the post of State Government Botanist. She published two books on WA wildflowers in 1921 and 1930. In 1923 Emily Pelloe inaugurated the 'Women’s Interest’ page in the West Australian . She was a fluent writer and often contributed illustrated articles on wildflowers under the pen name 'Ixia’. Inevitably, she was the first woman to join the Naturalists’ Club when it was founded in 1924. When the government centenary Story of a Hundred Years was published in 1929 Emily Pelloe contributed a chapter on the flora of the state illustrated with six colour plates and a number of black-and-white sketches. Subsequently she was commissioned to paint illustrations for brochures issued by the Government Tourist Bureau. The originals were hung in the Premier’s office. Negotiations for their purchase and for exclusive rights of reproduction, however, were not concluded until 1938. Emily Pelloe died of a heart attack in 1941 while riding in the bush. Her husband gave more than 400 of her paintings and sketches to the University of WA to be held in trust for a future Women’s College. When St Catherine’s College was built, the collection was classified botanically, bound in four volumes and placed in the care of the university’s curator of pictures. Although her greatest claim to fame must be her publications, she is still remembered for her achievements in the show ring. One equestrian event, 'The Emily Pelloe Turnout’, has been conducted annually since 1948. In 1921 Emily Pelloe was invited to join a party at Kendenup that planned to climb Mondurup, one of the highest peaks in the Stirling Range renowned for its unique flora. Kendenup was being promoted for close settlement by an enterprising Mildura businessman, C.J. De Garis. Another of his enterprises was the De Garis Publishing House, which produced Emily Pelloe’s first book that same year, Wildflowers of Western Australia . It includes six colour plates featuring fifty-seven species as well as numerous black and white sketches. The sixteen species in this plate are grouped in a style popular at the time. Emily Pelloe had a sure touch for colour and arrangement but occasionally her line falters, possibly because her material was wilting. The grace and poise of the flower is often more accurately depicted in the black-and-white illustrations, which appear to have been sketched in situ. Four chapters in her book are devoted to the four seasons of the year, describing many of the plants in flower and giving their localities. They are followed by a chapter dealing with the leading plant families and genera of Australia. A valuable addition is the appendix, which gives biographical notes on seventy-four early botanists and collectors. The book, the first work 'published in the English language dealing exclusively with the extensive and diversified flora of Western Australia’, was an inspiration for many naturalists, including the writer. It established Emily Pelloe’s reputation as an authority on the subject and it became the mainspring for a burgeoning interest in a serious study of a flora hitherto too difficult for amateurs to engage upon. Her second book, West Australian Orchids , was published privately in 1930, illustrated with three colour plates and several sketches. Embarrassed by a storage problem, she donated a copy to every school in the state, thereby encouraging a very wide percentage of the population to study local wildflowers. Writers: Erickson, Rica Date written: 1995 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1877

Summary

Emily Harriet Pelloe was a wildflower painter, author, naturalist, journalist and equestrienne. Well known for her riding expeditions, she became an expert botanist contributing to the wide study of wildflowers in WA.

Gender

Female

Died

1941

Age at death

64