John Tunney (naturalist)

John Thomas Tunney (1870–1929) was a naturalist and collector of animal specimens, active in the west and north of Australia.

He worked for the Post Office as a messenger, in a construction gang, and joined survey parties operating in remote regions of the state.

Tunney's first expeditions were to the Southwest of the state, later traveling to the Northwest, Kimberley region, and across the North to Arnhem Land.

These include new taxa by the ornithologist G. M. Mathews, and the accolades of authors such as Oldfield Thomas when naming Rattus tunneyi.

Tunney was untrained and inexperienced in science or anthropology, beyond his employment and obvious care as a biological collector, and did not continue to contribute to this area of research.