Margaret McArthur

She is remembered for conducting ground-breaking research from the late 1940s into the indigenous peoples of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific region.

Born in Ararat in south-west Victoria on 6 December 1919, Annie Margaret McArthur studied biochemistry and bacteriology at the University of Melbourne leading to a B.Sc.

Following training at the Australian Institute of Anatomy, in 1947 she joined the Nutrition Expedition to New Guinea conducted by the Commonwealth Department of Health.

[3] In 1948, she served as a nutritionist in the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land to study the ecology of indigenous nomads in the far north-east of Australia's Northern Territory.

[3][4] In connection with her Ph.D., MacArthur undertook field research on the Kunimaipa people of Papua, communicating with them in their own language as she studied their nutritional habits.