Walter Wilson Froggatt

As a child Froggatt, who was delicate, was encouraged by his mother to find interests in the open air and at an early age began collecting insects.

In 1880 he went to a goldfield near Milparinka, New South Wales, and then worked his way northward and through Queensland to Mackay, Herberton, Cairns and other parts of the colony.

In 1883 Froggatt returned to Bendigo, worked with his father on a lease near Mount Hope, and around this time contacted Charles French Senior and Baron von Mueller.

It was partly through Mueller's good offices that Froggatt was appointed entomologist and assistant zoologist to the expedition sent to New Guinea in 1885 by the Geographical Society of Australasia.

Also in 1909 he went to the Solomon Islands to report on pests attacking coconut palms and sugar-cane, and in 1913 went on a similar mission to the New Hebrides.

During the war he spent much time on the control of weevils in stored wheat, and in 1922 investigated pests attacking banana-trees in Queensland.

During his final years, Froggatt was the only solid public opponent of the ultimately disastrous introduction of the poisonous cane toad into Queensland to control beetle pests in sugar cane – a view which cost him many supporters in the CSIR, among fellow economic entomologists (e.g. the HSPA's Cyril Pemberton) and even in the newspapers of the day.

He gave enthusiastic support to the various scientific societies with which he was connected, and was much interested in the planting of Australian trees and in gardening generally.