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Was born at Irvine, in
Ayrshire, Scotland, on 16 September 1845. He was educated at the Irvine
academy and Edinburgh university and, after some 10 years' experience with
the geological survey of Scotland, was appointed geologist for northern
Queensland in March 1876. He arrived in the colony in April 1877, and soon
afterwards was made geologist for the whole colony. An early piece of work
was an examination of the coal resources of the Cooktown district, and in
August 1879 he began an exploring expedition to the most northerly part of
Queensland in the hope that payable goldfields might be found. A second
expedition was made towards the end of the year, and though no field of
any great value was discovered, much was added to the knowledge of the
country. The party endured many hardships and Jack himself was speared
through the shoulder by hostile aborigines. In 1880 he published a work on
the Mineral Wealth of Queensland, a Handbook to Queensland
Geology appeared in 1886, and in 1892 with Robert Etheridge Jr (q.v.),
The Geology and Palaeontology of Queensland and New Guinea was
published in two volumes. He resigned his appointment in 1899.
In January 1900 Jack led an
expedition to China starting from near Shanghai up the Yangtse Kiang
River. In June, while at Chengtu, word was received of the Boxer
rebellion, and the explorers, eventually found a way out through Burma.
The Back Blocks of China, published in 1904, gives an account of the
experiences of the party. In 1901 Jack returned to England and took up
private practice, but in 1904 came to Australia again and did work for the
government of Western Australia. From 1907 he resided at Sydney where he
died on 6 November 1921. He was survived by a son, Robert Lockhart Jack,
also well-known in Australia as a geologist. A large number of Jack's
reports are listed on page IX, vol. I, The Geology and Palaeontology of
Queensland and New Guinea. At the time of his death he had recently
completed his Northmost Australia, an interesting account of
exploration in northern Queensland, especially valuable for its accounts
of the less known men, which was published in London in 1921. He was
elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1870, he received the
honorary degree of LL.D. from Glasgow university, and in conjunction with
Etheridge was awarded the Clarke memorial medal by the Royal Society of
New South Wales in 1895. |
