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The mission of the Society is to contribute to the greater understanding of the Australasian mammalian fauna.

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The Australian Mammal Society (AMS) is an interdisciplinary society of biologists whose common interest is in the biology and conservation of Australian mammals.
Research by members of the Society spans a wide variety of biological disciplines including behavioural and community ecology, population genetics, management and conservation.

On the origins of the AMS
Given at the 45th Meeting of the Society, University of Western Sydney, 9 July 1999

The early history of the Society can be given as a reproductive allegory:

1958. Gamete formation. The idea was Gordon Lyne’s but it is not clear whether the gametes were his. Gordon was a Tasmanian who, after war service did a PhD at Cambridge and then took up a position with the Division of Animal Production, CSIRO, where he remained for his whole career. His interests were in the development of integument and hair and he used bandicoots as a model species for this research. With David Hollis he also published excellent papers on the reproduction and development of bandicoots. Gordon’s seminal role was recognised when the Society struck the Lyne Award.

23-24 August 1958. Conception. Immediately prior to the ANZAAS gathering in Adelaide in 1958 a party comprising Gordon, Geoff Sharman, John Calaby, Shelly Barker and ace wombat catcher Alex Kowanko from the South Australian Museum, took a trip to Blanchetown to collect hearts from hairy nosed wombats for an English researcher. As John Calaby wrote in Possums and Gliders in 1984, nothing came of the heart research and Alex made the bodies into salami. But the idea for a Society was given form then.

c.28 August 1958. Blastocyst formation. The following week a meeting was called during ANZAAS, chaired by Francis Ratcliffe and attended by the originals and four other mammalogists - Graham Chittleborough, Bill Dawbin, Tim Ealey, and John McNally. The meeting resolved to form the Australian Mammal Society and Shelly Barker became Secretary. He circulated the proposal to 26 practicing mammalogists in Australia. Twenty-four became the Foundation Members - and blastocyst formation was completed.

13-May-2008