Agent TypePersonPlace of BirthBrighton, MelbournePlace of DeathEltham, MelbourneActivities & OccupationsAcademics - AnthropologyGenderMaleHistoryDonald Thomson graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne (1925) majoring in botany and zoology. He worked as a journalist at the Herald newspaper.
Thomson continued his studied under Alfred Radcliffe-Brown at the University of Sydney, graduated with a Diploma in Anthropology (1928). Awarded an Australian National Research Council grant of £600 Thomson conducted both zoological and anthropological field work in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Thomson returned for a second expedition to Cape York (1929), this time self-funded through his journalism.
In 1930 Thomson joined the University of Melbourne as a Biologist at the Water and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (1930-1931) investigating Australian snakes and their venom for anti-venene.
Then successively appointed as a Research Fellow (Bartlett Research Scholar) attached to the Department of Anatomy (1932-1937; 1945-1953); Senior Research Fellow (1953-1964) and finally Professor in the Department of Anthropology (1964-1968) until his retirement.
As a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne under the supervision Frederick Wood Jones, Thomson returned to Cape York Peninsula, Queensland on his third expedition (1932-1933).
While in the employ of University of Melbourne he was seconded by the Commonwealth Government to go to Arnhem Land following the murder of trepanners in Arnhem Land, and commissioned to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict with the Yolngu peoples. In 1935 Thomson went on the first of three expeditions to Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. He took extensive film and photographic documentation of his trip. In 1936-1937 Thomson’s returned to Arnhem Land, Northern Territory - under the same terms of the first expedition.
Thomson serves in the RAAF during the Second World War doing field work in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (1941-1943) as well as severing the war effort in New Guinea, Papua and British Solomon Islands, including Rennell Island (Polynesian) and Netherlands New Guinea.
In 1957 and again in 1963 Thomson organised and led expeditions to the country of the Pintupi people in the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia.
Given NameDonaldMiddle NameFergussonFamily NameThomson
Thomson, Donald F. (26 June 1901-12 May 1970). University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 12/02/2026, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/61607
![[1988.0103] Papers of Donald Fergusson Thomson](/img/placeholder.gif?1768172494 "[1988.0103] Papers of Donald Fergusson Thomson")