The Fish Department - Research

Allan Riverstone McCulloch

Photo © Australian Museum

1885 - 1925
Volunteer: 1898-1901
Mechanical Assistant: 1901-1906
Curator of Fishes: 1906-1925

McCulloch produced over 100 publications, including the reports of fishes collected by the F.I.S. Endeavour off New South Wales, and his checklist of Fishes and Fish-like animals of New South Wales.

He was an excellent artist and used his own illustrations in his papers. He was also an excellent speaker, photographer, musician, hard-hat diver and wireless radio operator.

McCulloch participated in many fieldtrips around Sydney and also to Queensland, Lord Howe Island and Papua New Guinea.

The famous American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan considered him, "unquestionably the greatest authority on fish in the southern hemisphere."

At the end of his employment, the collection contained 40,000 specimens. View his handwriting in the I2 register.