Mentors
Bob Edwards’ curiosity was shaped early by the people, places and experiences that surrounded him.
From the warmth and wonder of his grandmother Lilly’s world, to time spent in his grandfather Frank’s workshop, the vineyards of Marion, and the learned circles of South Australia’s historians, scientists and anthropologists, his formative years opened pathways into nature, history, craft and Aboriginal Australia.
These early influences helped cultivate the enthusiasm, patience and deep sense of inquiry that would guide much of his later life and work.
A Grandmother’s Gift of Wonder
"My first love was my grandmother on my mother's side (Lilly Cordon). She was one of 13 children; an unaffected country girl with a love of nature and beauty. She assisted on the family farm until marrying an architect and moving to the city.
To me she was a delight; to stay with her was a treat. She was always fun taking me to museums, galleries and on excursions with the Field Naturalists Society.
Her garden was always exotic and colourful. She had a number of talking parrots and was an avid shell collector. Being brought up in her world was an inspiration for later life."
From: the biographical notes of Robert Edwards
"...Dad spent many happy hours with Frank, Lilly's husband, a skilled cabinet maker, carpenter and builder in his workshop, as apprentice watching and helping his grandfather as he carefully, patiently and skilfully went about his work...echos of Dad's approach to many things in later life..."
From: Eulogy, David Edwards, St Mary's Church March 2017
"Edwards' interest in Aboriginal Australia had been kindled at an early age. As a child, he often joined his grandmother, a field naturalist, shell collector and ecologist, on long field trips into the bush around Adelaide, and in the summers he played with Aboriginal people at Goolwa near the mouth of the Murray River, learning how to throw a boomerang."
From: Griffiths, B. Deeptime Dreaming. Black Inc, 2018
A Young Enthusiast Among Scholars
"In my teen years I worked on the family orchard and vineyards at Marion in South Australia. A neighbour and family friend, Gordon Ragless, noticed my interest in history and encouraged me to accompany him to regular meetings of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of South Australia. This brought me into contact with a whole generation of well-respected historians, anthropologists, geologists (including Sir Douglas Mawson), geographers and learned scholars in many professions.
Prominent among the local historians who befriended me was Keith Travers Borrow. A young non-practicing lawyer with an insatiable interest in the history of South Australia.
...Keith Borrow's great grandfather, Boyle Travers Finniss, was an assistant surveyor to Colonel William Light and had played a key role in laying out the city of Adelaide. He later became the first Premier of South Australia.
...Keith Borrow and I became joint secretaries of the Historical Section of the Royal Geographical Society in 1956 and arranged a program of monthly meetings over a number of years. We were also active members of the Pioneers' Association, the John McDouall Stuart Society and the Charles Sturt Memorial Museum Trust."
From: Hordern House, The Robert Edwards Collection. 2011
"At the age of thirteen he began to attend the Royal Society of South Australia, rubbing shoulders with anthropological luminaries such as Norman Tindale, Charles Mountford, Ted Strehlow, Harold Cooper, TD Campbell, Douglas Mawson and Andrew Abbey.
He accompanied them on surface collection expeditions into the Flinders Ranges and Central Australia, learning about the manufacture of stone tools and their various 'uses and distribution'. Campbell fondly described him as 'one of our local super enthusiasts'.
It was not until Edwards worked at Fromm's Landing with John Mulvaney in 1963 that he gained his first formal experience of archaeology."
From: Griffiths, B. Deeptime Dreaming. Black Inc, 2018