Zoologist, conservationist, whaling and sealing aficionado

For a scientist, Bob was remarkably artistic. He illustrated his research data with exceptionally fine line drawings. He produced several skilful carvings in wood and even sperm whale teeth, taking his inspiration from the scrimshaw he collected among other whaling and sealing antique paraphernalia. At birthdays, we loved his cake decorating skills – he could render anything we requested, from football hero to fire-breathing dragon, out of a slab of chocolate cake and icing. Bob was justifiably proud when his distinctive, hand-drawn graphic treatment of a platypus was adopted as the logo of the Fisheries and Wildlife Department of Victoria in 1960. This iconic and much-loved outcome of his design skills enjoyed a 25-year life in the public domain, eventually retired in 1985 upon the formation of the then Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands.

Recreation-wise, Bob was a keen baseballer. In his prime, he played for the Melbourne University Blues and later for a team he referred to fondly as “The Caulfield Has-beens”. The definitive memory here is of Bob, sometime in the late ’70s, pitching a silver-haired team to an unlikely grand final triumph over a much younger, trimmer St Kilda side, which was so confident of victory that its players came to the game with their car boots filled with champagne on ice. To the Saints’ great credit, they were sporting enough to donate the bubbly to the Has-beens’ post-game celebration.

It would be remiss not to mention Bob’s deep, lifelong love of antiquarian books. With characteristic discernment, he collected a treasured private library mostly on the themes of Australian natural and maritime history. His knowledge, particularly of early whaling and sealing in our region, was impressively vast and detailed. His own editorial work included Voyage to the South Seas by Robert Jarman, Edition Renard 2009.

Born in Toorak in 1936, Bob was the youngest of Isobel and Fred’s five children. He attended Carey Grammar and University High schools. He graduated a bachelor in agriculture science from the University of Melbourne’s Dookie campus and was later awarded a science master’s (zoology) by the same institution for his research at Fisheries and Wildlife.

Bob met Jill Thistlewaite, the sister of his lifelong friend Barrie Thistlewaite, and they married in 1964. In 1966 and 1967, they travelled around the US, when Lynn was a toddler and Mark a newborn, while Bob was on a 12-month Harkness Fellowship to study small terrestrial mammals and seals. After returning to Melbourne, they established the family home and a beautiful Australian native garden in Mitcham, where they lived until their separation in 1983.

In 1993, Bob moved to north-west Tasmania with his second wife, Anne Troy, settling at their beloved Blackwood Lodge in Yolla. They spent 30 happy years establishing a superb garden, impeccably restoring their 19th-century farmhouse and rewilding part of their small acreage “Frog Hollow” while tending to livestock on the remainder. They were attended through the years by several faithful Doberman companions.

Bob is survived by Anne, his three children and seven grandchildren.

Mark Warneke and Lynn Warneke are Bob Warneke’s children.