CHEWINGS, Charles (1859-1937)

geologist and anthropologist

third son of John Chewings, was born at Woorkongoree near Mt Bryan, South Australia, on 16 April 1859. He was educated at Prince Alfred College, Adelaide, University College, London, and Heidelberg university. After engaging in sheep farming, Chewings in 1881 travelled to the Finke River in central Australia with two camels, and found them so useful that he imported more of them and started a carrying business. In 1886 he gave some account of his explorations in his The Sources of the Finke River. He went to Europe in 1898, studied geology at London and Heidelberg, and obtained the degree of Ph.D. After his return to Australia he was in Western Australia for some years reporting on mines, and going back to South Australia, began camel carrying again. He was much interested in the aborigines and made a careful study of them. After the war of 1914-18 he retired to Adelaide and contributed several scientific papers relating to central Australia to the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia. He worked for some time on a dictionary of the Arunta language, and towards the end of 1936 published a good popular book on the aborigines, Back in the Stone Age. He died on 9 June 1937. He married in 1887, Miss F. M. Braddock, and there were two sons and two daughters of the marriage. Chewings was a fellow of the Geological Society of London and of the Berlin Geological Society.

Who's Who in Australia, 1933; The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 94, p. 117; Transactions and Proceedings, Royal Society of South Australia, vol. LXI. p. 11.