Robert Logan Jack

Robert Logan Jack (16 September 1845 – 6 November 1921) was Queensland government geologist for twenty years. There is a minor waterway on Cape York; Logan Jack Creek, whose outflow is located some 7 kilometres from Ussher Point, which is named after him.

Jack was born at Irvine, in Ayrshire, Scotland the son of Robert Jack, a cabinet-maker, and his wife Margaret, née Logan. He was educated at the Irvine academy and Edinburgh university and had some 10 years' experience with the geological survey of Scotland.

Jack was appointed geologist for northern Queensland in March 1876. He arrived in the colony in April 1877, and soon afterwards was made geologist for the whole colony, succeeding Richard Daintree. An early piece of work was an examination of the coal resources of the Cooktown district, and in August 1879 he began an exploring expedition to the most northerly part of Queensland in the hope that payable goldfields might be found. A second expedition was made towards the end of the year, and though no field of any great value was discovered, much was added to the knowledge of the country. The party endured many hardships and Jack himself was speared through the shoulder by hostile aborigines. In 1880 he published a work on the Mineral Wealth of Queensland, a Handbook to Queensland Geology appeared in 1886, and in 1892 with Robert Etheridge, Junior, The Geology and Palaeontology of Queensland and New Guinea was published in two volumes. In 1888 Andrew Gibb Maitland was assigned Second Assistant Geologist and reported to Jack.

Jack resigned his appointment in 1899, during his time there he mapped the coal sites in Bowen, Flinders River and Townsville. He reported on many gold, tin, silver and sapphire areas, and his early work led to the search for artesian water and the construction of the first government bore in the Great Artesian Basin. He was also a prolific author on the geology, mineralogy and paleontology of Queensland.

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