Ted Henzell

Memoirs of an Agricultural Scientist Ted Henzell

Ted Henzell spent his entire career in agricultural research. This book recounts how he went from being home schooled by his mother on a farm in western Queensland to Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship. After completing his PhD, he joined CSIRO and over the next 37 years, he began by doing practical research to help graziers and farmers in tropical and subtropical Australia, worked his way up to be the chief of his division and then a director based in Canberra. The latter post was at a time when the organisation was facing some of its greatest challenges with waning political support. After retiring from CSIRO in 1992, he accepted a series of appointments as the chairman of the Sugar Research and Development Corporation, a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Consultative Committee on International Agricultural Research, and and board chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Plant Pathology. In 2007 he published "Australian agriculture: its history and challenges", dispelling some enduring myths about agriculture's role in Australia's development.