Figure 1 The Author

The Author was born in Chile in 1928, of an Irish father and an English mother. He graduated with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science from National University of Ireland, Dublin, in 1952. From 1950 he became an amateur beekeeper and from 1952 to 1955, he was a Milk Costings Officer for the Irish Department of Agriculture. He then became Lecturer in Chemistry and other agricultural subjects at Warrenstown Agricultural College, Co. Meath, Ireland.

He was then an Abstractor for Herbage and Field Crop Abstracts for the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau (CAB) at Maidenhead, England from 1955-1956. In 1956 he was appointed Plant Breeder for NSW and permanently moved to Australia. In Australia, the Author was an oat and linseed breeder from 1956 to 1964, stationed at Glen Innes with NSW Agriculture. Using both established and original techniques, the Author bred Australia’s most frost resistant and productive winter grazing cereal variety, Blackbutt oats. The Author developed the Isolection system of plant breeding, a technique for producing High-vigour oat varieties. Using this system, he made a High-vigour cross in 1957, from which he bred and selected P4315, as well as Blackbutt oats, as well as numerous other oat verities. Blackbutt and P4315 both broke world records for yield in 1973. From 1972 until 1985, he engaged in farming near Temora, NSW, giving his 7 children experience of a farming lifestyle.

He produced wheat and forage crops and managed sheep, cattle, and high quality pigs for bacon. He then retired to the Sydney region of NSW to return to study and writing. The subjects he studied included plant breeding, genetic engineering, languages, philosophy, physical anthropology, prehistory, Celtic and religious studies, theology, and history. Patrick currently lives in Lithgow, NSW.