William John Macleay
Sir William John Macleay MLC (13 June 1820 – 7 December 1891)[1] was a Scottish-Australian politician, naturalist, zoologist, and herpetologist.[3] On 1 March 1855 Macleay was elected to the old Legislative Council as member for the Lachlan and Lower Darling Pastoral District.Also in 1874 the Linnean Society of New South Wales was founded, of which Macleay was elected the first president, and in May 1875, having fitted up the barque Chevert, he sailed for New Guinea, where he obtained what he described as "a vast and valuable collection" of zoological specimens.Macleay had hoped to make a descriptive catalogue of the Dipterous insects of Australia, but his health began to fail and it was not completed.Macleay realised that a lot could be done to prevent diseases like typhoid fever and strongly urged the appointment of a government bacteriologist.