Reginald Claude Sprigg (1 March 1919 – 2 December 1994) was an Australiangeologist andconservationist.^[1][2][3] At 17, sponsored byWalter Howchin,^[3] he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. During 1946, in theEdiacara Hills,South Australia he discovered theEdiacara biota, an assemblage of some of the most ancient animalfossils known. He was involved withoceanographic research and petroleum exploration by various companies that he initiated. In 1968, he acquired a derelict pastoral lease, Arkaroola, and transformed it into a wildlife sanctuary and wilderness reserve.^[4]

Reginald Claude Sprigg was born 1 March 1919 onSouth Australia'sYorke Peninsula, where his family were living in the small town ofStansbury.^[4][5] His parents were Claude Augustus Sprigg and Pearl Alice Irene (née Germein), who married on 17 September 1913 in Stansbury.^{[6][non-primary source needed]} Reg was their third and youngest child, a brother to D'Arcy Kingsley^[7][8] and Constance Vera.^{[9][better source needed]}

His father's family werepastoralists, whilst the Germein family weremariners.^[10] The Sprigg family relocated to the Yorke Peninsula after being "forced off their pastoral lease atOulnina because of drought".^[11] The Germein family wereship chandlers in Mutton Cove,Devonport,Plymouth, England: three brothers came to Australia.^[12] One,Ben Germein is remembered as a hero of theAdmella rescue mission.^{[citation needed]}

Before he was five years old, the family relocated to theAdelaide suburb ofGoodwood, and Reg started collecting shells and fossils from local beaches. This boyhood hobby developed into a serious interest in geology, which brought him into contact with the geoscientists at theUniversity of Adelaide, to whom he took collected samples for identification.^[13]

In addition to pursuing his studies in geology, Reg developed drawing skills, which gained him credit in theSouth Australian School of Arts and Crafts merit lists for 1934^[14] and 1935.^[15]

He matriculated from theAdelaide Technical High School in 1938.^[16]

At the University of Adelaide, he was a pupil ofDouglas Mawson, who said that Sprigg was "his best-ever student". Sprigg completed the requirements for hisBachelor of Science and then graduatedMaster of Science in 1942,^[4][17] receiving the science faculty's highest award, theTate Medal.^[3] His PhD thesis was rejected for being "too messy", lacking originality, and for his refusal to tidy it up.^[18]

In 1940 he enlisted in theRoyal Australian Engineers, and worked withmunitions from 1941 to 1942.^{[citation needed]} He transferred to thesoils division of theCSIRO until 1943, when he joined theSouth Australian Geological Survey, which sent him to reopen theRadium Hilluranium field in 1944, and to map theMount Painter uranium field, new sources being required for theManhattan Project.^{[citation needed]}

Sprigg was sent by theSouth Australian Government in 1946 to inspect abandoned mines in theEdiacara Hills, to ascertain whether old mines could be reworked profitably using new technologies. When he discovered the fossils, apparently while eating his lunch, he realised that they were very ancient, either of EarlyCambrian, or possibly even ofPrecambrian age. He thought that the organisms had probably been jellyfishes.^[19] He submitted a paper to the journalNature, but it was rejected. He travelled to London and presented his findings to the 1948International Geological Congress, but failed to excite either interest or belief.^[20]Subsequent work by ProfMartin Glaessner at the University of Adelaide demonstrated that they were indeed of latestPrecambrian age. Although Precambrian animal fossils had been reported before, they had not been accepted universally as organic. This discovery resulted ultimately in the definition in 2004 of theEdiacaran Period, the first newgeological period created in more than one hundred years.^{[citation needed]}

Of other significance, Sprigg helped establishSantos (an acronym forSouth Australia Northern Territory Oil Search), which discovered gas deposits in theCooper Basin, including theMoomba Gas Field, which supplies natural gas to South Australia,New South Wales andCanberra. In 1954 Sprigg formed the company Geosurveys of Australia, which was a consulting and contracting company for geological and geophysical work. They prospected for uranium in theNorthern Territory andnickel in the north west corner area of South Australia as well as working for Santos.^{[citation needed]}

In 1962 Geosurveys became incorporated intoBeach Petroleum, of which Sprigg was general manager.^[21]

In 1968, Sprigg purchased the pastoral lease ofArkaroola, a property and important uranium exploration field of 610 km² (240 sq mi) in theFlinders Ranges of South Australia, and converted it into a wildlife refuge and tourist attraction. A governing board of Reg Sprigg, his wife Griselda and Dennis Walter, a mineralogist and old friend, oversaw the creation of Arkaroola Village out of existing buildings and the opening to tourists in October 1968.^[22][23]

Sprigg served as the founding chair of theAustralian Energy Producers (AEP), which was originally established as the Australian Petroleum Exploration Association (APEA) and rebranded as the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) in 1996, before adopting its current name in 2023.^[24]

Sprigg acknowledged the potential harm of burningfossil fuels as early as 1969, warning in theAustralian Fisheries journal about changes to the atmosphere's chemical composition.^[24] These views contrast sharply with APEA's later actions, as it worked with theAustralian Institute of Petroleum to emphasise uncertainties in climate science.^[24]

Sprigg attracted the attention of theAustralian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 1950, due to his knowledge of uranium deposits in Australia and throughout the world. In 1943 Sprigg had been secretary of theAustralian Association of Scientific Workers. The association was concerned with the transfer of scientific workers from wartime to peacetime projects once hostilities ceased, and encouraged debate on the social responsibility of science. ASIO suspected the organisation of Communist ties, and as a result Sprigg was surveilled for some ten years.^[22]

In 1942, Sprigg married Patricia Day, who had been born inWiltshire, England and relocated to Adelaide with her parents in 1927. In 1943, she graduated as a BA (Adelaide), scoring first place in Political Science and worked in the History School during 1945 and 1946 reading essays and lecturing. In 1948, Patricia, aged 25, left Adelaide on theP&O shipSS Stratheden, arriving in London on 27 March 1948. In London she worked atMagazine of the Future whilst reading law atLincoln's Inn. Reg and Patricia divorced in 1950 and she moved to Sweden in 1951 to marry Gillis Een.^{[22][25][26][27]}

On 3 February 1951, Sprigg married Griselda A. Findlay Paterson, daughter of Robert Findlay Paterson and Grace (née Dreghorn), born December 1921 inPaisley, Scotland.^{[23][28][29][30][31][32]} Griselda had studied inGlasgow and qualified as aradiographer.^[31]

During 1948, Reg, still with the South Australian Mines Department, was in Britain in association with uranium on behalf of the government; Griselda has said that she met Reg "on ...the island ofArran, .... Well there was I with three nursing sisters I'd held up with, and as I walked out of the restaurant that night, they stopped me and said, 'I bet you can't get a date with the Australian before midnight tonight, for tomorrow. I said 'How much is it worth', they said 'five quid', and I said 'that'll do me'. I got the five quid, got the date, and I always say, I won him in a bet".^[33]

In 1952, a daughter,^[34] Margaret^[28] and in 1954, a son,^[35] Douglas^[28] were born in South Australia.

Griselda and the children often accompanied Reg in his outback travels.^[23][36] In 1962 the entire family completed the first vehicular crossing of theSimpson Desert.^[37] In 2001, Griselda published an account of those travels inDune is a four-letter word.^[38]

Reg Sprigg died on 2 December 1994 whilst on holiday in Glasgow, Scotland.^[4][39] His ashes were scattered at Arkaroola.^[40]

Griselda Sprigg died 20 March 2003.^[41]

Reg Sprigg is the author or coauthor of these books:

• Uranium Deposits in South Australia withDickinson, Samuel Benson, D. King, M. L. Wade, B. P. Webb, A. W. G. Whittle, F. L. Stillwell, and A. B. Edwards, Australia (South) Geol. Survey Bull., 1954.
• Arkaroola – Mt Painter in the Flinders Ranges with Griselda Sprigg, 1976.
• Arkaroola – Mt Painter in the Flinders Ranges: The Last Billion Years, 1984 and 1988.ISBN 0-959-0966-0-4.
• Geology is Fun (Recollections) or The anatomy and confessions of a geological addict , 1989ISBN 0-959-0966-1-2.
• A Geologist Strikes Out, Recollections by Reg Sprigg, December 1993,ISBN 0-646-16410-4.

• In 1980, he was awarded anhonorary doctorate of science by theAustralian National University.^[42]
• In 1982, he was the inaugural Lewis G. Weeks Medallist, awarded by the thenAustralian Petroleum Exploration Association.^[4]
• In 1983, he was made anOfficer of the Order of Australia.^[43]
• In 1986, he was the recipient of theRoyal Society of South Australia'sVerco Medal; at age 17, he had been the youngest fellow of the society.^[4]
• In 1990,Flinders University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.^[44]

• In 1958, the genusSpriggina was named in his honour.^[45]
• In 1995Australian Energy Producers renamed its gold medal (established in 1989 as the APEA Gold Medal) for "highly valued contributions within or for the Australian oil and gas industry or through sustained, notable leadership within APPEA" as the Reg Sprigg Gold Medal in his honour.^[46][24]
• In 1998, theGeological Society of Australia, South Australia Branch initiated the biennial Sprigg Symposium "in recognition of the contributions Dr Reginald Sprigg made towards many aspects of geology in South Australia".^{[2][47][48][49]}
• In 2001, the University of Adelaide announced that it had established the Reg Sprigg Chair in Petroleum Engineering in the (now)Australian School of Petroleum and Energy Resources.^[50]
• In 2004, the mineralSpriggite, a uranyl hydroxide mineral, was named in his honour.^[51][52]
• TheSpriggina floundersi sculpture at the University of Adelaide, bySilvio Apponyi, was created in honour of Sprigg.^[53]
• The annual Sprigg Lecture Series is held by theSouth Australian Museum to commemorate his discovery of the Ediacara fauna.^[54]
• The main-belt asteroid5380 Sprigg, discovered byRobert McNaught at theSiding Spring Observatory in 1991, was named in his honour.^[55]
• Sprigg Canyon, a submarine canyon on the Australian continental margin south ofKangaroo Island, one of theMurray group of canyons discovered by Sprigg in 1947.^[56][57][58]
• Sprigg Orogeny -neotectonic (contemporary) episode ofmountain building along the axes of theFlinders andMount Lofty Ranges in South Australia.^[59]

• List of fossil sites(with link directory)

• Reg C. Sprigg – Biographical Notes
• Sprigg, R.C. 1947:Early Cambrian (?) Jellyfishes from the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 71: 212–224.

• 1919 births
• 1994 deaths
• 20th-century Australian geologists
• People from South Australia
• Officers of the Order of Australia
• Flinders University alumni
• Australian paleontologists

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