Born: 19 July 1863, Australia
Died: 29 April 1916
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Kate Julia Weindorfer
This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Kate Cowle was a botanist, naturalist and conservationist active between c1890 and 1916 in Tasmania and Victoria. She was a keen member of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria between 1902 and 1905, regularly co-leading excursions and identifying botanical specimens for other members. Her particular interest was mosses. She met fellow member and botanist Gustav Weindorfer, and in 1906 they moved to Tasmania and married. There they started their life-long vision of exploring, protecting and promoting the natural, scenic and scientific values of Cradle Mountain. Cowle was the first women to climb the Mountain. Being of independent means Kate Cowle was able to purchase 200 acres of Crown Land at Cradle Mountain in 1911 to ensure that it would not be logged. On this land, Gustav Weindorfer built “Waldheim” as a visitor and tourism centre for adventurers, scientists, naturalists, and geologists, using as his model, the developments they had seen on Mount Buffalo in the Victorian Alps. In conjunction with Ronald Edgar Smith (1881-1969), neighbouring Crown Land was also purchased to protect it – in total more than 1200 acres. Their venture ultimately succeeded although circumstances during WWI (Kate’s terminal illness, Smith’s enlistment and the general distrust of foreigners such as Gustav) hampered their plans. Kate Cowle’s entire estate was bequeathed to her husband, assuring the protection of the Cradle Mountain area.
Chronology
1906
Life event – Married Gustav Weindorfer
1911
Life event – Purchased 200 acres of land at Cradel Mountain, Tasmania