The Russell Grimwade Prize encourages the advancement of forest science in Australia and will be awarded to an Australian citizen or resident looking to undertake postgraduate studies in this area. The total prize value is $40,000 and can be used to meet all or part of the costs for postgraduate studies at an appropriate tertiary education institution in Australia or overseas.
The successful recipient will have a degree or diploma from an Australian forestry tertiary institution and have been employed for at least two years in a forestry or forest management related field.
Application for the Russell Grimwade Prizes are now closed.
The Russell Grimwade Prize (RGP) is supported from a trust fund created by Sir Wilfred Russell Grimwade in 1929 through a donation to the then Commonwealth Forestry and Timber Bureau. The trust fund was supplemented by Sir Wilfred in 1954.
Sir Wilfred was born 15 October 1879 and died 2 November 1955. He was made a CBE in 1935 and awarded a knighthood in 1950. Educated at the University of Melbourne (BSc) he went into the family firm of Felton, Grimwade & Co., becoming a partner in 1907. The firm amalgamated with Duerdins and Sainsbury in 1929 to become Felton Grimwade and Duerdins Pty Ltd (later known as Drug Houses of Australia (Victoria) Pty Ltd) and he became a Director.
He was a keen botanist, especially of the eucalypts and was official botanical adviser to the Army Department during World War II. When drugs were in short supply during the war, he grew and processed a number of important plant sources at his country home "Westerfield" in Victoria; he also developed a process for extracting fixed oil from apricot kernels to replace olive oil and manufactured hyoscine.
As a generous philanthropist, he gave $100,000 to the Biochemistry School, University of Melbourne, $30,000 to the Commonwealth Forestry and Timber Bureau (the original funding for the Russell Grimwade Prize), $20,000 to equip the Forest Products Laboratory in Victoria, and gave Captain Cook's cottage in Fitzroy Gardens to the people of the City of Melbourne. He was President, Society of Chemical Industry of Victoria 1909 and 1910, Chairman, Australian Chemical Institute 1946-47, Chairman, Trustees of the National Museum of Victoria and President, Australian Forest League.
In the past the RGP has been awarded for the primary purpose of defraying the cost for an eligible person to undertake a postgraduate degree (Master of Forestry) at the University of Oxford. Due to changes in forestry education at Oxford the requirement to study at Oxford has ceased to provide the most suitable and effective method of utilising the RGP.
In September 2004 the property of the trust was transferred to FWPRDC and subsequently moved to FWPA to be held in trust and applied for the purposes of the Russell Grimwade Prize. The expansion of postgraduate study in Australia has led to modification of the prize which maintains the intent of the RGP to advance forest science in Australia but allow for the Prize to be granted to meet all or part of the costs for postgraduate study in forest science at any appropriate tertiary education institution in Australia or overseas (including Oxford). In addition, the eligibility criteria and conditions for the RGP have been broadened and made more flexible.