George Francis Bornemissza (born György Ferenc Bornemissza; 11 February 1924 – 10 April 2014) was a Hungarian-born entomologist and ecologist. He studied science at the University of Budapest before obtaining his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria in 1950. At the end of that year, he emigrated to Australia. There he first worked in the Department of Zoology at the University of Western Australia for 3 years, before pursuing a career with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Bornemissza was known for his work on the Australian Dung Beetle Project (1965–1985) while working at CSIRO's Division of Entomology. He wrote scientific papers and books based on his research and contributed a collection of mounted beetle specimens to the Australian National Insect Collection and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. In 2001 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to Australian entomology.
Early life and education Bornemissza was born in Baja, Hungary, to Katalin Bornemissza and Ferenc Bornemissza, an engineer. He began collecting and studying beetles in the forests around his hometown during his mid-teens and also volunteered in museums and scientific institutions in Budapest.
Career and research
Early career After receiving his doctorate from the University of Innsbruck in Austria, Bornemissza fled central Europe to escape the post-World War II Soviet regimes and traveled to Western Australia, where he arrived on 31 December 1950. Six months after arriving on Australian shores, while working with the Department of Zoology at the University of Western Australia, he remarked upon a large number of old, dry cow dung pads that covered cattle grazing fields near Wooroloo, Western Australia and compared this to the relatively dung-free cattle fields of his native Hungary. In Hungary and elsewhere in the world, dung beetles have adapted to be able to roll and bury large, moist cattle dung pads but native Australian beetles, which co-evolved alongside the marsupials, were not able to utilize bovine dung since cattle were only relatively recently introduced to Australia in the 1880s. Bornemissza hypothesized that the introduction of foreign dung beetle species that were able to roll and bury cattle dung pads would aid not only Australia's soil fertility by recycling the dung nutrients back into the ground, but would also reduce the number of pestilent flies and parasitic worms which use the dung pads as a breeding ground. Bornemissza joined CSIRO in 1955 and continued to advocate for the introduction of bovine dung beetles to Australia whilst working on several other projects and studies. The Australian Dung Beetle Project subsequently secured funding from the Australian Meat Research Committee and commenced in 1965. Beyond his work in entomology, during the 1950s and 1960s, Dr. Bornemissza was also a keen amateur filmmaker. In 1962 he won the Kodak Trophy for the 8mm Best Australian Entry at the Australian Amateur Cine Society 23rd International Gold Cup Competition for his entry "The Burning Bush", a documentary on the effect of bushfires on Australian ecosystems that made extensive use of time lapse photography.
The Australian Dung Beetle Project 1965–1985 From 1965, Bornemissza traveled extensively in search of suitable dung beetles to introduce to Australia. The first dung beetles to be introduced to Australia came from Hawaii, where beetles had already been introduced from Africa to biologically control populations of the pestilent horn fly. Samples of the species Onthophagus gazella were transported to Australia where they were bred in sterile conditions before being released in Queensland in 1968. After the introduction, they became established across a large area of tropical Australia. It was realized that due to periods of seasonal inactivity by O. Gazella, further beetle species were needed to fill in the gaps in climatic and habitat preference and the peak time of beetle activity. To this end, Bornemissza traveled to Pretoria in 1970 where he helped establish a South African branch of the Australian Dung Beetle Research Unit. For nine years, he carried out research to find species of dung beetle that would not only be able to remove the bovine dung pads in Australia, but would thrive in the varying climates found all over the continent. It was also important that the chosen beetles, and the tiny parasites that the beetles carry, would not themselves become pests and so, strict quarantining procedures were devised and developed. In total, 43 species of beetle from Africa and Europe were introduced to Australia by CSIRO between 1968 and 1984.
Project Outcomes and Impact The funding for the Australian Dung Beetle Project was withdrawn in 1985 after the restructuring of the Australian Meat Research Committee, but Bornemissza believed that the full potential of the project had yet to be realized. He said, "The introduction of exotic dung beetles and their subsequent establishment in Australia is now history and a very successful one at that. However, it fell short in filling all the climatic areas with their vast variety of habitats". This last statement was made in a report by Penny Edwards in 2007, which summarised investigations made by Landcare Australia to evaluate the distribution and abundance of introduced species of dung beetle across Australia. The investigation found that 23 of the 43 species of dung beetle introduced by Bornemissza and his team were still established and thriving all over Australia, and it recommended that further research be carried out to fill the empty ecological niches with new species of introduced dung beetle. The work Bornemissza and his team undertook with the Australian Dung Beetle Project is credited with being the reason why Australians today can enjoy a terrace café culture. The success of the project in reducing the number of bush flies by 90% has meant that outside dining is no longer illegal, as it once was in the 1950s. The "Australian Salute", a flick of the hand recognized by older generations of Australians as the only solution to rid oneself of flies at that time, became a dwindling gesture. T he Australian Dung Beetle Project is also said to have affected soil, water, and pasture health that is "undoubtedly worth many millions of dollars a year".
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