The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Woods, Rev. Julian E. Tenison
Woods, Rev. Julian E. Tenison, F.G.S., F.L.S., son of J. D. Woods, Q.C., F.S.A., of the Inner Temple, for many years one of the sub-editors of the London Times, was born in 1832 near London. He was educated at Newington Grammar School and under the tutorship of the late Canon Oakley at Balliol College, Oxford, where, however, he did not graduate through becoming a convert to the Roman Catholic Church in his student days. After passing through a course of theology in the south of France, he was ordained a priest in 1856, and went to Australia as a travelling missionary in the following year. Here he laboured in the little-known country on the borders of South Australia and Victoria, and ultimately became Vicar-General of the diocese of Adelaide, where he established a Catholic school and organised a teaching Order of Sisters of St. Joseph, which has spread over the other colonies. He early took a deep interest in the study of geology, and became proficient in all branches of natural history. He was the author of "Geological Observations in South Australia," "History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia," "Geology of Portland," "Not quite so old as the Hills," "North Australia and its Physical Geography," "A Geography for Catholic Schools," "A Grammar for Catholic Schools," "Australian Essays," and "Australian Bibliography." Mr. Woods, who latterly resided in Sydney, was for some time the editor of two Roman Catholic publications, the Southern Cross and the Chaplet. His contributions to the pages of scientific journals and the proceedings of learned societies were very numerous and valuable. He furnished geological plans and sections to the Government engineers of South Australia for the railway to Victoria, when first projected. He was President of the Linnæan Society of New South Wales, and died on Oct. 7th, 1889.