The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Jack, Robert Logan
Jack, Robert Logan, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Government Geologist, Queensland, is the son of Robert Jack and Margaret (Logan) his wife. He was born on Sept. 16th, 1845, at Irvine, Argyllshire, Scotland, and was educated at the Academy there and at Edinburgh University. He was employed on the Geological Survey of Scotland from 1867 to 1871, was married at Glasgow on April 10th, 1877, to Miss Janet Simpson, and arrived in Australia in July of that year, where he was employed by the Queensland Government as Geological Surveyor. In 1880 Mr. Jack explored some portion of the Cape York peninsula, principally with the view of ascertaining whether the country was auriferous. The party suffered greatly from the heavy rainfall, and the natives were also hostile, Mr. Jack being speared through the neck in the same locality where Kennedy lost his life in 1848. On this expedition Mr. Jack mapped in the river system up the peninsula, which had previously been traversed (on the west coast) only by the brothers Jardine in 1864. Mr. Jack is the author of numerous reports on the geology of Scotland and Queensland, of "The Handbook of Queensland Geology" (1886), "Mineral Wealth of Queensland" (1888), and conjointly with Mr. Robert Etheridge, Palaeontologist to the Australian Museum and Geological Survey of New South Wales, of "Geology and Palaeontology of Queensland and New Guinea" (1882). Mr. Jack was President of the Geology Section of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science at the meeting held in Sydney in 1888. His elder brother, William Jack, LL.D., is Professor of Mathematics in Glasgow University.