{{Short description|Australian geologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Sir Ben Dickinson | honorific_suffix = FAusIMM | image = | alt = | caption = | office = Director of Mines, South Australia | term_start = 1948 | term_end = 1956 | office2 = Deputy Director of Mines, South Australia | term_start2 = 1942 | term_end2 = 1948 | birth_name = Samuel Benson Dickinson | birth_date = 1 February 1912 | birth_place = Hobart, Tasmania, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|02|02|1912|02|01|df=yes}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} [[File:J150W-Dickinson.jpg|thumb|Plaque on the Jubilee 150 Walkway ]] '''Sir Samuel Benson "Ben" Dickinson''' (1 February 1912 – 2 February 2000) was an Australian geologist. He was government geologist in South Australia, before being appointed director of exploration for Rio Tinto Australia in 1956. In the 1960s he was a mining consultant working from Sydney, which include exploration work for Gove Bauxite Corporation in the Northern Territory. He retired in 1975, but continued to serve as a ministerial advisor in Adelaide for a further 10 years. He was knighted in 1980.
==Early life and education== Samuel Benson Dickinson was born in Hobart, Tasmania,{{cn|date=January 2026}} on 1 February 1912.<ref name=TrovePerson/> He was a son of Sydney Rushbrook Dickinson (died 1 April 1949)<ref name=TheAge1949>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206082225 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Age |issue=29308 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=2 April 1949 |accessdate=20 May 2018 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and Margaret Dickinson, née Clemes,{{cn|date=January 2026}} and was raised a Quaker.<ref name=wright/>
He was educated at Haileybury College, Melbourne, where his father was headmaster, and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated with a first-class honours BSc in geology (1939) and MSc.<ref name=TrovePerson>{{Citation | author1=Dickinson, S. B. (Samuel Benson) | title=Papers of Samuel Benson Dickinson 1940–1994 | publication-date=1994 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/217098650 | accessdate=20 May 2018 |via= trove.nla.gov.au |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180521021823/https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/198290693?q&versionId=217098650| archive-date=21 May 2018}}</ref><ref name=wright/> ==Career== Benson worked for the Commonwealth Government on the North Australian Aerial Geological and Geophysical Survey (1935–1936) and was a geologist for Gold Mines of Australia in Victoria. He worked with Electrolytic Zinc Co. in Tasmania, and with Mt. Isa Mines, at Mount Isa, Queensland, from 1937 to 1941.<ref name=TrovePerson/>
He was appointed Deputy-Director of Mines and Deputy Government Geologist in the South Australian Department of Mines{{efn|The South Australian Department of Mines was founded in the Colony of South Australia in 1894 and was in existence until 1977, when it was renamed Department of Mines and Energy (1977-1997), Department for Primary Industries and Resources South Australia, eventually evolving into the Department for Environment and Water (2018-).<ref>{{cite web | title=South Australian Department of Mines | website= Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation |publisher=Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation | date=5 November 2019 | url=https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P006678b.htm | access-date=12 January 2026}}</ref>}} in 1942,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128362454 |title=''untitled'' |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=39 |issue=5,948 |location=South Australia |date=20 August 1942 |accessdate=20 May 2018 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and Director of Mines from 1948 to 1956.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130919824 |title=Men who keep the wheels of State moving |newspaper=The News (Adelaide) |volume=60 |issue=9,175 |location=South Australia |date=5 January 1953 |accessdate=20 May 2018 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> During this time, he created the Geological Survey of South Australia.<ref name=gsabio/> Also during this period he was chairman of the Radium Hill Uranium Mining project 1943–1956,<ref name=TrovePerson/> and he was responsible for the aerial survey and mapping of the Telford Cut coalfield at Leigh Creek.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55892776 |title=People We Know |newspaper=The Mail (Adelaide) |volume=36 |issue=1,843 |location=South Australia |date=20 September 1947 |accessdate=20 May 2018 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref name=wright/>
In 1956, Dickinson resigned from the South Australian Public Service and took the position of director of exploration for Rio Tinto Australia based in Melbourne, Victoria.<ref name=gsabio/><ref name=wright/>
He moved to Sydney, New South Wales, in 1960,<ref name=gsabio/> becoming a mining consultant. He was appointed field manager of the Gove Bauxite Corporation (later Gominco) in the Northern Territory in 1962, which been established as an Australian company to keep profits in Australia. Dickinson wrote to Prime Minister Robert Menzies frequently during this period, advocating a "vigorous mineral development policy". The company lodged an application to mine bauxite on the Gove Peninsula in Arnhem Land. In consultation with the Sydney-based head of the Methodist Overseas Mission, Arthur Gribble, Dickinson started staking out an area for exploration, and announced plans to set up mining headquarters at Gunipinya, near the Yirrkala mission. Gunipinya was the site of a freshwater spring, and a sacred site for the local Yolngu people at the mission, who were upset at seeing their land being staked out for mining without consulting them. Mission superintendent Edgar Wells persuaded Dickinson to attend a meeting with around 60 Yolngu people, along with his French colleague Silve. Further meetings ensued, but the matter was not resolved, leading to the creation of the Yirrkala bark petitions, which were presented in the Australian Parliament in August 1963. Dickinson later appeared as a witness before the government committee set up to investigate the Yolngu's grievances. His view was that mining bauxite would bring prosperity to all through further development of the peninsula. The mining went ahead in the end.<ref name=wright>{{cite book | last=Wright | first=Clare|author-link = Clare Wright | title=Näku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the course of Australian democracy | publisher=Text Publishing Company | date=1 October 2024 | isbn=978-1-922330-86-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jRG00AEACAAJ| p=63-64,72-6,191-2,205-6,251-2,452,570, etc.}}</ref>
On nominal retirement in 1975, he returned to Adelaide, where he served as a ministerial advisor for a further 10 years.<ref name=gsabio/>
==Personal life== Dickinson married Jessica Helen Ward<ref>[https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/dickinson-samuel-benson-20961]</ref> (4 March 1910 – 16 March 1993) on 22 November 1941 in Adelaide. They had two sons.<ref name=gsabio>{{cite web |author= Keith Johns |url= http://gsa.junctionworld.com/recognition/biographies.html |title= Biography |publisher= Geographical Society of Australia |date= June 2000 |access-date= 20 May 2018 |archive-date= 20 May 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180520194823/http://gsa.junctionworld.com/recognition/biographies.html |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sinnottnz.com/getperson.php?personID=I1625&tree=tree5|title = Sir Samuel Benson Dickinson b. 1 Feb 1912 Hobart, Tasmania, Australia d. 2 Feb 2000| website= The Rex Sinnott Site| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180520193810/http://www.sinnottnz.com/getperson.php?personID=I1625&tree=tree5#cite1| archive-date=20 May 2018}} <!----not a reliable source---></ref>
==Death and legacy== Dickinson died on 2 February 2000.{{cn|date=January 2026}} He was survived by his sons from his first marriage as well as his second wife and their two children.<ref name=gsabio/>
The basal animal Dickinsonia was named after him by Reg Sprigg.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Eig |first1=Karsten |title=Ediacarans: The Fossils That Should Not Be There |url=https://karsteneig.no/2019/05/ediacarans-the-fossils-that-should-not-be-there/ |website=Adventures in geology - Karsten Eig}}</ref>
==Recognition== *1980: Knighted<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/48309/supplement/12987/data.pdf Honours and Awards], 15 September 1980, The London Gazette, Issue 48309,</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110962374 |title=The Queen's Birthday Honours list for 1980 |newspaper=The Canberra Times |volume=54 |issue=16,333 |location=Australian Capital Territory |date=14 June 1980 |accessdate=20 May 2018 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *Commemorated by a bronze plaque on North Terrace, Adelaide, a supplementary addition to the original 150 plaques{{cn|date=January 2026}} *Elected Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (FAusIMM)<ref>[https://www.ausimm.com.au/content/docs/bulletin_dec09_content.pdf AusIMM], p. 94. {{dead|date=January 2026}}</ref>{{better source|date=January 2026}}
==Footnotes== {{notelist}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Ben}} Category:20th-century Australian geologists Category:1912 births Category:2000 deaths Category:People from Hobart