NOEL MONKMAN F.R.M.S., A.C.S. (1896 – 1968)
Pioneer Underwater Cine-Photographer & Cine-Micrographer.
The high quality research microscopes in this collection formerly belonged to Noel Monkman (1896 – 1968) who pioneered the production of cine-micrographic films, especially those of the life histories of the microscopic life of the Great Barrier Reef. He also pioneered underwater cine-photography in Austalia.

Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, Noel was five when his parents separated. He was given into the custody of his father and spent a lonely childhood under a succession of female relatives and governesses. It was during these years that his lifetime passions of microscopy, photography, and marine life were first excited. His mother, who taught piano and singing, purchased him a magnifying lens with which he observed various marine creatures on his trips to the beach. Eventually he saved up money for an old second-hand microscope that later on accompanied him on outings to the beach, field and forest. It was at this time that Noel was introduced to photography when an enthusiastic photographer friend brought a new camera, and gave his old one to Noel. Before long Noel had converted the cellar of his house into a darkroom and laboratory, and had refined his photographic and microscopical skills. A lasting memory of his early years was of a pair of ivory sea horses in his father’s collection of miniatures. His interest in the seahorses was rekindled years later when he found a dried seahorse whilst exploring the seashore with his Maori friend Rangi. The boys went on to keep live seahorses and observe them feeding and reproducing in rock pools on the breakwater at Moeraki. A piano-case boat used by the boys became Noel’s first marine biological research vessel, and it was Rangi that first taught Noel to swim and dive underwater.

Around this time Noel, whilst sneaking back home after an early morning visit to the breakwater, was held captive by the sight of a “dew-spangled web of a spider creating a shimmering curtain of tiny rainbows”. When the spider moved, the dew drops coalesced into larger drops. On closer examination Noel

“..saw through a large drop as if it was a magic window, the head of a tiny gnat caught in the next strand of the web. The head looked enormous, and growing out of it were two delicate feathery plumes and two large reddish eyes placed one either side of a large spiky nose.”

Fully absorbed with the web, Noel was caught-out by his governess and sent without breakfast
to his room. During this incarceration, whilst pouring himself a glass of water from a globular glass Victorian water bottle, Noel observed that the full water bottle acted like the dew drop – a magnifying lens. He spent the rest of his confinement exploring the room with the “lens”.

Some time later on, Noel was sent to live with relatives at Dunedin. On his way home from school each day, Noel passed a second-hand dealer’s shop. In the shop window, amongst a lot of junk, stood a microscope.

“It was old, and the brass work was green with verdigris, but to me it had the beauty of the Holy Grail. “

Noel stopped at the shop to worship the microscope each day. Eventually he obtained the instrument exchanging it for some of his outgrown but good quality clothes, plus two shillings.

Following the death of his father, Noel went to live with his mother. Weekends were special times for them both, and Noel’s microscope accompanied them to the beach, pool, field and forest. It was at this time that Noel was introduced to photography, the last of his three formative passions. Noel’s mother taught singing and the piano, and one of her male pupils, an enthusiastic photographer, brought a new camera, and gave his old one to Noel. Before long Noel had converted the cellar of the house into a darkroom and laboratory, and had refined his photographic and microscopical skills.

On leaving school Noel worked with a photographer, because of his advanced photographic skills it was not long before he was earning an adult’s wage. But later he trained as a cellist and joined a theatre orchestra, and this supplemented his savings through casual work as a labourer. Finally the years of study and hardship were repaid when Noel was engaged as a cellist with the J. C. Williamson theatrical company. After two successful tours, Noel was set to embark on the next stage of his plan – University. However this plan was thwarted by the outbreak of the First World War. Noel, now aged 20, enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces and served on a hospital ship, more interested in “mending bodies than mangling them”. After the war, Noel joined a theatrical company as cello soloist, where he met his future wife Kitty Gelhor who was a professional pianist. For Noel it was love at first sight, and after an afternoon rehearsing for the evenings performance, he proposed marriage to Kitty on the day they first met. Although Kitty considered this somewhat premature, and Noel rather eccentric, she finally agreed months later. They moved to Australia, as First Cellist with the J.C. Williamson - Greater Union Theatres’ orchestra. Kitty also joined the orchestra as pianist, and she and Noel played in Sydney theatre orchestras for 15 years. During his spare time Noel pursued his interests in microscopy, photomicrography and photography, and he pioneered cine-micrography, and he became a favourite customer at Esdailes, the optical supplier in Hunter St. Eventually Noel and Kitty resigned from the orchestra to form their own company Australian Educational Films Pty. Ltd.

His first films were about the life histories of the hydra and the mosquito. In 1922, disgusted with a business proposal to make movie nature films, Noel returned to J.C. Williamson’s company, but continued to make films as time and circumstances permitted. His break came when in 1930, an article on his natural history movie films, written by a journalist friend, appeared in the Sunday Sun. The next day Fox-Movitone News asked to see the films, and immediately purchased them for inclusion in Australian and US newsreels. Frank Thring of Efftee Films in Melbourne had also seen some of these films in Movitone News and approached Noel to work for him. Noel refused the offer, preferring to be his own boss. However Noel agreed to form a company – Australian Educational Films Pty. Ltd. - in which Thring and the Monkmans held equal shares, and with this Noel and Kitty left the orchestra. So began the Monkmans’ sea change – from theatre musicians to film makers of natural history documentaries. In these days of miniaturization, low voltage electronics, and halogen cold light sources, it is difficult to appreciate the technical difficulties in doing photomicrography in the remote areas in which they worked. To undertake this work Noel purchased a van which was configured as a cross between a campervan, and mobile laboratory equipped with an optical bench, microscopes, lights and cameras. To this was added a large trailer to carry the engine and generator to power the electric arcs and camera motors.

Noel thoroughly researched his subjects, then largely by trial and error developed techniques to capture his tiny subjects on film, and also to maintain them live over the course of the project. For example, it took Noel some six months of ceaseless experimenting before he was able to obtain the first motion pictures of coral polyps emerging to feed on plankton. The problems of strong light, high temperatures, harmful ultraviolet light, coral circadian rhythm, feeding and maintenance of the coral were eventually overcome. He was a perfectionist and Master of his craft.


The Monkmans’ early visits to the Great Barrier Reef were mainly to reefs out from Gladstone, but after a few visits to Green Island they decided to make this their permanent base, taking up residence there in 1956. When permanently settled, Noel and Kitty established a well-equipped laboratory for marine research, cine, and photomicrography. Later on they built the Great Barrier Reef Theatre, where their films featured until the theatre was demolished to make way for the new Green Island Resort in 1992 - probably the longest running programme in the world 33 years.

Over the next 32 years the Monkmans, largely based at Green Island with their laboratory and theatre, devoted their energies to making educational natural history movie documentaries and feature films. They went on to produce and direct 23 films, including 2 feature films. The film "Invisible Wonders of the Great Barrier Reef” in 1961 was Noel’s apogee in cine micrography. Much of Noel’s film was used in the Academy Award winning film "The Sea Around Us”, from Rachel Carson’s book of the same name. For his skill as a microscopist and also for the excellence of his work in cine-micrography and photomicrography, Noel was elected a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, London in April 1948. He was also made an Associate of the Cinematographers Society, Sydney. Noel died in 1968, and his ashes were scattered over his beloved Green Island reef. Following Noel’s death, Kitty Monkman invited Professor Cyril Burdon-Jones who was a close personal friend and at the time Professor and Head of the Department of Marine Biology and Zoology, to take on behalf of James Cook University (JCU) whatever laboratory equipment, books and transparencies might be of use. These items formed what was known the Monkman collection. It comprised four microscopes, microscopical equipment, transparencies, and commercial microslides over a third of which were made by Noel. Mr Zoltan Florian and Professor Chris Crossland managed to recover Noel Monkman’s the optical bench. The microscopes, the optical bench and some optical equipment were subsequently restored by Zoltan Florian, Curator of Microscopes JCU. Unfortunately the optical bench was later accidently disposed of when the University store in which it was held was completely cleared. Some of the commercial microslides were incorporated into the undergraduate teaching collection and the remainder were given by Professor Burdon-Jones to Leigh Winsor, Histologist in the then School of Biological Sciences at JCU. Copies and some original black and white prints and 35mm colour transparencies were also given by Professor Burdon-Jones to Mr Florian together with a covering letter. The Monkman’s cine-films are in the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra.

Kitty remained at the Green Island residence entertaining guests as a pianist at the hotel until due to failing health she returned to the mainland. Kitty died in May 1987, her ashes buried beneath the monument to Noel. The plaque on this monument reads:

“This cairn has been erected to honour the memory of Noel Monkman, F.R.M.S., film producer, scientist, underwater photographer, author, musician, conservationist. Noel Monkman was the first man to film the Great Barrier Reef, to go underseas with his camera. For his skill in cine-micrography, in particular the filming of microscopic life of the Great Barrier Reef. He was made a fellow of the Royal Microscopic Society (London). As a conservationist he was ever vigilant in preserving the Great Barrier reef, in particular the reef at Green Island.”

The generosity of Kitty Monkman enabled the establishment of the Department of Primary Industry’s first marine research station on Green Island in the Monkman’s former residence. The original research station was demolished in the construction of the green Island Resort. The present building was constructed by Daikyo Pty Ltd for the Department of Primary Industries as a replacement building.
The new Monkman Reef Research Station, established by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and the Cooperative Research Centre for Reef Research is dedicated to the memory of Noel and Kitty Monkman, who were pioneering investigators of marine life on the Great Barrier Reef. The Research Station was officially opened and dedicated on 12th October 1994 by the Honourable Edmund Casey MLA, Minister for Primary Industries. Home comforts and scientific equipment were subsequently added to the new Green Island Research Station, making it even more attractive for visiting CRC researchers and students, including a colour television, washing machine, tables and lounge chairs. Later on an aquarium system, computer, stereo-microscopes, wet benches, hand held VHF radios and dive gear drying racks were added. Several large photographs of Noel and Kitty Monkman are on display at the Station to give visitors some insight into the early lifestyle of this pioneering couple.
The love and contribution of Noel and Kitty Monkman to marine biology lives on through their bequest for the Monkman Scholarship in Marine Biology, established at James Cook University to support a postgraduate research student in marine biology.

Noel Monkman’s microscopes, some surviving microscope equipment and microslides prepared by him were organized, catalogued, and then presented for safe keeping and their historic value to the Museum of Tropical Queensland in December 2013 by Mr Zoltan Florian, former Curator of Microscopes, James Cook University, and Dr Leigh Winsor, an Adjunct, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University who for many years have been the custodians of this collection.


This remarkable couple are commemorated today by the Monkman Reef Research Station, Green Island, and by the Monkman Scholarship in Marine Biology at James Cook University.