Robert Whyte is an Australian writer. He was a founding co-owner and director of the Brisbane-based multimedia firm ToadShow. After 2012 he participated in the Australian Government's new species exploration program Bush Blitz. His works include The Creek in Our Back Yard: a practical guide to creek restoration and A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia for CSIRO Publishing 2017.
Biography
Robert Whyte was born in Melbourne in 1955. His family moved to Brisbane in 1957. In 1976 he was awarded a One Year Young Writer's Fellowship by the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. In 1981 he completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Art Studies at Alexander Mackie CAE, and was a contributor to Sydney art magazine Art Network. In 1985 he undertook the production of Environment Victoria, the magazine of the Conservation Council of Victoria, now Environment Victoria. In 1987 he was founding co-editor of contemporary art magazine Eyeline with Sarah Follent and Graham Coulter-Smith. Robert Whyte was a co-owner of ToadShow, a multimedia firm in Brisbane, Queensland. As a web designer he was responsible for Brisbane Stories a collection of web sites revealing stories of hidden Brisbane featuring art, environment and history. Robert Whyte was an editor of The Cane Toad Times from 1985 to 1990. Between 2010 and 2013 he undertook habitat restorations projects in South East Queensland. In 2011 his book The creek in our backyard: A practical guide for landholders was published, an expanded second edition appearing in 2013 A field guide to the spiders of Australia for CSIRO Publishing was released 1 June 2017.
Bush Blitz
Robert Whyte participated in the Australian Government's new species exploration program Bush Blitz from 2012's Fish River Bush Blitz, as a scientist specialising in spiders and as a scientific photographer. In 2013 he attended the Henbury Station Bush Blitz in the Northern Territory. In 2014 he participated as scientist and photographer at the Home Valley Bush Blitz in The Kimberly, Western Australia and in 2015 participated in the Kiwirrkurra IPA Bush Blitz in the Gibson Desert in Western Australia. In 2017 he attended the Bush Blitz, in Quinkan Country inland from Cooktown on Cape York Peninsula, where he photographed and filmed live spiders discovered on the trip. In September 2018 Robert Whyte’s discovered 37 new spider species leading the spider team as part of the fauna, flora and fungi stocktake led by John Sinclair of the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation in conjunction with Cooloola Coast Care.
''A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia''
Whyte and Anderson's A Field Guide to Spiders of Australia was published in 2017 by CSIRO Publishing. The News Network news.com.au report on "Five reasons why you shouldn't be afraid of spiders" was based on the content of the book. On 4 May 2018 Robert Whyte appeared on Gardening Australia as a “My Garden Path” presenter, explaining the link between spider diversity and healthy gardens.
Manacles, Melbourne, Melbourne Paragraph of the Senate of Pataphysical Representatives, 1985
From inside the asylum, South Sydney, Brou Ha Ha Books, 1980, p.,
The creek in our backyard: a practical guide for habitat restoration, Second edition revised and expanded June 2013. Save Our Waterways Now Inc, 2013 59 pages, colour illustrations, colour map, colour portraits
A field guide to spiders of Australia, by Whyte, Robert, 1955, and Anderson, Greg Clayton, Vic., CSIRO Publishing, 2017
Taxonomy papers
Australian jumping spiders of the genus Hypoblemum Peckhamia 180.1
A new peacock spider from the Cape York Peninsula. Peckhamia 177.1: 1-6.
Revision of eastern Australian ant-mimicking spiders of the genus Myrmarachne reveals a complex of species and forms
The first described male Tube-web Spider for mainland Australia: Ariadna kiwirrkurra sp. Nov.
The Peacock Spiders of the Queensland Museum, including six new species
Biodiversity discovery program Bush Blitz yields a new species of goblin spider, Cavisternum attenboroughi, from the Northern Territory
Biodiversity discovery program bush blitz supplies missing ant spider females from Victoria
