Ben Dickinson


Sir Samuel Benson Dickinson FAusIMM, generally known as Ben Dickinson, was an Australian geologist and Director of Mines in South Australia.

History

Dickinson was born in Hobart, a son of Sydney Rushbrook Dickinson and Margaret Dickinson. He was educated at Haileybury College, Melbourne, where his father was headmaster, and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated BSc 1939, MSc.
He worked for the Commonwealth Government on the North Australian Aerial Geological and Geophysical Survey 1935–1936, was a geologist for Gold Mines of Australia in Victoria, worked with Electrolytic Zinc Co. in Tasmania, and with Mt. Isa Mines, Queensland 1937–1941.
He married Jessia Helen Ward on 22 November 1941 in Adelaide. They had two sons.
He was appointed Deputy-Director of Mines and Deputy Government Geologist in the Mines Department in 1942, and Director of Mines from 1948 to 1956. Dickinson's greatest achievement during this period "is seen to be the creation of the Geological Survey of SA". Also during this period he was chairman of the Radium Hill Uranium Mining project 1943–1956, and he was responsible for the aerial survey and mapping of the Leigh Creek coalfield.
In 1956 Dickinson resigned from the SA Public Service and took the position of Director of Exploration for Rio Tinto Australia based in Melbourne. He moved to Sydney in 1960, and on nominal retirement in 1975, returned to Adelaide where he served as a Ministerial Advisor for a further 10 years.
He was survived by his sons from his first marriage, and his second wife and their two children.

Recognition