Australian naturalist and herpetologist, Eric Worrell (1924-1987), established the Australian Reptile Park at Wyoming on the NSW Central Coast in 1959. While the Park gave him a prominent platform as a popular reptile expert, his authority was also constructed through his publications. He was a prodigious writer: 11 books and more than 100 articles on aspects of natural history, as well as other topics, in popular magazines such as Outdoors and Fishing, People, Walkabout and Wild Life. Worrell also published in scientific journals including Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW, Australian Zoologist and Western Australian Naturalist. Using thematic and content analyses, this article identifies and explores key themes relating to the conservation of Australia’s reptile fauna, or what Worrell referred to as “the unpopular ones”, in his writings. Four dominant themes, with some overlap, were identified and it was found that Worrell’s approach to reptile conservation was overwhelmingly pragmatic, based on the communication of factual evidence, derived in large part from his own direct experiences with reptiles.

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