Donald Simpson was born in Townsville in 1929, and went to school there. He moved to Brisbane to continue his education, and worked as a teacher and a headmaster, first in Queensland, and then in England. He retired in 1994 and came to live on Magnetic Island, a place much loved by him from many holidays there as a boy and a young man. Although mathematics was his subject, he has always been interested in things that grow (he was head of an agricultural school for some years), and this encouraged him to photograph and write a series of 12 volumes of Some Magnetic Island Plants.

This website uses the material from the books, plus many additional plants photographed since the books were written. In most cases, the website is able to show more photographs than it was possible to show in the books.

It is proposed to keep updating the website as more photographs are taken, either by replacing existing photographs with better ones, or by adding photographs of aspects of the plants that were not previously illustrated. New plants will also be added as they are photographed and identified.

Do please let us have your comments or suggestions, using the contact us page. We should love to hear from you.