Gunther Eugen Schmida was born in Braunschweig, West Germany, on 27 April 1942, and died on the Gold Coast on 5 January 2022, aged 79, after suffering a stroke the previous June. He was remembered in an eighteen-page tribute by his close friend Gary Stephenson — originally written for the Australian Herpetological Society and reprinted in a special two-part memorial issue of Fishes of Sahul — which describes him, in his daughter Caprice Alder's words at his funeral, as a "naturalist, boilermaker, off-shore oil rig underwater welder, engineer, construction manager, fake-rock sculptor, reptile exhibit designer-builder, photographer, award winning author, lungfish breeder, reptile wrangler, frog-call decipherer and lion & tiger keeper in his youth at Braunschweig Zoo."

He first had photographs published in a German hobbyist magazine at just 15, trained as a boilermaker to avoid compulsory National Service, and emigrated to Australia alone in October 1965, aged 23, "with a German-to-English dictionary in hand." He was a founding member of ANGFA's NSW Branch and was awarded ANGFA Life Membership in 2016; he was separately awarded the OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) for his services to wildlife photography. Fellow herpetologist John Cann, dedicating his 1998 monograph Australian Freshwater Turtles, wrote: "To my mate Gunther Schmida, you really made this book!!"

Stephenson's tribute records that Gunther's proudest achievements included being the first to breed short-tailed pygmy monitors in captivity, and later breeding lungfish successfully; that his images appeared in over 500 publications and his own articles in 23 magazines across eight languages; and that alongside his family, the highlight of his life was a hand-written correspondence with his lifelong idol, Sir David Attenborough, discussing his publications and photography — letters the family still holds. His two great regrets, by his own account, were never finding a live perentie in the wild, and not living to finish his final book series; his daughter reported that his motivation for recovering from his stroke was to finish those books "funnily, not his family."

Personal background drawn from Gary Stephenson's tribute in Fishes of Sahul Vol. 36(2–3), 2022, and from a full-text search of every digitised ANGFA publication for mentions of Gunther beyond his own bylines.

Blowing My Own Trumpet

Fishes of Sahul, Vol. 26(3), 2012

"This year marks the 52nd since I first picked up a camera to, you guessed it, photograph aquarium fishes…" Gunther's own account of 52 years behind the lens, from a first SLR camera and inspiration from Dutch photographer Arend van den Nieuwenhuizen to becoming the standard-setter for photographing aquatic wildlife in aquaria.

The Curse of the Goyder, Parts 1 & 2

Fishes of Sahul, Vol. 36(2–3), 2022

Gunther's last published work, appearing either side of his own memorial tribute in the same special double issue — a fitting final word from the photographer whose images defined how a generation of hobbyists saw Australia's native fishes.

A Tribute to Gunther Eugen Schmida

by Gary Stephenson, Fishes of Sahul Vol. 36(2), June 2022

An eighteen-page life story spanning his Braunschweig childhood, decades of Australian fieldwork with reptiles, amphibians and fishes, his ANGFA and Australian Herpetological Society involvement, and his correspondence with Sir David Attenborough.