Edward John Dunn was born in Bristol, Somerset, on 1 Nov. 1844. He grew up in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia and in 1860 joined the Land Survey Office in Beechworth. He worked with the Geological Survey until it was abolished in 1869. Having passed his examinations as mining surveyor, Dunn was on his way to England in 1871 when he stopped off in Cape Town and journeyed to investigate the newly discovered diamond fields in Kimberley. He was immediately employed by the Cape Government to report on copper mines and the diamond fields. He spent 15 years in South Africa, travelling extensively, excavating material and publishing papers. Dunn was elected Fellow of the Geological Survey in 1884 and returned to Australia in 1886. After some years in private practice as a consulting geologist, he was in 1904 appointed Director of the Geological Survey of Victoria, retiring in 1912. Dunn died in April 1937.