Allan Cunningham | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1791-07-13)13 July 1791 Wimbledon, London, England |
| Died | 27 June 1839(1839-06-27) (aged 47) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Botanist, explorer |
| Years active | 1814−1838 |
| Known for | Exploration of eastern Australia |
| Relatives | Richard Cunningham (brother) |
| Scientific career | |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | A.Cunn. |
Allan Cunningham (13 July 1791 – 27 June 1839) was an English botanist and explorer, primarily known for his expeditions into uncolonised areas of eastern Australia to collect plants and report on the suitability of the land for grazing purposes.The standardauthor abbreviationA.Cunn. is used to indicate this person as the author whenciting abotanical name.[1]
Cunningham was born inWimbledon, England, the son of Allan Cunningham (head gardener atWimbledon Park House), who came fromRenfrewshire, Scotland, and his English wife Sarah (née Juson/Jewson née Dicken). Allan Cunningham was educated at aPutney private school, ReverendJohn Adams Academy and then went into a solicitor's office (a Lincoln's Inn Conveyancer).[2] He afterwards obtained a position withWilliam Townsend Aiton superintendent ofKew Gardens, and this brought him in touch withRobert Brown andJoseph Banks.
On Banks' recommendation, Cunningham went to Brazil withJames Bowie between 1814 and 1816 collecting specimens for Kew Gardens. Banks later wrote the Cunningham's collections of orchids and bulbs from this part of South America contributed much honour to the Royal Gardens.[3]
He was soon ordered to the colony ofNew South Wales and on 28 September 1816 he sailed for Sydney where he arrived on 20 December 1816.[2] He established himself atParramatta.
Cunningham joinedJohn Oxley's 1817 expedition beyond theBlue Mountains to theLachlan andMacquarie rivers and shared in the privations of the 1,200 miles (1,930 km) journey. He collected specimens of about 450 species and gained valuable experience as an explorer. Cunningham named the speciesAcacia pendula andEucalyptus dumosa during this expedition.
Cunningham traveled as the ship's botanist aboardHMSMermaid underPhillip Parker King from 1817 to 1820.[4] TheMermaid was of only 85 tons, but sailing on 22 December 1817 they reachedKing George Sound on 21 January 1818. Though their stay was short many specimens were found but the islands on the west coast were comparatively barren. Towards the end of March theGoulburn Islands on the north coast were reached and many new plants were discovered. They reachedTimor on 4 June 1818 and, turning for home, arrived atPort Jackson on 29 July 1818. Cunningham's collections during this voyage included about 300 species.
Shortly after his return, Cunningham made an excursion south from Sydney, ascending the prominent peak ofMount Keira overlooking theIllawarra region and present dayWollongong. Towards the end of the year he made a voyage to Tasmania arriving atHobart on 2 January 1819. He next visitedLaunceston and though often finding the botany interesting, he found little that was absolutely new, as Brown had preceded him. In May he went with King in theMermaid on a second voyage to the north and north-west coasts.[2] On this occasion they started up the east coast and Cunningham found many opportunities for adding to his collections. One of these was after the ship reached the mouth of theEndeavour River (the site of modernCooktown) on 28 June 1819.
The circumnavigation of Australia was completed on 27 August when they reached Vernon Island inClarence Strait. They again visited Timor and arrived back in Sydney on 12 January 1820. The third voyage to the north coast with King began on 15 June, but meeting bad weather the bowsprit was lost and a return was made for repairs. Sailing again on 13 July 1820 the northerly course was followed and eventually the continent was circumnavigated. Though they found the little vessel was in a bad state when they were on the north-west coast, and though serious danger was escaped until they were close to home, they were nearly wrecked offBotany Bay. TheMermaid was then condemned and the next voyage was on theBathurst which was twice the size of theMermaid.[2] They left on 26 May 1821, the northern route was chosen, and when they were on the west coast of Australia it was found necessary to go toMauritius to refit, where they arrived on 27 September 1821. They left after a stay of seven weeks and reached King George Sound on 24 December 1821. A sufficiently long stay was made for Cunningham to make an excellent collection of plants, and then turning on their tracks theBathurst sailed up the west coast and round the north of Australia. Sydney was reached again on 25 April 1822. Cunningham provided a chapter on botany to King'sNarrative of a Survey.[5]
In September 1822 Cunningham went on an expedition over theBlue Mountains and arrived atBathurst on 14 October 1822 and returned to Parramatta in January 1823. His account of about 100 plants met with will be found inGeographical Memoirs on New South Wales, edited byBarron Field, 1825, under the title "A Specimen of the Indigenous Botany ... between Port Jackson and Bathurst".[citation needed]
Cunningham soon became more interested in expeditions of discovery than botany and in 1823 he set out from Bathurst to explore inside theGreat Dividing Range.[6] With five men and five horses, he journeyed north from Bathurst, along the Cudgegong River, passing through what is now Rylstone andCoolah and then eastwards looking for a pass through theLiverpool Range. Unable to find one, he returned west through what is nowMerriwa and then north to the base of the ranges there. On 7 June, after some difficult climbing, he came across a gap in the mountains which he namedPandora's Pass, which he thought would allow for a practicable road to theLiverpool Plains.[7] This pass was soon superseded however by more accessible passes found to the east. He returned to Bathurst through an undeveloped Mudgee on 27 June 1823.[8]
Cunningham also undertook an expedition to what is nowCanberra in 1824. He travelled with three convicts, three horses and a cart and he travelled viaLake Bathurst,Captains Flat and the valley of theQueanbeyan River. Poor weather prevented him from continuing his journey south.[9]
In September 1824 Cunningham accompaniedJohn Oxley on his second expedition toMoreton Bay and explored up theBrisbane River.[10]
Cunningham had long wished to visit New Zealand and on 28 August 1826 he was able to sail on a whaler.[2] He was hospitably received by the missionaries in theBay of Islands, was able to do much botanical work, and returned to Sydney on 20 January 1827. Accounts of his work in New Zealand will be found in Hooker'sCompanion to the Botanical Magazine, 1836, andAnnals of Natural History, 1838 and 1839.
In probably his most famous expedition, Cunningham set out to explore the area to the west ofMoreton Bay in 1827, crossing to the west of theGreat Dividing Range from theHunter Valley and travelling north. On this journey, Cunningham named many geographical landmarks including theDumaresq River,Macintyre River,Condamine River, theDarling Downs, Mount Dumaresq and the Burrell orGwydir River. He wrote in his diary that the lush grassland plains on the Darling Downs were ideal for livestock grazing. Exploring around Mount Dumaresq, Cunningham found a pass, now known asCunninghams Gap.[11]
Cunningham returned to the Moreton Bay penal colony in 1828, setting off from Brisbane withPatrick Logan,Charles Fraser and five men to findMount Warning and to establish the route toCunningham's Gap which he did, on 24 July.[6] The peaks on either side of the gap were also named,Mount Cordeaux andMount Mitchell. After exploring theMcPherson Range area, Cunningham travelled on the south side of the Gap whereas thehighway today runs further north, through the gap, from the small township of Aratula.Spicer's Gap which runs parallel to Cunningham's Gap was actually the pass first identified by Cunningham in 1827.[12] After its rediscovery in 1847, Spicer's Gap was used as a stagecoach route. In 1829, Cunningham explored theBrisbane River.
Australia's most prolific plant collector of the early nineteenth century, Cunningham had been sent to Australia to expand the collection at the King' Garden atKew and he was given the title of "King's Collector for the Royal Garden at Kew". He was so successful that a hothouse originally built for specimens from Africa was renamed "Botany Bay House" because it became filled with Cunningham's specimens. Although his main role was to collect propagation material, his lasting legacy are his herbarium sheets which are thought by his biographer, Anthony Orchard, to exceed 20,000.[13]
It is often thought that Cunningham published few papers on botany and in his obituary,John Lindley wrote, "How little he regarded posthumous fame is seen by the fewness of his published works, a brief sketch of the Flora of New Zealand being the only systematic account of his Botanical discoveries...".[14] In fact, although he was effectively barred from publishing on botany whilst employed as "King's Collector", he nevertheless later published seven major papers, and 57 shorter papers on subjects includingtaxonomy,geology,physical geography andzoology. He was one of the first scientists to publish papers onbotanical geography.[15]
Cunningham was concerned that many of his discoveries sent to Kew were not published, allowing others, includingWilliam Baxter to be credited with their discovery. (Baxter had risked arrest and a possible flogging for undermining Cunningham's work by sending specimens to commercial interests.)[16] When Cunningham returned to London,he sent duplicates of his herbarium specimens to other botanists, includingde Candolle,Schauer,William Jackson Hooker,Bentham,Lindley and others, who published his descriptions with acknowledgement to "A.Cunn.".[13]
In 1831, Cunningham returned to England, but went back to Australia in 1837 on boardNorfolk as government botanist, resigning the following year on finding that he was required to grow vegetables for government officials. On 27 June 1839, he died oftuberculosis in Sydney, and was buried in theDevonshire Street Cemetery. In 1901, his remains were "reverently removed" and re-interred in an obelisk within theRoyal Botanic Garden in Sydney.[17]
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Some of Australia's plants:Araucaria cunninghamii (hoop pine),Archontophoenix cunninghamiana (Bangalow palm),Banksia cunninghamii,Lysiphyllum cunninghamii (jigal),Casuarina cunninghamiana (river sheoak),Centipeda cunninghamii (old man weed),Ficus cunninghamii,Medicosma cunninghamii (bone wood),Nothofagus cunninghamii (myrtle tree, Tasmania),Pennantia cunninghamii (brown beech), andPolyosma cunninghamii (rainforest featherwood) commemorate Allan and his brotherRichard, a botanist.[18] TheCunningham Highway is named in honour of Allan. The genusAlania was created byEndlicher in Cunningham's honour.[19]Robert Brown named the conifer genusCunninghamia after both Allan Cunningham and Dr. James Cunningham, a British doctor who introduced the trees into cultivation in 1702.[20]
A species of Australian lizard,Egernia cunninghami, is named in honour of Allan Cunningham.[21]
The Australian federal seat ofCunningham, which stretches fromPort Kembla in the south ofWollongong toHeathcote in southernSydney, was named after him in honour of his being the first European explorer to visit theIllawarra region.[22]
The locality ofAllan, Queensland was named after him.[23]
