Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 150, part 2, 2017, pp. 232–245. ISSN 0035-9173/17/020232-14 Creative foundations. The Royal Society of New South Wales: 1867 and 2017 Ann Moyal Emeritus Fellowship, ANU, Canberra, Australia Email: [email protected] Abstract There have been two key foundations in the history of the Royal Society of New South Wales. The first at its creation as a Royal Society in 1867, shaped significantly by the Colonial savant, geologist the Rev. W. B. Clarke, assisted by a corps of pioneering scientists concerned to develop practical sci- entific knowledge in the colony of N.S.W. And the second, under the guidance of President Donald Hector 2012–2016 and his counsellors, fostering a vital “renaissance” in the Society’s affairs to bring the high expertise of contemporary scientific and transdisciplinary members to confront the complex socio-techno-economic problems of a challenging twenty-first century. his country is so dead to all that natures) on a span of topics that embraced “Tconcerns the life of the mind”, the geology, meteorology, climate, mineralogy, scholarly newcomer the Rev. W. B. Clarke the natural sciences, earthquakes, volcanoes, wrote to his mother in England in Septem- comets, storms, inland and maritime explo- ber 1839 shortly after his arrival in New ration and its discoveries which gave singular South Wales (Moyal, 2003, p. 10). But a impetus to the newspaper’s role as a media man with a future, he quickly took up the pioneer in the communication of science offer of the editor ofThe Sydney Herald, John (Organ, 1992). Stokes, to contribute to the paper on sci- With only three scientific institutions in ence, and with John Fairfax’s proprietorship mid-century New South Wales — the Royal of the renamed Sydney Morning Herald in Botanic Gardens, the Parramatta Observa- 1841, Clarke launched a series of twenty tory and the Australian Museum — the sci- unsigned articles entitled `Meteorology as entific community was small. The Australian applicable to Australia’ in January 1842 and Philosophical Society, formed in 1850 (as a followed it in July–December 1842 with a post-event of Governor Brisbane’s fleeting second unsigned series,`Notitiæ Australasi- Philosophical Society of Australasia of 1821), anæ’, in which he sought to bring local sci- was renamed the Philosophical Society of entific discoveries before the public and to New South Wales in 1855 and gained some call upon colonists “through the habit of vigour under the presidency (1856-61) of observation” to make useful contributions the scientifically-minded Governor-General to natural science. Thereafter across the of the Colonies, Sir William Denison. Yet next two decades Clarke became The Sydney by 1866, stirred by the establishment of the Morning Herald’s major contributor of arti- new universities of Sydney (1852) and Mel- cles, letters, scientific reports and editorials, bourne (1855), the growth of museums and (sometimes anonymous, or with cryptic sig- observatories, and the advent of a major geo- 232 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Moyal — Creative foundations. The Royal Society of New South Wales: 1867 and 2017 logical survey in gold-rich Victoria, a view and distilled through The Sydney Morning gained currency that the historical concept of Herald — Clarke had emerged as a leading a `Philosophical’ society no longer reflected savant, a prominent player in negotiating a community with diverse scientific interests science, and a household name. and an expanding government commitment He had become, in effect, what British to science. With the assistance of the Gov- historian of science, James Moore, defined in ernor, Sir John Young, the Royal Society of Britain’s scientific community, as the owner New South Wales gained Royal assent in of intellectual “scientific credit”, one who, 1866 and was formally established in 1867, offering support and advancement to others, the third society in Australia to acquire the carried “symbolic capital” (Moore, 1996). Royal title, following the Royal Society of As a researcher, Clarke had also developed Van Diemen’s Land in 1832 (renamed Royal strong connections outside the Colony as Society of Tasmania in 1911), and the Royal an honorary member of the New Zealand Society of Victoria in 1859. In this forward Society, a life Fellow of the Royal Geo- thrust, Clarke, a long-time councillor and graphical Society, a member of the Société Vice-President of the Philosophical Society, Géologique de France, and, strikingly, had was a prime mover. fostered and continued to foster a substan- By the end of the ’fifties William Bran- tial correspondence with intercolonial and white Clarke was the most strategically international scientists in the natural and placed scientist in the Colony. Arriving physical sciences. Combining many parts, from Britain to take up his profession as he was elected senior Vice-President of the an Anglican clergyman in Sydney in May new Royal Society of New South Wales and, 1839, he had received geological training at the age of 69, played a key part in the with Adam Sedgwick at Cambridge Uni- Society’s formative first seven years. versity, published papers on aspects of Brit- One hundred and eight men signed the ish and Continental geology, was a Fellow Membership List of the new Royal Society of the prestigious Geological Society of in 1867. Their collective company repre- London and arrived in the Colony as the first sented a wide community of men of differ- trained geologist to settle in Australia. While ing pursuits and ages who shared a sense he earned his way as a churchman, Clarke of buoyancy at the opportunities for fresh early began his pioneering geological excur- initiatives and knowledge in the Colony. sions, publishing papers in Britain and the Made up of senior civil servants from the Colonies and communicating new findings Colonial Departments of Lands, Works, to the Sydney press. Importantly, through Mining, Land Titles, Telegraph, Publishing, his service to Government on a variety of the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, committees on artesian water and gold and, the Colonial Architect, the Surveyor-Gen- notably, through his role as Geological Sur- eral, and professional scientists from Sydney veyor appointed by government in 1851–53 Observatory, the Botanic Gardens, the Aus- to conduct surveys of the mineral wealth of tralian Museum and the Mint, two professors New South Wales — excursions that yielded from Sydney University, they also included twenty detailed reports published by the independent astronomers, entomologists Legislative Council of New South Wales and natural scientists, an array of physi- 233 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Moyal — Creative foundations. The Royal Society of New South Wales: 1867 and 2017 cians and clergymen with scientific inter- mingled with our parent earth. All that ests, several MLC’s and MLA’s and two staff we have to trouble ourselves with, is the members from The Sydney Morning Herald. right interpretation and development of They hence included an association of play- these physical riches, so bountifully spread ers both involved professionally in aspects around and beneath us for our investiga- of scientific and technological progress in tion and use” (Clarke, 1867, p 26). New South Wales, together with a corps of It was relevant that in the decade when The independent participants with research pub- Origin of Species was in discussion in the Col- lications and overseas experience and a lively onies and Clarke himself was in correspond- interest in the natural sciences (Transactions, ence with Charles Darwin, his conclusion 1867, 1, pp. xi–xiii)1. was open and germane. “We must strive to It was to this newly founded learned discern clearly, understand fully, and report society that W. B. Clarke gave the Inau- faithfully; to love truth in things physical as gural Address on 6 July 1867 as first Vice- in things moral; to adjure hasty theories and President, a position he would hold until his unsupported conjectures; where we are in death in 1878. Considering the concept of doubt not to be positive; to give our brother a “philosophical” society as no longer alone observer the same measure of credit we take appropriate to national ends, he offered a to ourselves; not striving for mastery, but broad and practical vision for the future: leaving time for the formation of the judg- “Let us perform our own proper work [he ment which will inevitably be given, whether said], not caring whether we ever arrive for or against us, by those who come after; at complete knowledge of the methods by contented if we are able to add but one grain which the Universe was formed and per- to that enduring pyramid which is now in fected. We have before us in this Colony a course of erection as the testimony of Nature vast region, much of which is still untrod- to the truth of Revelation.”2 den ground. We have, as it were, a new Within the Colony’s scientific activi- heaven for Astronomy and a new earth ties, astronomy was in the ascendant. Ever for Geology. We have climatical condi- since Governor Brisbane’s establishment of tions of the Atmosphere, which are not the Parramatta Observatory in 1821, the to be viewed by us merely as phenomena resulting publication of the first major star interesting to the Meteorologist. We have catalogue of the southern hemisphere, The facts to accumulate relating to Droughts Parramatta Catalogue of 7,385 Stars (1838), and Floods which have a deep financial had focused international attention on Aus- and social importance. We have a super- tralian astronomy and fostered its develop- ficial area which may engage the atten- ment.