The attempt of the Philosophical Society of Australasia to create a colonial museum was as premature as its effort to provide a scientific forum. After the demise of the society in 1822, no public interest seems to have been evinced until June 1827 * when a Sydney newspaper offered A HINT- We should be glad to perceive amongst some of our intelligent and public­ spirited Colonists, more of a drive to prosecute the public weal than at present exists. Amongst other improvements, in these times, would there be any harm in suggesting the idea offounding an AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM? The earlier that such an institution is formed, the better it will be for posterity. 1 What stimulated the hint is unrecorded but it is not unreasonable to suppose that the arrival in Sydney in January 1826 of a new Colonial Secretary may have had something to do with it. Alexander Macleay, FRS, Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and honorary secretary of that prestigious institution from 1798 until1825, had resigned this position at the express request of Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to become head of the public service of New South Wales. He was fifty-nine years old when he came to Sydney, having retired from the British civil service on a substantial pension in 1818, but age was no impediment to his activity. He worked in close harmony with Governor Darling and his abrupt dismissal by Governor Bourke in 1837 aroused considerable dissent from the general public of New South Wales, who held him in high esteem as an honest and hard-working administrator. As Branagan has mentioned, Macleay brought with him a great collection of insects and added to these during his years in Australia to create a private collection of considerable scientific value (later to become the basis of the Macleay Museum of the University of Sydney). He wrote no scientific papers during his years in Aus­ tralia, being more concerned with general support of natural history investigations. His large house at Elizabeth Bay was a centre of learned discussions; he was host to resident and visiting scientists, and his gardens were referred to as a 'a botanist's paradise'. He and several other members of the Macleay family-his sons, William Sharp and George, and his nephew, William John-figure prominently in the early history of the Australian Museum and, indeed, of the colony itself. From his position in the colonial establishment and through his relations with his patron Bathurst, Macleay was in a strong position to recommend the establishment of a museum in Sydney. Although direct evidence is lacking from surviving records, it seems almost certain that his advice led the Secretary of State for the Colonies to send the following despatch: CUSTODIANS W. Holmes Zoologist 1829-1831 W. Galvin 'in charge' 183 1-1835 * 'In company with my friend Mr Lauga, I visited the Colonial Museum. It forms an excellent nucleus for a splendid collection .. .' · R. Strahan George Bennett, Wanderings in New South Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore, and China (1832) 7 Colonial Office establishing the museum are set out perfunctorily, as if these were already accepted Downing Street and the question was now one of implementation. Yet the article aroused no printed 30 March, 1827 discussion and six months passed before the press again adverted to the topic. In June Lt-General Darling 1828, the Sydney Gazette returned to the discussion, this time referring to the activities­ Etc., etc., etc. apparently more vocal than physical-of the Attorney-General, A. M. Baxter: 'The S~, . It having been represented to me that It would be very desirable were the Government Attorney-General is resolving on ways and means to start a Museum in the Colony. to afford its aid towards the formation of a Publick Museum at New South Wales where Nothing could be more easy, if the learned gentleman would only follow up his laud­ it is stated that many rare and curious specimens of Natural History are to be procured, able scheme with that patriotic spirit of which we all know he is so liberally possessed. I do myself the honour to acquaint you that although I feel a difficulty in authorising In such a quarter of the globe as ours, it is a disgrace that we have not long since the commencement of any Building for that purpose until an Estimate of the expense had a Museum formed'. 4 shall have been first submitted to my consideration, yet I am disposed in the meantime, to allow a sum, not exceeding £200 per annum, to be disbursed for the purpose of assisting In September of the following year the Sydney Gazette was a little less critical: in the accomplishment of this object; and as one of the fi~t .steps to~ards ensuring. its 'The idea started by our respected Attorney-General some twelve months ago, of success seems to be the sending out some proper person to assist m collectmg and arrangmg establishing a Museum in this "land of contrarieties", appears to have fallen still-born such specimens as it may be possible to procure in that quarter, I. have been further induced · to the ground. It was a good idea, nevertheless; and we heartily wish the learned to consent to the appointment of a young man to that particular duty who has been gentleman would sei about realising it in right good earnest'.5 recommended to me as peculiarly fitted for it, and who will, therefore, be immediately The Sydney Gazette was out of touch with developments for, very unobtrusively, sent out to the Colony in the capacity of Zoologist with the same rate of salary and allowances as appear to have been given to Mr Fisher, the present intendant of the Botanic Governor Darling had already taken the first step. Three months earlier, on 16 June Gardens at Sydney. 1829, he had appoint.::d William Holmes to be in charge of the Colonial Museum. I have, etc., As this statement is contrary to much that has been written over the past seventy Bathurst2 years concerning the origins of the Australian Museum, it is necessary, before proceed­ ing further, to review the earlier ideas. Sent on 12 April in the convict transport Man/ius, the despatch was delivered Until 1916, when the director, Robert Etheridge Jnr, turned his attention to the in Sydney on 11 August 1827. Surprisingly, Darling made no reference to it in his history of the Museum, it had been generally accepted that it had come into existence return despatches to London, nor was the matter raised again by the Colonial Office. in 1836 when a Committee of Superintendence was appointed by Alexander Macleay No 'peculiarly fitted' young man was sent out and the idea seems to have lapsed (see Chapter 3). In the first part of his 'fragments' of the history, published in 1916,6 completely with Bathurst's departure from the Colonial Office, two weeks after Etheridge suggested that the Museum may have been in existence in 1827 and, in writing. Nothing had been achieved except that the Governor was now empowered, an appendix to the second part published in 1919/ he printed a copy of Bathurst's should he see fit, to spend up to £200 per year of the colony's self-generated income despatch of 1827 (discovered by chance in the Mitchell Library by his assistant W. on the running costs of a museum. W. Thorpe) as clinching evidence. In January 1828, a local magazine published a detailed recommendation under William Alfred Rainbow, the Museum's librarian, accepted Etheridge's opinion the pseudonym 'U': and took it further in an essay published in 1922, by identifying (as he thought) the person referred to by Bathurst: 'As a first step, he [Bathurst] consented to the appoint­ The foundation of a Museum for the reception and public exhibition of the natural pro­ ment of Mr W. Holmes as Zoologist "who has been well recommended to me as ductions and curiosities of Australia, could not but raise her in the estimation of the peculiarly fitted for it, and who will therefore be immediately sent out to the world at large, while it would excite her to further efforts to maintain and increase that good opinion and respect which such a measure would procure ... Clo ony . "'B. A building should be erected on a plan, which would admit of, and be adopted for The presumptive evidence was sufficient to convince the trustees of the Museum future enlargements and additions, as the funds of the Museum would allow composed that they should celebrate the centenary of the institution in 1927. In an editorial of a centre and wings. The centre should be of an elevation that would form a complete in the Australian Museum Magazine, the director, Charles Anderson, gave further details: edifice in itself, but be so constructed as to admit of wings being hereafter added, which 'The "young man" referred to in the despatch was Mr W. Holmes, who was styled could be connected with the main building by a colonnade. Colonial Zoologist, and was therefore the first custodian of the infant collections of Care should be taken to secure sufficient ground to enable the future supporters of 9 the Museum to increase it from time to time, by forming three other sides of the square, the "Colonial Museum", the original designation of the institution'. so that the whole when complete would form a regular quadrangular building presenting Anderson remarked that 'It is not known with certainty when Holmes arrived on every site a uniform elevation ..