John Carne Bidwill

First Commissioner of Crown Lands for Wide Bay

Shaded by a white hat and an umbrella on a hot November in 1848, John Carne Bidwill stepped ashore on the river bank at the infant settlement of Wide Bay Village (later renamed Maryborough) to take up his appointment as the first Commissioner of Crown Lands for Wide Bay in the northern part of the colony of New South Wales.

His arrival didn't impress the gathered crowd of rough-looking Wide Bay locals for his pretentious dress in their eyes labelled him as out of place and unsuited to this frontier outpost. Even when he spoke their impressions were unchanged. In a brief address he told them that the river that flowed through the village, at Governor Fitzroy's decree, would henceforth be called the Mary River after the Governor’s wife. And that was the sum total of his first communication with the white inhabitants.

After such a poor start to his duties, Bidwill further distanced himself literately and psychologically from the residents by establishing his base 6 kilometres downstream from the village. Perhaps the disappointment of being displaced from his dream job as the Government Botanist and Director of the Sydney Botanical Gardens by an English nominee may have soured him to his 'consolation prize' as the Commissioner, Wide Bay, in an almost undeveloped area of the colony. His early attitude to the Wide Bay Village is revealed in a letter written to his brother soon after he arrived. In it he confided that:

‘… this is the most infernal place possible. There has been nothing but drunkedness here since I came. I fear my magisterial duties will be troublesome …’

A well educated and connected person Bidwill had the talent to easily handle his Commissioner duties. As well as the normal tasks of licensing squatting runs and collecting rents his roles also included those of the Chief Magistrate, Government Registrar (requiring the performing of marriages and burials), Clerk of Petty Sessions and Harbour Master but his heart was not in this job for his passion was botany.

Early life

Originally a native of Exeter in Devon, England this well-travelled 33-year-old man had crammed numerous and significant experiences into his short life. When aged just 17, he ventured to Canada for 2 years before returning to England and then onto Sydney in 1838 to act in a merchant capacity for his family’s trading firm. Combining both his business duties and his special interest in botany with an exploring curiosity, for the next 9 years he travelled both in the colony and to other Pacific Ocean destinations including New Zealand and as far as Tahiti plus briefly returning to England in that period.

Incidents

At the time of Bidwill’s arrival at Wide Bay the local aborigines were still very hostile in the area with many of the residents going armed even while in the village. At his home near the southern bank of the Mary River, in the area later named Tinana, the out-of-the-way location left Bidwill very vulnerable to attack or stealing from the local natives. This occurred on at least one occasion when he was threatened by about '200 warriors'. They regularly plundered his gardens and buildings for food or goods.

Having the local Wide Bay residents on side would have made his role much easier but a number of incidents undermined what reputation he possessed.

One of these events occurred when a local squatter, the fiery but popular John McTaggart of Kilkivan Station, challenged Bidwill to a duel after hearing that Bidwill had questioned his character. Bidwill refused and not long after McTaggart, sought out Bidwill and attacked him with a horse whip in full view of the settlement’s residents. The end result of McTaggart’s action saw him charged with assault and sentenced to seven days imprisonment which was required to be served in Sydney.

Perhaps even more troubling, considering Bidwill's duties as a Magistrate required him to uphold the law, was when Bidwill witnessed local trader, George Furber, shoot dead a native man in cold blood. In his defence Furber stated that the Aboriginal was one of a group, who had previously attacked him and left him badly wounded. He claimed he held a warrant for his arrest. Bidwill took no action and immediately departed the location much to the dismay of a number of the residents. The natives gained their revenge later when they killed both Furber and his son-in-law in a remote area south of Maryborough.

Putting the locals off still further, he supported the visiting Surveyor Hugh Labatt’s assessment to move the village of Maryborough, stating that the original unsurveyed village site was poorly located due to shoals in the river limiting the size of vessels able to negotiate the watercourse. A much better location was identified several miles downstream. Labatt then surveyed lots for future sale at the new site. Because many of the local business men had spent significant amounts of money on structural improvements at the original village they unsuccessfully fought the relocation and cast blame on the government officials that proposed and supported the move.

Exploration

John Bidwill was to die young and one of the episodes that hastened his early death came in 1851 when the Governor instructed him to find a shorter overland route to Brisbane. Travel between Brisbane and Maryborough was via boat or overland on a long and looping journey through the eastern South Burnett and back down the Brisbane Valley or by using the range crossing at Drayton (Toowoomba). Bidwill set off with a party of 4 white men and some Aboriginals, horses, drays and bullocks. They headed south crossing the Mary River near where Gympie later became established. While waiting there for the men to build a rough bridge Bidwill wandered around and discovered a number of small gold nuggets. For some reason he kept his find secret and the gold’s location would not officially be known until 16 years later when prospector, James Nash, rediscovered the site in 1867.

Further south Bidwill's group met the impenetrable rainforests in the headwaters and tributaries of the Mary River and there things came unstuck. Bidwill lost his compass, Aboriginals speared some of his horses and a bullock, a couple of his men deserted and eventually Bidwill and another man decided to press ahead on their own. Unfortunately Bidwill mistook a volcanic plug near what later became Cooroy for one of the Glasshouse Mountains resulting in the pair becoming hopelessly lost for eight days in the thick 'scrubs' before being found in a much emaciated state by natives and taken to Durundur Run near present day Woodford.

Soon after arriving back in Maryborough his health began to deteriorate, possibly due to kidney disease, and no doubt exacerbated by his failed exploration trip. By October 1852 he was reported as 'just a skeleton' and he died early the next year at his Tinana residence on March 16, 1853, aged only 38 years old. Buried near the bottom of his fruit and vegetable garden, his plot was surrounded by the fruits of his interest.

Legacy

Bidwill's legacy comes in many forms but is generally restricted to those knowledgeable of him from historic or botany circles. His name survives in a rural locality and a creek near Maryborough plus the western Sydney suburb of Bidwill, which also has a number of its streets and a local square named with titles to do with him.

Many of the plant and seed specimens Bidwill gathered in his travels can still be found in collections as far away as Kew Gardens in England. Another bequest of Bidwill to Australian horticulture comes from his introduction of many ornamental and fruit trees to the colony. This included bananas, passion fruit and even paw paws.

Perhaps the most famous of the trees that bears his name came with a controversy that survives to this day. On a family business trip to Brisbane in 1841 Bidwill spent most of his time collecting plants and documenting then unknown species. The most famous of these was the Bunya Pine originally discovered by Andrew Petrie. Because Bidwill became the first to send samples back overseas to England the scientific naming of the tree honoured him. That name, Araucaria bidwillii, caused much criticism by the Petrie family even in recent times, who believed Andrew Petrie should have been recognised in the naming.

Until a few years ago John Carne Bidwill's lone grave lay neglected and forlorn but a concerted effort by the former Woocoo Shire Council saw the creation of a reserve around the site and its restoration. Further recognition came with a replica of his headstone placed in Queens Park, Maryborough under a Bunya Pine believed to be a specimen propagated from one in his original garden.

Acknowledgements

Original story written by Tony Clift, based on research by Tom Ryan, former Curator of Parks, Maryborough City Council.