Sir Joseph Banks as patron of the Investigator expedition: Natural history, geographical knowledge, and Australian exploration

Abstract

This paper analyses the ways in which Sir Joseph Banks served as an informed and energetic patron for the preparations for the Investigator’s expedition, and for the dissemination of its scientific and geographical knowledge. This was the first voyage to circumnavigate Australia, under the command of Matthew Flinders. Banks was an essential facilitator for Flinders’ ambitions: he drew up plans to promote the voyage and mustered the support of relevant officials in the Admiralty, Navy Board, East India Company and Board of Longitude. With his knowledge of sailing on Cook’s Endeavour voyage and his understanding of the expedition’s scientific requirements, Banks took a leading role in recruiting personnel. Banks recognised in Flinders someone who had the ambition and the nautical skill to carry out the Investigator’s expedition with full commitment. Banks and Flinders combined a passion for improving geographical, nautical and scientific knowledge of the last inhabitable continent discovered by explorers. Banks played a crucial role in ensuring that the achievements of the Investigator’s voyage were not lost. He made repeated attempts to have Flinders released from his confinement in the Ile de France. He was updated from time to time on Flinders’ situation through letters received from that island. He corresponded with Flinders and his scientific associates to ensure that the achievements of the expedition—the charts and the natural history specimens—were not abandoned. After Flinders and his ship’s company returned to England, Banks ensured their findings from the voyage were prepared for public dissemination by persuading the Admiralty to pay their salaries and by personally overseeing their work during the several years necessary to complete the tasks required. Banks was closely involved with the production of Flinders’ voyage account and atlas, published in A Voyage to Terra Australis, and with the dissemination of the scientific and artistic achievements of the Investigator expedition.