Daintree, Richard (1832 - 1878)

Summary

Richard Daintree came to Victoria in 1852, initially to join the gold rush. Instead he became Geologist in the Geological Society of Victoria under his friend Alfred Selwyn. Daintree's early work for the Survey was mapping the geology around Western Port, the Mornington Peninsula and east of Melbourne into the basin of the Yarra River. He returned to the United Kingdom in late 1855 to study assaying and metallurgy (and photography) at the Royal School of Mines, London. Returning to Melbourne, he had a brief photographic partnership with Antoine Fauchery before rejoining the Survey in January 1859. With his assistant Charles Wilkinson he was engaged in surveying on the western side of Port Philip Bay, before spending several years in the field with Selwyn mapping the western parts of Victoria in preparation for producing geological maps of the colony. During this period he pioneered the use of photography in geological field work. Daintree left the Survey in February 1865 to attend to the property he held in the Burdekin district of Queensland with members of the Hann family. He was briefly Geological Surveyor for the Queensland government for the northern part of the colony. In 1871 he went back to the United Kingdom as Commissioner in charge of Queensland's contribution to the 1871 Exhibition of Art and Industry. From 1872 to 18976 he was Agent-General for Queensland. He is commemorated by the Daintree River and Daintree Rainforest in North Queensland.

Details

Chronology

1851

Education - Educated at the University of Cambridge, UK

1852 - 1854

Career position - Gold prospector in Victoria

1854 - 1 December 1855

Career position - Geologist, Geological Survey of Victoria

November 1856 - May 1857

Education - Studied assaying and metallurgy, Royal School of Mines, London

November 1857

Life event - Returned to Victoria

1858

Career position - Partnership of Fauchery and Daintree, photographers, established in Collins St, Melbourne

January 1859 - February 1865

Career position - Geologist, Geological Survey of Victoria

1862 - 1868

Career position - Partner with Hann family in pastoral property in Burdekin district, Queensland

1868 - 1869

Career position - Geological Surveyor for the northern part, Queensland Public Works Department

1871

Career position - Commissioner in charge of Queensland's contribution to the 1871 Exhibition of Art and Industry, London

1872

Life event - Moved to United Kingdom

1872 - 1876

Career position - Agent-General for Queensland

1878

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Microfilm Collection, MS 067; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland

• Richard Daintree - Records, 1868 - 1870; Fryer Library and Department of Special Collections, University of Queensland. Details

John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland

• Richard Daintree - Records, c. 1831 - 1963, OM70-39; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details
• Richard Daintree - Records, API 02; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Clarke Family - Records, 1797 - 1954, ML MSS 368; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• William Branwhite Clarke - Records, 1846 - 1877, ML MSS 141; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• William Branwhite Clarke - Records, 1827 - 1951, ML MSS 454; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• William Branwhite Clarke - Records, 1827 - 1951, ML MSS 490; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Private hands (Clarke, E.)

• Richard Daintree - Records, 1864 - 1872; Private hands (Clarke, E.). Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Richard Daintree - Records, 1860 - 1870, MS 10038; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Bolton, G. C., Richard Daintree, a Photographic Memoir (Brisbane: 1965). Details
• Daintree, R., Queensland, Australia: its territory, climate and products, agricultural, pastoral and mineral &tc., &tc, with emigration regulations (London: G. Street, 1873), 117 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Bolton, G. C., 'Daintree, Richard (1832-1878), geologist and photographer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 4: 1851 - 1890 D-J, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1972), pp. 1-2. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/daintree-richard-3350. Details
• Bolton, Geoffrey, 'Richard Daintree, 1832-1878' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Journal Articles

• Carew, J., 'Richard Daintree: photographs as history', History of photography, 23 (2) (1999), 157-62, https://doi.org/10.1080/03087298.1999.10443816. Details
• Daintree, R., 'Notes on the geology of the colony of Queensland, with an appendix containing descriptions of fossils, by R. Etheridge and W. Carruthers', Quarterly journal of the Geological Society (1872), 271-360. Details
• Darragh, Thomas A., 'Richard Daintree: his early life, work in Victoria, and his correspondence with James Hector', Historical Records of Australian Science, 36 (2025), 1-20, https://www.publish.csiro.au/HR/pdf/HR25007. Details
• Dunn, E. J.; and Mahony, D. J., 'Biographical Sketch of the Founders of the Geological Survey of Victoria', Bulletins of The Geological Survey of Victoria, 23 (1910), 48. Details
• Etheridge, R., 'Richard Daintree', Geological magazine, new series, decade II, 5 (1878), 429-32. Details
• McGillivray, E., 'Report on research: Richard Daintree negatives at Science Museum of Victoria', WOPOP: working papers on photography, 7 (1981), 11-4. Details
• Morgan, Kenneth, 'Selling Queensland: Richard Daintree as Agent-General for Emigration, 1872-76', Queensland review, 27 (2) (2020), 137-53. Details
• Mozley, Ann, 'Richard Daintree; first government geologist of Northern Queensland', Queensland Heritage, 1 (2) (1965), 11-6. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7325074. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/30946999. Details
• 'Daintree, Richard (1832-1878)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-556602. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Daintree - first Queensland geological surveyor', in The 1997 Australian Science Festival, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/other/asf_scientists.htm#richard. Details

See also

• Featherstone, Guy, 'Bonwick, James (1817-1906), teacher' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 3: 1851 - 1890 A-C, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp. 190-182. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bonwick-james-3022. Details
• Johns, R.K. ed., History and role of government geological surveys in Australia (Adelaide: South Australian Government Printer, 1976), 111 pp. Details
• Kerr, Joan ed., The Dictionary of Australian artists : painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870 (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992), 889 pp. pp. 187-9. Details
• Murphy, Sean, The Cranbourne meteorite (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly publishing, 2023), 164 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details