King, Phillip Parker (1791 - 1856)

Summary

Phillip Parker King is considered one of the greatest of the early surveyors of the Australian coast. Having entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, United Kingdom, his first posting was as Midshipman in H.M.S. Diana in 1807, with promotion to Lieutenant in 1814. He received extensive training in hydrography from Thomas Hurd, Hydrographer to the Admiralty. In 1817 King was appointed to conduct surveys of the Australian coast, his orders relating to the survey of previously unexplored parts of the coast, and the collection of information on topography, resources, climate, and the Indigenous people and the possibility of trading with them. The cutter Mermaid was purchased for the conduct of the survey. Between 1817 and 1820 King made three surveying voyages around Australia. On all three voyages King was accompanied by botanist Allan Cunningham and Bungaree, an Aboriginal man who had been of material assistance to Matthew Flinders during his surveys. On arriving back in Sydney in December 1820, Mermaid was condemned as unfit for further surveying service. On his fourth voyage, King commanded H.M.S. Bathurst, a larger vessel with a deeper draft than Mermaid, with the potential to make close in-shore work difficult. King returned to the United Kingdom in 1823. Between May 1826 and October 1830 he commanded H.M.S. Adventure in charting the coasts of Peru, Chile and Patagonia. Adventure was accompanied by H.M.S. Beagle whose captain from August 1828 was Charles Fitzroy. King returned to New South Wales in 1832. For ten years from 1839 he was Resident Commissioner of the Australian Agricultural Company. King also made research notes on Australian natural history, collected insects and had a small observatory.

Details

Chronology

1802

Career event - Entered the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth, United Kingdom

1807

Career event - Midshipman, H.M.S. Diana

1814

Career event - Promoted to Lieutenant

December 1817 - April 1822

Career position - Commander of H.M.S. Mermaid and H.M.S. Bathurst on four surveying explorations around the Australian coast

July 1821

Career event - Promoted to Commander

May 1822 - August 1822?

Career position - Member, Philosophical Society of Australasia

April 1823

Life event - Arrived in the United Kingdom

1824 - 1856

Award - Fellow, Royal Society, London

1826 - 1830

Career position - Commanded H.M.S. Adventure in company with H.M.S. Beagle in South American waters

1832

Life event - Returned to New South Wales

December 1837 - January 1838

Life event - Explored the Murrumbidgee River, New South Wales

December 1838 - January 1839

Life event - Visited New Zealand and Norfolk Island

1839 - 1849

Career position - Resident Commissioner, Australian Agricultural Company

1843

Life event - Surveyed Port Stephens

May 1850 - June 1851

Career position - Member (appointed), Legislative Council, Parliament of New South Wales

September 1851 - February 1856

Career position - Member for counties of Gloucester and Macquarie (elected), Legislative Council, Parliament of New South Wales

1855

Career event - Promoted to Rear-Admiral on the retired list

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

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

• King Family - Records, 1843 - 1897, ML MSS 673; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• King Family - Records, 1831 - 1903, ML MSS 3447; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1817 - 1823, ML MSS 4429; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1837 - 1843, ML MSS 963; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1817 - 1822, FM 4/2113 and FM 4/2094-5; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1818 - 1829, ML DOC 2312; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1837 - 1861, ML MSS 592; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1817, ML DOC 920; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1819 - 1830, ML MSS 1521; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1848 - 1856, MS Q299; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1824 - 1855, A3599 and on microfilm FM 4/66; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1817, MS 1645; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1818 - 1821, Mfm G/1893; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 9 February 1818 - 3 May 1818, Mfm G 1883; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• Phillip Parker King - Records, 1826 - 1830, MS 3232; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Abbott, Brian Douglas, Phillip Parker King 1791-1856: a Most Admirable Australian (Sydney: Glenburgh Pty Ltd, 2012), 397 pp. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., The Origins of Australian Meteorology, Metarch Papers No. 12 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1998). Details
• Hordern, Marsden, King of the Australian coast; the work of Phillip Parker King in Mermaid and Bathurst 1817 - 1822 (Carlton South (Vic.): Melbourne University Press, 1997), 441 pp. Details
• Ingleton, G. C., Charting a Continent; a brief memoir on the history of marine exploration and hydrographical surveying in Australian waters, from the discoveries of Captain James Cook to the war activities of the Royal Australian Navy (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1944), 145 pp. Details
• King, P. Parker, Fitzroy, Robert and Darwin, Charles, Narrative of the surveying voyages of his Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe, 3 vols (London: Henry Colburn, 1839). Details
• King, Phillip Parker, Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia performed between the years 1818 and 1822 by Captain Phillip King, 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1826). Details
• McKenna, Mark, From the edge: Australia's lost histories (Melbourne: The Miegunyah Press (University of Melbourne Publishing Ltd), 2016), xx, 251 pp. See pages: 67, 117-120, 166, 193-195. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., The Australian botanical journals of Allan Cunningham: the Oxley and early King expeditions October 1816 - February 1819 (Weston Creek, A.C.T.: A. E. Orchard, 2018), 309 pp. Details
• Orchard, A. E.; and Orchard, T. A., The Australian botanical journals of Allan Cunningham: the later King expeditions February 1819 - September 1822 (Weston Creek, A.C.T.: A. E. Orchard, 2018), 431 pp. Details
• Tiley, Robert, The Mermaid Tree: How a Tiny Unknown Ship Opened Australia's North and West to Development, Dreams and Disappointment (Sydney: ABC Books, 2006), 297 pp. Details
• Wellbank, I., compiler, Complete sailing directions for the various passages to and through Torres Straits: comprising the inner passage of the late Admiral King, and the outer routes by Raine Island: and by the north eastern entrance, by Captain Blackwood (...) (Sydney: Reading & Wellbank, 1864), 47 pp. Details

Book Sections

• 'King, Phillip Parker (1791-1856), naval officer, hydrographer and company manager' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 2: 1788 - 1850 I-Z, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1967), pp. 61-64. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020053b.htm. Details
• Shellam, Tiffany, 'The centrality of ethnographic inquiry on Phillip Parker King's Australian hydrographic survey' in Expeditionary anthropology: teamwork, travel and the "science of man", Thomas, Martin; and Harris, Amanda, eds (New York: Berghahn, 2018), pp. 205-32. Details
• Shellam, Tiffany, 'Ethnographic inquiry on Phillip Parker King's hydrographic survey' in Expeditionary anthropology: teamwork, travel and the ‘science of man’, Thomas, Martin; and Harris, Amanda, eds (New York: Bergahn Books, 2018), pp. 205-32. Details

Conference Papers

• Curry, Suzanne; Maslin, Bruce, 'Cunningham's Collecting Localities While Botanist on Lieutenant Phillip Parker King's Survey of Coastal Australia, December 1817 to April 1822', in History of Systematic Botany in Australasia: Proceedings of a Symposium Held at the University of Melbourne, 25-27 May 1988 edited by Short, P.S. (Melbourne: Australian Systematic Botany Society, 1990), pp. 137-148.. Details

Edited Books

• Stanbury, David ed., A narrative of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, being passages fron the Narrative written by Captain Robert FitzRoy, R.N., together with extracts from his logs, reports and letters; additional material from the diary and letters of Charles Darwin, notes from Midshipman Philip King and letters from Second Lieutenant Bartholomew Sullivan (London: Folio Society, 1977), 359 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Beanland, Denver, 'Connections in charting the Great Barrier Reef, 1770 - 1850', Queensland history journal, 24 (3) (2019), 251-67. Details
• Kenneally, Kevin; and Clement, Cathie, 'Two centuries on: the iconic "Mermaid" boab tree in the Kimberley', Australasian Systematic Botany Society newsletter, 188 (2021), 32-8. Details
• Morgan, Kenneth, 'Navigating the Great Barrier Reef: the inner and outer routes, 1815 - 1860', International journal of maritime history, 31 (1) (2021), 37-53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0843871421991164. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne, 'Illuminating Incidents in Antipodean Astronomy: Phillip Parker King and the Founding of Sydney Observatory', Vistas in Astronomy, 32 (1988), 285-301. Details
• Paterson, Alistair [and others], 'The Mermaid? Re-envisaging the 1818 exploration of Enderby Island, Murujuga, Western Australia', Journal of island and coastal archaeology, 15 (2) (2020), 284-304, https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2019.1604007. Details
• Paterson, Alistair; Shellam, Tiffany; Veth, Peter; Mulvaney, Ken; Anderson, Ross; Dortch, Joe; and McDonald, Jo, 'The Mermaid? Re-envisaging the 1818 exploration of Enderby Island, Murujuga, Western Australia', Journal of island and coastal archaeology, 15 (2) (2020), 284-304. Details
• Russell, H.C., 'Astronomical and Meteorological Workers in New South Wales, 1778-1860', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1888), 45-94, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813133. Details
• Shellam, Tiffany; and Paterson, Alistair, ' A historical stratum of geological collections from Western Australia in the Natural History Museum, London', Studies in Western Australian history, 35 (2020), 37-57. Details
• Webb, Joan B., 'A. Cunningham, P.P. King and the Legacy to the Botanical Fraternity', Australian Systematic Botany Society Newsletter, 152 (2013), 4-7. Details
• Whitley, Gilbert P., 'Some Early Naturalists and Collectors in Australia', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, xix (1933), 291-304. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1338334. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/52570893. Details
• 'King, Phillip Parker (17911213-18560226)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-494430. Details

Resource Sections

• Gibbs, W. J., 'The Origins of Australian Meteorology', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0805.html. Details

Seminar Papers

• Brock, John F., 'Cook-Bligh-Flinders-King: the quadrilogy of master mariners' in given in The Discovery Room, Australian Museum, Tuesday 6pm (Sydney: Australian Science History Club, 2005). Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_k.html. Details
• Branagan, David and Moore, D. T., 'W. H. Fitton's Geology of Australia's Coasts, 1826', Historical Records of Australian Science, 19 (1) (2008), 1-51, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR08001. Details
• Gregson, Jesse, The Australian Agricultural Company, 1824 - 1875 (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1907), 336 pp. Details
• Maiden, J. H., 'Records of Australian botanists:- (a) general; (b) New South Wales', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, 42 (1908), 60-132. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
• Stehlik, Brigitte, 'Hermann Klaatsch and the Tiwi, 1906', Aboriginal history journal, 10 (1986), 59-77. http://doi.org/10.22459/AH.10.2011.06. Details