Rum, Rebels & Ratbags podcast uncovers truth about Sir Joseph Banks

Posted June 15, 2015 09:23:01

Beyond the discoveries made by Sir Joseph Banks, and his initial exploration of the east coast of Australia, lie many chapters and tales featuring stories of the man himself.

These are the stories historian and author David Hunt has illuminated in a new podcast titled Rum, Rebels & Ratbags, in collaboration with ABC Local Radio Evenings presenter Dominic Knight.

"Banks was the rock star of his era, [Captain James] Cook was really regarded as the guy who steered the boat for Joseph Banks," Mr Hunt said.

Some lesser known or unrealised titles that Banks also earned during his explorations included world's first surfing journalist, the model for the character of Mr Spock from Star Trek and the first person who introduced the word tattoo into the English language.

Sir Joseph Banks: botanist, explorer, 'scientific god of his era'

"Now we regard him as the plant guy, a man of not much importance other than collecting a few flowers and leaves when he came down under, but at the time he had this huge influence on British science, British decision-making about Australia," Mr Hunt said.

"He was a scientific god of his era."

After exploring zoology and botany as a child, Banks set off on his first voyage to Canada and was made a fellow of the Royal Society.

It was following this appointment that Banks and Lieutenant James Cook partnered up for a voyage south aboard the Endeavour.

Cook was sent to measure the Transit of Venus to help them measure longitude at sea, an opportunity that only came around every 125 years or so.

Cook didn't get much of a reception at all, as far as everyone was concerned his part of the voyage - measuring the Transit of Venus - was a failure but Banks was hailed as this hero of science.

David Hunt

Aboard the Endeavour, 32 metres long and around nine metres wide, Banks and Cook joined 94 men, dogs, cats, pigs, chickens and a goat for their voyage.

Ship life, along with the exploration and task at hand, led the crew to explore more than the outlined brief both on land and on deck.

"Alcohol was an incredibly important part of ship life and indeed, several of the Endeavour's crew died from acute alcohol poisoning," Mr Hunt said.

"The sailors loved the Tahitian girls who were wearing grass skirts and not a lot else.

"Banks' diary of the Endeavour voyage and his time in Tahiti is very, very racy."

When it came to Cook's mission to observe the Transit of Venus, Mr Hunt said: "the voyage was an astronomical failure".

But he said, during that time, Banks unwittingly earned a title as the world's first surfing journalist.

"He was the first bloke who actually recorded, in the written word, a description of people surfing," Mr Hunt said.

Life on board Endeavour - the Australian chapter

Unpacking secret orders, they headed south again in search of Terra Australis - first sailing to New Zealand before crossing the Tasman Sea to Australia.

Pulling into Stingray Harbour, renamed Botany Bay after much foraging by Banks, it was also the point at which he first documented the names of some iconic Australian wildlife, including the kangaroo.

"Admittedly, he stole it from the local Aboriginal people up near Cooktown in Queensland, but he named the kangaroo, the quoll, the native cat, and he was the first person to describe the dingo and flying fox," Mr Hunt said.

Relations with local Indigenous people were tense, evident by documented interactions with the Gweagal tribe at Botany Bay, and later at the Great Barrier Reef, where Cook noted: "all they wanted was for us to be gone".

Upon return, it was Banks' reflections on the Indigenous people that the British would use as justification for formal dispossession.

"Banks himself argued that the Aboriginals were too uncivilised to make proper use of the land, he said that they are 'ignorant to the arts of cultivation, and wandered from place to place'," Mr Hunt said.

"He (Banks) was the guy who directed, in many ways, that it be applied to Australia."

Banks hailed as 'hero of science' upon Endeavour return

From Batavia (now Jakarta) where the crew faced 35 deaths from malaria, the journey back to the UK marked public recognition for Banks, and Cook as a "bit of a B-grader".

"Cook didn't get much of a reception at all, as far as everyone was concerned his part of the voyage - measuring the Transit of Venus - was a failure but Banks was hailed as this hero of science," Mr Hunt said.

"He'd discovered over 1,400 new plants and over 1,000 new animals."

Back in England, Banks continued to be called on for his advice on dealing with British policy for Australia.

"Every time someone wanted to do something in New South Wales, the Parliament would seek the views of Banks," Mr Hunt said.

Deciding that Terra Australis was not properly found, Banks decided he wanted to try again, which never quite eventuated as "the power had gone to Banks' head".

"When he got home, he dumped his 17-year-old fiance, got another young woman pregnant - the only child he ever had - [with] a daughter," Mr Hunt said.

"He had a long-term affair with his house keeper and the Town & Country Magazine basically wrote an entire scandal sheet on the sexual escapades of Banks.

"He was a genuine playboy."

Banks 'cantankerous bastard' in later life

How did his life end up?

"In later life, that guy that was so young and playful becomes a really crusty, old fart," Mr Hunt said.

"He suffered from gout, he was grotesquely overweight, he was confined to a wheelchair, he had the British Empire's bushiest pair of eyebrows and politically, he was very conservative.

"He argued that all these convicts who were sentenced to death [were] instead being transported ... getting it easy, he recommended that the executions imposed by courts be followed through on.

"He railed against the opponents of slavery and animal vivisection, he regarded all of these people as soft Liberals and he didn't like them at all.

"In 1820, when he died, he was quite a cantankerous bastard really."

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Topics: community-and-society, history, sydney-2000