Allan Cunningham (botanist) - Coastal Exploration

Coastal Exploration

Cunningham traveled as the ship's botanist aboard HMS Mermaid under Phillip Parker King from 1817 to 1820. The Mermaid was of only 85 tons, but sailing on 22 December 1817 they reached King George Sound on 21 January 1818. Though their stay was short many specimens were found but the islands on the west coast were comparatively barren. Towards the end of March the Goulburn Islands on the north coast were reached and many new plants were discovered. They reached Timor on 4 June 1818 and, turning for home, arrived at Port Jackson on 29 July 1818. Cunningham's collections during this voyage included about 300 species.

Shortly after his return, Cunningham made an excursion south from Sydney, ascending the prominent peak of Mount Keira overlooking the Illawarra region and present day Wollongong. Towards the end of the year he made a voyage to Tasmania arriving at Hobart on 2 January 1819. He next visited Launceston and though often finding the botany interesting, he found little that was absolutely new, as Brown had preceded him. In May he went with King in the Mermaid on a second voyage to the north and north-west coasts. On this occasion they started up the east coast and Cunningham found many opportunities for adding to his collections. One of these was after the ship reached the mouth of the Endeavour River (the site of modern Cooktown) on 28 June 1819.

The circumnavigation of Australia was completed on 27 August when they reached Vernon Island in Clarence Strait. They again visited Timor and arrived back in Sydney on 12 January 1820. The third voyage to the north coast with King began on 15 June, but meeting bad weather the bowsprit was lost and a return was made for repairs. Sailing again on 13 July 1820 the northerly course was followed and eventually the continent was circumnavigated. Though they found the little vessel was in a bad state when they were on the north-west coast, and though serious danger was escaped until they were close to home, they were nearly wrecked off Botany Bay. The Mermaid was then condemned and the next voyage was on the Bathurst which was twice the size of the Mermaid. They left on 26 May 1821, the northern route was chosen, and when they were on the west coast of Australia it was found necessary to go to Mauritius to refit, where they arrived on 27 September 1821. They left after a stay of seven weeks and reached King George Sound on 24 December 1821. A sufficiently long stay was made for Cunningham to make an excellent collection of plants, and then turning on their tracks the Bathurst sailed up the west coast and round the north of Australia. Sydney was reached again on 25 April 1822. Cunningham provided a chapter on botany to King's Narrative of a Survey.