THE AFSTRAI.IAN MI'SKt'M KAULY HISTORY Kl'lIKIil I'l; K. iUJl 



Tliei't' was no lack oi" a|»|)li{'aiit.s Idi' flic use of flic " lai'ge i-ooni '' as if 

 iiearetl ctmi|>letioii. The " Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in 

 Australia " held its summer meeting' there witli the |)ermission of His 

 Excellency the (io\"ernor-(Teneral''^*. The " Austialasian Botanical and 

 Horticultural Society'' also held its monthly meetings in tlie Ctjmnuttee 

 Room (now the Board Room), commencing in September, 1848^^. But 

 possibly tlie meeting tliat attracted the largest amount of public attention 

 was a ball given in " Commemoration of the first Steam Mail communi- 

 cation [R.M.S. ' Chnsan '] between Great Britain and Australia," and the 

 Museum was in consequence closed for a month^'' ! Date of the ball was 

 26th August. 



In these early days tlie contents of the Australian Museum was of a 

 dual nature, Natural History on the one hand. Fine Arts on the other. The 

 latter consisted of " Casts from the Antique " presented by Sir Charles 

 Nicholson in November, 1849^''. The walls of the Committee Room (the 

 present Board Room) were ordered to be painted dark red as a set-off to 

 the white statuary'^''. Later this was amplified by a purchase for £320 

 of other pieces from a Mr. Nichol in 1852'^-*. These were placed in the 

 "great hall," but iu July, 1858, their removal became necessary during 

 the erection of a contemplated gallery around this i-oom ; further, at this 

 date the replicas were not paid forgot 



Through the disastrous ending of the Kennedy Expedition to Cape 

 Yoz'k in 1848, the services of Mr. T. Wall, as Collector, were lost^^ ; he was. 

 appointed in April, 1848. When it was determined to fit out an Expedition 

 to Shelbourne, or Weymouth Bay, to seai'cli for any chance survivors, it 

 was contemplated by the Trustees to send the Curator, Mr. W. S. Wall, 

 as one of the party to endeavour to recover any objects of Natural 

 History collected by his brother^^^ ^3^^; i\^q suggestion fell through^^^ 



About this time the Director of the Botanic Gardens (Mr. Charles 

 Moore) was asked to lay out and plant the ground in front of the 

 Museum. From Mr. Moore's predilection for that scourge of gardens, the 

 Moreton Bay Fig, this occurrence probabh' marks the date of planting of 

 the tx'ees but recently I'emoved^^. 



A study of the " Minutes " of this period, aided by the perusal of 

 documents preserved in the Museum archives, and elsewhere, plainly 



"■^ Document B. 10.48 



^■' Minutes, 24th Sejit, 1848. 



19.52 



>*« Minutes, lltli Aug. 1852; Document A. 



2 

 30.49 



•*' Document C. 



4 

 «8 Minutes, (ith Oct., 1849. 



«« Minutes, 24th Oct., 1852; Letter-book, i., p. 126. 

 «" Minutes, ;«)th July, 1858. 

 »i Minutes, 17th March, 1849. 



«■'' Mmutes, 17th March, 1849; Letter-book, i., p. 94. 



10.49 



«:' Minutes, 24th March, 1849; Document B.B. 



1 

 '■'■^ Minutes, 2()th May, 1849. 



