THE 
QUEENSLAND NATURALIST 
JOURNAL OF THE QUEENSLAND N ATU R A LI STS' CLU B 
Vol. xiv. JULY 1952 No. 4 
C. To White Memorial Lecture 
THE BRISBANE BOTANIC GARDENS 
By D. A. HERBERT 
In October, 1823, Governor Brisbane sent Lieut. 
John Oxley to explore Port Curtis and Moreton Bay and 
to select a suitable site for a penal station. At Port 
Curtis he discovered the Boyne River and at Moreton Bay 
the Brisbane. On his return be reported favourably on 
Moreton Bay, where he had been greatly impressed by 
the rich scenery and the wealth of timber. Governor 
Brisbane considered that these outlying penal stations 
should be at points favourable to cultivation “as being 
the best way of paving the way to free populations.” In 
the following- year Oxley returned with a small party of 
convicts and their guards to establish the new settlement, 
and after a brief stay at Redcliffe moved to the bend of 
the Brisbane River, where the city of Brisbane was later 
to develop. The site Avas decided by the discovery of a 
chain of fresh water ponds in the area now bounded by 
George and Roma Streets. 
The pioneering work of plant introduction to 
Australia had already been carried out around Sydney, 
which for about 30 years had been self-supporting for its 
food supplies, and within a few years there was a 
considerable amount of cleared and cultivated land on 
both sides of the Brisbane River. The settlement, how- 
ever. was essentially a penal station under military 
supervision, for the punishment of transported convicts 
who had been found guilty of further crimes after 
arrival in New South Wales. No free person was 
allowed within 50 miles of it, except by special permission. 
Discipline was harsh in the extreme under the command- 
ant, Captain Logan. It was not a peaceful community 
