Mabberley, Plant introduction and hybridisation in colonial NSW 
543 
Bid will went in February 1839. He sailed to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, using it 
as a base and walking to Rotorua with seven Maoris and, at least at first, a white 
interpreter. He was collecting both herbarium specimens and live plants, finding 
near Rotorua the scented Easter orchid, Earina aiitumnalis, which he was to bring 
back alive to England'’. He pushed on to Taupo, where only one European had ever 
been seen (and that was only three weeks previously), carrying medical supplies for 
the Maoris (Andrews 1990). Crossing Lake Taupo, he reached Lake Rotoaira, exploring 
the spurs of Tongariro before being recalled in April. 
He was thus the first European to collect plants in the interior of the North Island; he 
was also the first European to ascend the cone of the active volcano Ngauruhoe 
(Anderson 1958) and perhaps the first man to do so as the Maoris would not climb it. 
The firewood used during the ascent was gathered from plants now known as 
Halocarpiis bidivillii (Podocarpaceae) and BrachyglotHs biclioilUi (Compositae). Among 
the other plants he collected were Raoitlia australis (Compositae, his specimen preserved 
at K), so small that he took it for a lichen, and a number of species like Acaena 
microphylla (Rosaceae) and Celmisia spectabilis (Compositae) which he would have liked 
to have introduced to British gardens. Having not had the blessing of Chief Te Heuheu 
to climb the mountain, there was in consequence a difficult meeting between the two 
men, apparently with distrust and lack of understanding on both sides. 
Despite the danger, Bidwill survived to write an account of his experiences. Rambles 
in Nezo Zealand (1841), which is a very readable bouncy narrative but includes much 
original information on the North Island, especially important being observations 
on agricultural practices, notably the effects of burning. Reprinted in 1952 in a limited 
edition, the original is now a very rare and valuable book, though perhaps some 
500-600 copies were printed in London (Bidwill 1952). The copy presented to his 
sister Elizabeth has its original 'butcher-paper' cover and is preserved in the 
Mitchell Library, Sydney and another in original binding is held at the library of 
Rhodes House, University of Oxford. 
During his stay Bidwill met the resident botanist, the Reverend William Colenso 
(1811-1899) and, being recalled to Sydney in April, took a consignment of living and 
preserved plants with him, losing a few of the live ones during the voyage (Bidwill 
and Woodhouse 1927: 114). He sent his best set of herbarium specimens to John 
Lindley of the Horticultural Society of London with a less complete one to William 
Hooker. Lindley published none of Bidwill's findings and many of his discoveries 
were for a time credited to Ernst Dieffenbach, whose collections were made later. 
Meantime the Colonial Government of NSW had increased land prices to 12/- per 
acre though surveyed land was still to be sold at the original price. Bidwill discovered 
to his consternation that the delays meant his land had not been surveyed and on 
15 July 1839 he wrote (Bidwill & Woodhouse 1927, Ch. 14, 15) that negotiations with 
the Government over his case were unsuccessful; he never became a station-owner. 
In 1840 he was in New Zealand once more, having been sent to Fort Nicholson, 
Wellington, and collected more plants. He accompanied E. Jerningham Wakefield on 
an expedition by sea to Wanganui (Wakefield 1908: 284-290), collecting many shells. 
He supported the move for Wellington to become the capital and bought land there 
'at a high price' to demonstrate his backing. During this visit he met Maoris who 
remembered his ascent of Ngauruhoe and knew him by the name of the mountain 
(Bidwill & Woodhouse l.c.). These experiences may have induced him to encourage 
his brother Charles Robert to settle in New Zealand, for 'Robert' too had left England 
for Australia in November 1840. John Bidwill now added a little to his Rambles (the 
preface is dated Sydney 25 August 1840), the dedication to the Earl of Devon, 
Governor of the Plymouth New Zealand Company, being dated June 1841. 
