Ferdinand Mueller and the Royal Society of Victoria

Abstract

During the 1850s the botanist Ferdinand Mueller (later von Mueller) played a leading role in the affairs of the predecessor societies of the Royal Society of Victoria. He was president of the last of these, the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, when in January 1860 it was granted permission to style itself the Royal Society of Victoria. The formation of these societies also advanced Mueller’s own career at a crucial stage of its development. In particular, their commitment to publishing volumes of Transactions provided Mueller with a vehicle for publishing descriptions of the many new species he was identifying in the Australian flora, thus freeing him from his former dependence on colleagues in Europe to see his work into print. Following the launching of a series of his own, Fragmenta phytographiae australiae, in 1858, Mueller no longer had to depend on the local society, either, in order to see his botanical work published. When his experience and advice were ignored in the planning of the Burke and Wills Expedition and he became thoroughly disillusioned with fellow members of the Royal Society who were responsible for the debacle, he gradually distanced himself from the organisation and had little to do with it for many years thereafter.