Bosisto, Joseph (1827-1898)

Born at Cookham, Berkshire, 21st March, 1827; died at Richmond, Victoria, 8th November, 1898.

He was a pharmaceutical chemist, and arrived in Adelaide in 1848. He was probably the earliest manufacturer of essential oils in Australia on a commercial scale, and gave special attention to the manufacture of eucalyptus oil, building up a large business in this. article. He took to politics, and was in the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 9th April, 1874, to 11th March, 1889 and from 20th April, 1892, to 4th September, 1894, and, by means of Exhibition Commissions and Royal Commissions, he exercised considerable influence in the direction of the manufacture and utilization of products from Australian indigenous vegetation.

His contributions to scientific literature include ;-
"Abstract of a Paper on.the Yield and Uses of Volatile Oils from Native and Imported Plants in the Colony of Victoria" (Proc. Roy.Soc. Vict., vi., 52);
"Some Notes on the Culture of Opium in Gippsland" (Proc. Roy.Soc. Vict. x., 39);
"On the Culture of Mentha piperita, or True Peppermint, in Victoria, &c." (Proc. Roy.Soc. Vict.., x., 116);
"Is Eucalyptus a Fever-destroyingTree?" (Proc. Roy.Soc. Vict. xii., 10).

Source: Maiden, J.H. (1908). Records of Victorian Botanists. Victorian Naturalist 25:101-117
Portrait Photo: Scan from Pearn, J.H. (2001), A Doctor in the Garden: Nomen Medici in Botanicis : Australian Flora and the World of Medicine, p. 100. Amphion Press, Brisbane. [Image supplied for Pearn publication courtesy of Victorian Parliamentary Library and Information Services, Parliament House, Melbourne]

Pharmaceutical chemist, influential in use of native flora. Arrived Adelaide, S.A.,1848. Became close friend of Mueller. Went to Forest Creek goldfields & studied flora there. In 1852 returned to Adelaide, then to Melbourne & established pharmacy with laboratory to study properties of native flora.

Distilled essential oils, esp. Eucalyptus, the first to do so commercially; with partners established Eucalyptus Mallee Co. near Dimboola.

Mayor of Richmond 1865-67. MLA, Vic, 1874-89. President, Pharmacy Board, Vic, 1877.

Collected in Vic. at L.Hindmarsh Oct. 1882, 1883; Wimmera 1889; near Beaconsfield 1895; also Lachlan R., NSW, 1890.

Published several papers in Proc. Roy. Soc. Vic. CMG 1886.

Specimens at MEL.

Commemorated in Bosistoa, Eucalyptus.

Source: George, A.S. (2009) Australian Botanist's Companion, Four Gables Press, WA. [consult for source references]