Cowley, Ebenezer (1849 - 1899)

Born in 1849 in UK; died on 8 February 1889 at his

Ebenezer Cowley was a significant collector of botanical specimens in northern Queensland and Papua New Guinea between 1890 and 1898.

After working as a horticulturist in South Africa and Fiji in the 1870s, he came to Queensland in 1881 to manage the Victoria sugar plantation near Ingham for the Colonial Sugar Refining Company.

As Overseer of the Queensland Government's Kamerunga State Nursery near Cairns he was instrumental in trialling and experimenting with tropical crops such as paw paw, coffee and coconut.

In May 1893 he went to New Guinea at the request of the Queensland Government to collect samples of sugar-canes for trial in Australia.

In PNG he collected at least in Kwato Isl. (Samarai Distr.) and at Port Moresby and also some from Thursday Isl.

Cowley published regularly on horticultural matters in regional newspapers.

He collections were sent to Queensland Government Botanist Frederick Bailey who described a substantial number of new species from this material.

Cowley's specimens are largely in the Queensland Herbarium [BRI].

LITERATURE.
(1) cf. List in Ann. Rep. Dept Agric. Brisbane 1893/94, p. 43.
(2) cf. Journ. Bot. 58, 1920, p. 193; and Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensl. 34, 1922, p. 49-51.

Source: Extracted from:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/1772738
Flora Malesiana, series 1, vol. 1, 1950
The Week (Brisbane, Qld.) Fri 10 Feb 1899 Page 13 MR. E. COWLEY.
Portrait Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowley_Creek,_Queensland

Collecting localities for 'Cowley, E.' from AVH (2026)

Data from 349 specimens