Daintree, Richard (1831 - 1878)

Born at Hemingford Abbots, Huntingdonshire, England on 13th December 1831, died at Beckenham, Kent, on 25th June 1878.

Richard Daintree was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1852 he joined the gold rush in Victoria and in 1851-55 worked as an assistant geologist in the Victorian Geological Survey. He returned to England to study assaying and in August 1857 he was back in Melbourne working as Victorian Geologist until January 1865.

In 1865 Daintree took up land in north Queensland. In 1869 he was appointed Government Geologist for North Queensland. He was appointed in 1872 as Queensland Agent-General in London. Daintree became ill and resigned from his post in 1876 and left to convalesce in the south of France. In 1878 he returned to England and died later that year.

Daintree River was named in his honour. Richard Daintree was a fine petrologist and explorer. Queensland Herbarium records, show that he was collecting plants in November 1869 at Rockhampton and central Queensland ranges. He was a collector of the type of an Acacia named after him, i.e. Acacia daintreeana F. Muell.

Source: Hall, N and 1965 Australian Encyclopedia. Published in Port Curtis District Flora and Early Botanists by G.N. Batianoff and H.A. Dillewaard (1988), Botany Branch, Queensland Herbarium.