Beauty Rich and Rare transcript

On this page is a transcript of the audio (spoken narrative) that features in Beauty Rich and Rare, on display at the Museum of Sydney. This 20-minute digital work of art uses maps, journals and other documents from the Endeavour voyage of 1768–71 to re-create the wonder experienced by Sir Joseph Banks and the botanists, scientists and illustrators on that extraordinary adventure.

Beauty Rich and Rare transcript

Written by Anthony Bastic
Narrated by Angela Catterns

From prehistoric times to the present day, and across all cultures, the human race has been guided by the stars on land and at sea.

The stars led us to expand our knowledge of the world.

Beauty Rich and Rare illuminates Australia’s unique flora and fauna and pays homage to Joseph Banks and his intrepid team of scientists and illustrators.

In 1767 the Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge persuaded the British Government to send a ship to observe the Transit of Venus in the South Seas. A passionate botanist who was interested in all aspects of natural history, Joseph Banks paid 10,000 pounds to join the voyage. The British Admiralty paid 4,000 pounds and provided the ship, the HMB Endeavour. Banks’s party included illustrator Sydney Parkinson, world-famous naturalist Daniel Solander, two servants, his two greyhounds, a library of more than 100 books and a mountain of equipment.

James Cook, captain of the Endeavour, was issued with two sets of instructions by the Admiralty. The first was to observe the Transit of Venus, and the second was to sail south in search of the fabled ‘Great Southern Continent’.

After an eight-month journey the Endeavour arrived in Tahiti. On June 3, 1769, Cook, Banks, astronomer Charles Green and naturalist Daniel Solander recorded the Transit of Venus on the island of Tahiti. Their findings helped to expand scientific and navigational knowledge by accurately calculating each observer’s longitude. Tahiti, previously charted in 1767, was one of the few islands in the South Pacific with known latitude and longitude.

To accurately record the Transit of Venus, multiple observation points were required. During a transit, Venus appears as a small black disc travelling across the sun. This unusual astronomical phenomenon takes place in a pattern that repeats itself every 243 years.

The observers recorded the transit in four phases of Venus’s journey across the sun. On the day of the transit, the sky was clear. Independent observations were made by Cook, Green and Solander with their own telescopes. Because of the rarity of the event, it was important to take accurate records.

The results of the observation calculated that the distance from the Earth to the sun was 93,726,900 miles. Modern measurement is 92,955,000 miles, which is only eight-thousandths of a per cent different to the calculation made in 1769.

Following the Admiralty’s instructions to search for the ‘Great South Land’, the Endeavour now began a journey which would eventually put all of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia on the map.

Tupaia joined the expedition in July 1769 when the Endeavour passed his home island of Ra’iatea. He was welcomed aboard at the insistence of Joseph Banks, on the basis of his evident skill as a navigator and mapmaker. Tupaia drew a chart showing all 130 islands within a 2,000-mile radius and he was able to name 74 of them.

Battling heavy seas, the Endeavour sailed south from Tahiti in search of land, to a latitude of 40 degrees. Finding only open seas there she then sailed west until, on October 7, 1769, a teenage crewman spotted land. It was the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island.

Between October 1769 and April 1770 the Endeavour sailed over 2,400 miles around the coast of New Zealand, surveying and mapping the coast from on board the ship or from shore.

The maps made at this time continued to be used for another 80 years, and the finding that New Zealand was made up of two distinct islands revoked Tasman’s belief that it was part of the Great South Land.

In 1992, NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour carried a piece of wood from the original Endeavour during its mission to topographically map the Earth, ultimately confirming Cook’s navigational skills.

Early on the morning of 19 April 1770, Cook’s second in command, Zachary Hicks, spotted a smudge of land running from the north-east to the west. It was the first recorded sighting of the Australian continent’s eastern coast by a European.

On April 20, Banks wrote in his journal, ‘at noon a smoak was seen a little way inland and in the evening, several more’.

The Endeavour continued northwards, Cook carrying out a running survey of the land, mapping their way along the coast.

On April 28, they came to ‘a Bay which appeared to be tollerably well sheltered from all winds’, now known as Botany Bay.

Joseph Banks recorded the fishing party observed at Botany Bay. He wrote:

The Endeavour was severely damaged on a coral reef near the place now known as the Endeavour River in Queensland. Here, the many weeks it took to repair the ship afforded Banks the opportunity to travel widely for specimens.

On Banks’s instruction, Sydney Parkinson made 94 drawings in 48 days in Australia. Parkinson did not colour his sketches on the journey. He took extensive notes about the colours as he drew the specimens. There were no standardised colour systems in the 18th century. Parkinson did not have time to watercolour his paintings and left detailed notes about the colours.

These sketches were brought back to England, where Banks commissioned artists to engrave them and create etchings. Banks insisted on having every line Parkinson had drawn included in the engravings. 743 copper plates were created this way.

For nearly three years Banks and his associates collected natural history specimens, made drawings, compiled vocabularies and kept journals as they voyaged to South America, Tahiti, New Zealand, the east coast of Australia, New Guinea and the Cape of Good Hope. They identified about 1,400 new specimens.

Many of the plants collected by Banks were important sources of food and medicine for Indigenous Australians. Guided by traditional uses, scientists today search for active compounds for use in modern medicine. For example, the coastal jack bean (Canavalia rosea) has compounds that are cytotoxic – they kill cancer cells. Potentially this unites traditional knowledge and science to create new treatments for all.

Joseph Banks collected and catalogued over 7,000 plant species in his lifetime. His energy and imagination changed the science of natural history forever. His desire for adventure and discovery opened the eyes of the world to Australia’s extraordinary botanical diversity.

Nearly 250 years later, Sir David Attenborough said, ‘No journey has brought back such treasures’.

Australia is one of the most biologically diverse countries on the planet. It’s home to more than one million species of beautiful, rich and rare plants and animals, many of which are found nowhere else.