Joseph Banks

24 February 1743 (Lincolnshire) – 19 June 1820 (London)

Joseph Banks was an English naturalist of aristocratic origin and one of the most influential figures in eighteenth-century British science. From an early age he showed a keen interest in botany and natural history, and at the age of 22 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, an institution he would later preside over from 1784 for more than forty years.

His name became closely associated with James Cook’s first great voyage to the Pacific (1768–1771). Banks took part accompanied by naturalists, illustrators and assistants whom he financed himself — among them Daniel Solander and Hermann Spöring — and together they collected thousands of specimens in places as diverse as Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, Tahiti (where they observed the transit of Venus), New Zealand and Australia. Banks and his collaborators were the first to study Australian flora systematically, and the genus Banksia was named in his honour; today it is a symbol of that continent’s vegetation.

After returning, Banks undertook several shorter exploratory journeys and, above all, acted as a patron of numerous scientific expeditions around the world. From his position at the Royal Society and as adviser to King George III, he promoted the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which under his leadership became an international centre for the acclimatisation and exchange of useful and ornamental plants.

At Marimurtra, nine species of the genus Banksia can be seen, all with spectacular inflorescences and infructescences, mostly native to the Mediterranean-climate regions of Western Australia.