Skip links and keyboard navigation

Commissioner Bidwill's Grave

Cran Road, Tinana

Remove favourite

Commissioner Bidwill's grave 2009; Heritage Branch staff

Commissioner Bidwill's grave 2009

Commissioner Bidwill's grave 2009; Heritage Branch staff

Commissioner Bidwill's grave 2009

The grave of Commissioner John Carne Bidwill is located on private property near the junction of Tinana Creek and the Mary River. He was the first Commissioner for Crown Lands, appointed in 1848 to the Wide Bay region. Bidwill was also well known as a talented botanist and natural historian involved in species identification in New Zealand and Australia. He regularly sent seeds back to England for propagation and distribution from the 1830s. There are numerous species either named after him, or named by him, the best known being the Bunya Pine (Araucaria Bidwillii). In 1847, he was appointed as Government Botanist and Director of the Sydney Botanic Gardens; a position he held briefly. On his arrival in Wide Bay village in 1848 (renamed Maryborough in 1849), he established a home for himself six km south of the village. He had a dubious reputation in dealing with the frontier conflict with the local Butchilla people. Bidwill established his own botanic garden on this site, and after his death in 1853 some of his plants were relocated to the Maryborough Botanic Gardens, including the Bunya Pine and a sausage tree. Other specimens were sent to Brisbane, Rockhampton and Ipswich.

Coordinates: -25.56313092, 152.71107202

Full details of this heritage-registered place are in the Heritage register.

My favourites

View favourites list (1 favourites)

Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Last reviewed
1 July 2022
Last updated
28 February 2023