Gulliver, Benjamin John   (1851 - 1938)

Born 28 Feb. 1851, Cornwall, England; died 30 Sept. 1938, Townsville, Queensland.

His parents, Thomas (Allingham) Allen Gulliver, aged 48, and his wife Sarah Jane Gulliver (née Day), aged c. 28, arrived in Melbourne on board S.V. Startled Fawn from Deal, England on 31 October 1856 with their four children.

Ship manifests and immigration documents listed four accompanying children: Thomas Allen Gulliver, aged eight years, Benjamin John Gulliver, aged five, Sarah Anne Gulliver, aged three and George (James) Gulliver, aged 21, Thomas' son by a previous marriage.
Another daughter, Susannah, was born in Sandhurst, Victoria in 1857.

After arrival in Melbourne, the family went to Bendigo where Thomas (Snr) tried his luck in the goldfields and later was employed at a station on Campaspe River before settling in Melbourne in 1860.

Thomas (Snr) took employment as a gardener when the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and adjacent gardens were under the directorship of Victorian government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller.

In February 1866 it was reported that Benjamin was a Garden Boy engaged in general garden work at the Melbourne Botanic Garden.

In 1867, at the age of 16, he was appointed by Mueller as the botanical collector on Captain Francis Cadell's Northern Territory Expedition on behalf of the South Australian Government.

To prepare for the Northern Territory Expedition, Benjamin John Gulliver arrived in Sydney during March 1867. Prior to departure, he made a significant number of collections from the Sydney area (Botany Bay, Manly Beach, Port Jackson).

Benjamin not only collected plants on the Northern Territory Expedition, but sometimes gathered other specimens of natural history.

Cadell's Northern Territory Expedition returned to Sydney in January 1868.

There are about 360 known collections of vascular plants made by Benjamin Gulliver during the Northern Territory Expedition. No bryophytes or algal specimens were collected. Gulliver's specimens are mostly of a high standard, including both leaf and reproductive material.

Little is known of Benjamin's employment or activities after his return from the expedition. In 1869, Benjamin was reported as contributing "growing plants" to the botanic gardens, and in the same year both he and his brother Thomas made "contributions of museum plants [i.e., herbarium specimens]" in 1869.

From about 1870, there are indications that Benjamin was involved professionally with horticulture in Melbourne as he was elected as a member of the Victorian Horticultural Improvement Society in 1870 and proposed as a member of the Horticultural Society the same year.

Benjamin moved to Tasmania in late 1870 or 1871 together with sister Susannah, and was engaged in seed collecting/marketing and fruit cropping at a property south of Hobart on Forestier's Peninsula, which he first leased and then later purchased.

He specialised in the collecting and marketing of Eucalyptus seeds. In a report of the May 1876 monthly meeting of members of the Royal Society of Tasmania there was reference to the "Brothers Gulliver" having collected seed of species of Eucalyptus from Mount Wellington. In part of a letter read at the meeting, Benjamin indicated that he had sent 10 lbs of seed from each of the alpine species, Tasmanian Snow Gum (E. coccifera Hook.f.) and Cider Gum (E. gunnii Hook.f.), and 2 lbs of Urn Gum (E. urnigera Hook.f.) seed to Europe since 1874, charging 30 shillings per pound for each species.

A donation from "B. Gulliver, Hobart Town. Eighteen kinds of Tasmanian seeds" was received by the Melbourne Botanic Gardens in 1874.

Benjamin moved from Tasmania to Townsville in about 1882, establishing 'Acacia Vale Gardens and Nursery' on the western outskirts of the town within what was soon after to become the suburb of Aitkenvale.
It quickly developed into one of the city's premier horticultural businesses and attractions. Aviaries and a small zoo were also maintained on the property, including a pair of cassowaries and crocodiles.

By the late 1880s, Benjamin, in collaboration with Thomas and Susannah, and some of his children, had formed 'Acacia Vale Gardens and Nursery' into a flourishing family business.

Benjamin, his wife Julia and Susannah remained living at the Hyde Park residence until their deaths in 1938, Susannah in February, Julia in September and Benjamin in October of that year.

Benjamin and Thomas made a small number of botanical collections in the vicinity of Townsville (Cleveland Bay, Magnetic Island) as well as a few other places in north-east Queensland.

Read:
A much more detailed account of the Gulliver family collecting, including birds, shells, etc in:
John Leslie Dowe & Philip S. Short,
"The Gullivers' travels: Thomas Allen Gulliver (1848-1931), Benjamin John Gulliver (1851-1938) and Susannah Gulliver (1857-1938): their contribution to Australian natural history and horticulture"
Swainsona 38: 4572 (2024)
https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/Publications/JABG38P045_Dowe.pdf

Source: Extracted from:
John Leslie Dowe & Philip S. Short, "The Gullivers' travels: Thomas Allen Gulliver (1848-1931), Benjamin John Gulliver (1851-1938) and Susannah Gulliver (1857-1938): their contribution to Australian natural history and horticulture" Swainsona 38: 4572 (2024)
Portrait Photo: None known

Collecting localities for 'Gulliver, B.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 666 specimens