Historical Herpetology
A redoubtable Victorian: Frederick McCoy.
The first in a series of articles about Australian pioneers.
P
erhaps most notable amongst
present day herpetologists for
first describing three species of
native venomous snakes, including
the Inland Taipan (Oxyuranus
microlepidotus), and the Eastern
Water Dragon (Intellagama lesueurii
lesueurii), Frederick McCoy was the
charismatic founding Professor of
Natural Sciences at the University of
Melbourne, and left as his legacy a
prodigious body of work.
McCoy was born in Dublin in either
1817 or 1823. The son of a doctor
and professor of medicine, McCoy
initially undertook some medical
training, but quickly reverted to his
real passion: natural history and
palaeontology (at the age of eighteen
he published a catalogue of shells
and other specimens exhibited in the
Rotunda in Dublin). He assisted Sir
Richard Griffith in classifying Irish
fossils, before being selected to
arange the collections of fossils at
the Woodwardian Museum at
Cambridge. His colleague Adam
Sedgwick noted the ‘enormous’ and
‘unremitting’ endeavours of this
‘excellent naturalist’ and
‘incomparable palaeontologist’. In
1849, McCoy was appointed as
professor of geology and curator of
the museum at Queen’s College,
Belfast. He continued to publish
‘McCoy lectured on chemistry,
geology, botany, zoology and
palaeontology...’
Above right: The
dapper young
scientist. By artist
F. Schoenfeld.
Source: State Library
of Victoria.
Left: portrait by
Johnstone,
O’Shaunnessy & Co.,
photographers,
c. 1870. Source: State
Library of Victoria.
prolifically, and his reputation was
such that in 1854 he was chosen by a
committee as one of the first four
professors of the University of
Melbourne, which was to open in
1855.
There were few students initially,
and as Professor of Natural Sciences,
McCoy lectured on a diverse range
of subjects including chemistry,
geology, botany, zoology and palae-
ontology, although his teachings
tended to lack practical components.
The remote colony, with its astonish-
ing collection of native fauna and
flora, must have represented an
incredible opportunity to a scientist
blessed with the capacity for tireless
labour. In 1857, McCoy established
the National Museum of Natural
History and Geology, which was
housed in a building in the university
grounds that was later destined to
become the Student Union. He was
also instrumental in the design and
construction of the university’s
Botanic Garden in 1856, and a
sketch of his perfectly-geometric
layout provides a glimpse of the
highly-ordered workings of the mind
of a nineteenth-century systematist.
Amongst other responsibilities, he
also occupied the position of State
Palaeontologist, and was president of
the Royal Society of Victoria in
1864.