On Tuesday 8th November 1859, the Philosophical Institute received a Royal Charter and became the Royal Society of Victoria.

The society, which originally met in the Assay Office of Crown Lands on La Trobe Street, then at the Natural History Museum at Melbourne University and also at the Mechanics Institute on Collins Street, moved into its current premises at 8 La Trobe Street on Wednesday 21st December 1859.

Royal Society Building,
8 La Trobe Street / 9 Victoria Street,
Corner of Rathdown, La Trobe and Victoria Streets,
Melbourne, Victoria 3000.

Office Bearers of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria and the Royal Society of Victoria

Prominent members of the RSV in 1860.

Acheson, Frederick.
Member from 1855 to 1860. Civil engineer who worked in the Crown Lands Office in Melbourne and presented two papers to the Institute on railways and motive power.

Bland, Rivett Henry (1811-1894).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030173b.htm
Public servant and company manager, member of the 25 man Exploration Committee of 1857.Born at Newark, Nottinghamshire in 1811, he migrated to Western Australia in 1829. In 1831 he was asked to lead an expedition through the Darling Range and establish a government farm at York. He accompanied Fitzgerald on an expedition in 1848 to the Murchison River, when A C Gregory was one of the party. In 1852 he arrived in Melbourne as the director of the Port Philip and Colonial Gold Mining Co. He formed the Clunes Quartz Mining Co. and managed the company for thirty years. Bland died at Clunes in 1894 and was buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Blandowski, William (1822-?).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030174b.htm
Naturalist, member of the first Exploration Committee and leadership contender for the VEE. Blandowski was born in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia in 1822 and arrived in Australia in 1849. He traveled through the colonies compiling a natural history, before making money at the Castlemaine goldrush. He invented a water pump and founded the Geological Society of Victoria in 1852. In 1853 he was attached to a field party led by Alfred Selwyn, the government geologist. Appointed to the Museum of Natural History upon its foundation in 1854, Blandowski was one of the eight original founders of the Philosophical Society of Victoria. Blandowski opposed the transfer of collections from the National Museum to the University of Melbourne by Professor Frederick McCoy and the antagonism between the two men escalated to become irreconcilable. Blandowski led several geological and natural history expeditions around Victoria and to the junction of the Darling and the Murray. Blandowski published a paper which likened prominent members of the Philosophical Society to slimy, slippery fish. He was asked to resign, but the motion did not get a two-thirds majority. He lost interest in the Society but sat on the Exploration Committee until March 1859, when he sailed for Java, then Silesia.

Bleasdale, Reverend Father Dr. John Ignatius (1822 - 1884).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030175b.htm
Catholic clergyman and member of the Exploration Committee and the Fund Raising Committee. Born in 1822 in Lancashire, Bleasdale was a Catholic clergyman interested in science. He arrived in Melbourne in 1850 and was appointed vice-president of seminary, St Patrick's College at Eastern Hill in 1855. He worked on the committee to establish a public museum of natural history in Melbourne in the 1850s, and pushed for the founding of schools of chemistry and mineralogy. Bleasdale was a foundation member of The Melbourne Microscopical Society, Fellow of the Geographical and Linnean societies and Honorary Member of Medical Society of Victoria. He was an active member of the Royal Society of Victoria and in 1865 became the society's President. He Migrated to California in 1877 and died in San Francisco in June 1884.

Bonwick, James (1817-1906).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030182b.htm
Teacher, author, historian and archivist. Honorable Secretary of first Exploration Committee. Born at Lingfield, Surrey, Bonwick was nominated to manage a school in Hobart in 1841. After two years he opened his own schools. Heavily in debt for building costs he went to the Victorian goldfields in 1852. He returned to Melbourne and worked as a lecturer and proprietor of Australian Gold Diggers Monthly Magazine as well as helping found the Victorian Liquor Law League which promote prohibition. He was inspector for the Denominational Schools Board from 1856 to 1859 when he was a member of the Philosophical Institute and Honorary Secretary of the Exploration Committee. He was involved in a serious coaching accident in September 1859 and received £300 compensation before leaving for England. He returned to Australia several times, before his death in Brighton in 1906.

Clarke, The Honorable Captain Andrew (1824-1902).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030386b.htm
Clarke was the Surveyor-General of Victoria, the first President of the Philosophical Society of Victoria in 1854 and the first President of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855.

Dobree, Arthur.
Member of the Society from 1855 to 1868. Presented papers on birds to the Society.

Eades, Richard (1809 - 1867).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040123b.htm
Physician and Mayor of Melbourne 1859-60. Vice-president of the Royal Society 1860.Born in Dublin in 15th August 1809 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1832, MB 1836 and MRCS in London 1834). Went to Paris to study botany and chemistry. Became FRCS in Ireland in 1844. Arrived in South Australia in 1848 where he practiced from 1849 to 1852, then moved to Melbourne. A founder of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855. Physician to the Melbourne Hospital 1859-66, official visitor to the Lunatic Asylum 1856-67. Appointed health officer for Melbourne in 1865 upon the death of Macadam. He lectured on materia medica in the Government Analytical Laboratory and began an extra-mural course for medical students, which hastened the establishment of the University of Melbourne Medical School. First lecturer in therapeutics at the University of Melbourne Medical School, 1862-67. He was a founder member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855 and vice-President of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1860. He died at his Windsor home on 12th October 1867 and is buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Elliott, Sizar (1814-1901).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040138b.htm
Wholesale ironmonger, merchant and innovator. Member of the Exploration Committee. Born at Burnham, Essex, Elliott mother took him to Canada at the age of four after the death of his father. In 1835 he left to join his uncle at Van Diemen's Land and moved to Sydney in 1839 where he set up a grocers shop. He went to the Bathurst diggings then to Victoria and then established a general retail business in Melbourne. He was interested in agricultural innovations and won medals for wine fermentation, butter pats and milk churns. He was a councilor of Melbourne City Council and a magistrate. He died at home in Prahran in 1901 and is buried at Cheltenham Cemetery.

Farewell, Charles.

Gilbee, William (1825-1885).
Surgeon and vice-president of the Royal Society. Born in Hackney, London, his mother moved to Van Diemen's Land in 1836 after the death of his father. Gilbee was educated in Edinburgh and London before sailing to Hobart in 1849. His family reunion was not good and he left for the Californian diggings before returning to England. Gilbee returned to Australia in 1852, opening a medical practice in Collins Street East. He became a noted surgeon and sat on many boards and committees. He was Vice-President of the Royal Society of Victoria. In 1883 he traveled to New Zealand and England and six weeks after his return in 1885, he died. He is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery. He left a bequest of £1000 to the National Gallery of Victoria, which resulted in Phillip Fox's Landing of Captain Cook and Longstaff's The Arrival of Burke and Wills at Coopers Creek.

Higinbotham, George (1826-1892).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040443b.htm
Politician and Chief Justice of Victoria in 1886. Member of the 25 man Exploration Committee of 1857. Born in Dublin, he sailed to Melbourne in 1853 where he was admitted to the Victorian Bar. He combined law and journalism and at the age of 30, became editor of the Argus. In 1861 he was elected Member for Brighton and in 1886 he became Chief Justice.

Hodgkinson, Clement (1818-1893).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040453b.htm
Naturalist and surveyor. Born in England, Hodgkinson was the Victorian Assistant-Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey 1861-74. He established a program of reservation, regulation, administration and education to control the use of Victoria's forests, a model for the future forestry profession

Hodgson, John.
Merchant and Mayor of Melbourne, 1853-4. He was elected to the Legislative Council.

Hough, G S (aka J Hough).
Worked for the Melbourne Argus.

Iffla, Dr Solomon.
Surgeon

Knaggs, Dr Robert.
Surgeon

Ligar, Charles Whybrow (1811-1881).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050101b.htm
Soldier, surveyor and grazier. Vice-president of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1861.Born in Ceylon, Ligar joined the Royal Engineers and then the Royal Ordnance Survey. He went to Ireland to carry out mapping surveys, before being appointed Surveyor-General of New Zealand in 1841. From 1858 to 1869 he was Surveyor-General of Victoria, but trying to reduce costs made him unpopular. He was a councilor of the Royal Society of Victoria from 1859 to 1868 and vice-president in 1861. He resigned his post in 1869 and lived on the Mediterranean coast before moving to Texas. He died in Texas and was buried at Willow Springs, Parker County.

Macadam, John. Hon Secretary (1827-1865).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050137b.htm
Analytical chemist and medical practitioner and politician.Born in Glasgow, Macadam was appointed lecturer in chemistry and natural science at Scotch College, Melbourne. He arrived aboard the Admiral in 1855 and held the post for ten years. He became a member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855 and was honorary secretary from 1855 to 1860. He was active in the move to obtain a royal charter, which the society achieved in 1860. He served as vice-president in 1863. He was appointed Victorian Government analytical chemist in 1858 and health officer for the City of Melbourne in 1860. In 1862 he became lecturer in chemistry for the Medical School of the University of Melbourne. In ill-health in 1865, he sailed to New Zealand to give evidence in a murder trial. He fractured his ribs on the return voyage and complications set in. On his next trip to New Zealand in September 1865, for the postponed trial, he died at sea and his body was returned to Melbourne where it is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. The macadamia nut was named after him by Mueller, (however macadamized roads were named after a Scottish engineer).

McCoy, Sir Frederick (1817 - 1899).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050156b.htm
Professor, paleontologist, naturalist and museum curator. Born in Dublin, McCoy was worked at the Dublin Geological Society, mapping Ireland and cataloguing shells and organic remains. He then went on to work in Cambridge and Belfast, before being nominated as one of the first professors of Melbourne University, a position he held from 1854 to 1899. He was Director of the National Museum of Victoria from 1858 and vice-president of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1861 and 1870 and president in 1864. He died whilst at work, aged 73, on 13th May 1899 and is buried in Brighton Cemetery.

McGillvray, Dr Paul Howard (1834-1895).
Scientist and medical practitioner and member of the 25 man Exploration Committee of 1857. Born in Edinburgh, McGilvray studied science and medicine, migrating to Melbourne in 1855. He was one of the foremost naturalists in Australia. Elected to the Philosophical Institute in 1857, he published several papers on sea-mosses. He died at home in Bendigo in 1895.

Mackenna, Dr J William. Surgeon.

McMillan, Angus.
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020159b.htm
Pastoralist.

Mueller, Baron Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von (1825 - 1896).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050353b.htm
Botanist and Director of the Victorian Botanic and Zoological Garden and influential member of the Exploration Committee. Born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Mueller and his two sisters sailed to Adelaide in 1847 seeking a warmer climate due to ill-health. He worked as an assistant chemist before moving to Melbourne in 1852 when La Trobe appointed him the first Government Botanist of Victoria - a post he held for 43 years from 1853 until his death. From 1853-73 Mueller was Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and in 1855-56 was naturalist to the North Australian Exploring Expedition under A C Gregory. He was instrumental in absorbing the Victorian Association for the Advancement of Science into the Philosophical Institute of Victoria and he was chairman of the Philosophical Institute in 1859 and a founder of the Royal Society of Victoria. He made an immense contribution to the study of botany, much of his work has still not been superseded. He died in South Yarra in 1896.

Neumayer, Georg Balthasar von (1826 - 1909).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050377b.htm
Magnetician, hydrographer, oceanographer, meteorologist and Director of the Melbourne Observatory. Born Bavaria, Germany, 1826, von Neumeyer, was a Bavarian Ship's Officer who had obtained his doctorate at Munich in 1849. He first arrived in Melbourne in 1852. Convinced of the importance of meteorology, he returned to Europe in 1854 and obtained the instruments necessary to establish an observatory in Melbourne. Initially working as a private citizen, he established a number of observing stations throughout Victoria, mainly at lighthouses. Neumayer set up the Flagstaff Observatory, Melbourne in 1858, employing Wills as a surveyor. He completed a detailed magnetic survey of Victoria 1858-1864 and in 1859 he was appointed as Government Astronomer. Neumayer was as councilor of the Royal Society in 1859 and vice-president in 1860. He played a leading role in the early scientific life of Melbourne before returning again to Europe in 1863. He died at Neustadt in 1909.

Pascoe, Lieutenant John Randall.

Rawlinson, Thomas E.
Member from 1854 to 1872. Presented numerous papers to the Society.

Sheil, The Very Reverend Louis St Frances.

Stawell, Sir William Foster Stawell (1815 - 1889).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060198b.htm
President of the Royal Society, Chairman of the Exploration Committee and Chief Justice of Victoria. Born at Old Court, Mallow Parish, County Cork, Ireland in 1815, Stawell read law in Dublin and London before migrating to Australia in 1842. He became a Member of Parliament and a Judgeand in 1857, became Chief Justice of Victoria. He was president of The Philosophical Institute of Victoria from 1858-9, and chairman of the Exploration Committee. Burke bequeathed his watch and papers to Stawell, who was the chief mourner at Burke's funeral. He died in Naples in 1889 and was buried in the English Cemetery there.

Smith, Alexander Kennedy (1824-1881).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060159b.htm
Engineer and member of the 25 man Exploration Committee of 1857. Born in Hawick, Scotland he worked as an engineer for his fathers company in Galashiels before working in Exeter for the Great Western Railway. In 1853 he was awarded a five year contract to build and manage the Melbourne Gas and Coke Co. He set up his own foundry at Carlton and built gas works at Ballarat, Castlemaine, Sandhurst and Newcastle. He contracted for many other companies, designing railways and gas and water supply networks. He was a keen advocate of understanding the power of nature and was a member of the Institute for the Advancement of Science and the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. Smith was elected to the Legislative Assembly as Member for East Melbourne and remained in politics until his death in 1881. He died at home in Studley Park and is buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

Smith, James (1820-1910).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060166b.htm
Journalist. Born at Loose, near Maidstone, Kent. He trained to enter the church but took up journalism and at 20 was the editor of the Hertfordshire Mercury and Country Press. He published a book in London in 1845 which brought him into correspondance with William Howitt and other writers of the time. In 1854 he migrated to Melbourne and became a leader-writer at The Age. He became the editor of the weekly Melbourne Leader in 1856 and also joined the staff of the Argus as leader-writer, dramatic, art and literary critic. In 1859 he became editor of the Melbourne Punch. He left journalism in 1863 and became the Victorian parliamentary librarian. In 1869 he started the Touchstone, then became editor of the Argus' weekly paper, The Australasian. As a member of the Royal Society of Victoria, it was hoped he would write an official history of the Victorian Exploring Expedition, but unfortunately this was a work he never attempted. In 1871 he founded the Victorian Review and edited the Melbourne Evening Mail. He retired in 1898, but continued to write for the The Age untill his death in 1910. He was widely read and had a retentive memory. He was one of Melbourne's best lecturers, he espoused free-trade and was an advocate of cultural and intellectual elevation and helped to establish the Garrick Club, the Melbourne Shakespeare Society, the Alliance Francais and the Dante Society. He married Annie Fieldwick and had two sons before she died in 1849. He had two more sons and four duaghters with his second wife, Eliza Julai Kelly of Melbourne. Smith died of cystitis at his Hawthorn home, Amwell, on 19th March 1910 and was buried at Boroondara Cemetery.

Watson, John.
Publican and author. Contributed to Punch.

Wilkie, Dr David Elliot (1815 - 1885).
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060432b.htm
Physician, leading member and treasurer of the Exploration Committee. Born in Edinburgh 1815, Wilkie studied in Edinburgh and Paris before sailing for Adelaide in 1838. He was disappointed at the state of the colony, so moved to Melbourne where he practiced medicine. In 1858 he became editor of the "Australian Medical Journal". Wilkie was prominent in founding the Melbourne Mechanics Institute in 1839, where he became treasurer. With Mueller and Macadam he formed a national collection of natural history specimens under the Philosophical Society of Victoria. He became a council member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria and active member of the Exploration Committee. He died suddenly in Paris in 1885.

Wilson, Edward, Esq.
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060446b.htm
Proprietor of the Argus.