Darwin's journey in Australia
INTRODUCTION
Charles Darwin was born on 12 February 1809.
He spent from 12 January to 14 March 1836 in Australia on the homeward leg of his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle. He visited Sydney, travelled over the Blue Mountains to Bathurst, explored Hobart and its environs as far as New Norfolk, and spent a week at King George Sound.
All the time Darwin was collecting rocks, insects, plants and animals, observing the inhabitants, thinking over what he found and relating this to what he had seen earlier on the voyage.
He was a perceptive observer of the Australian scene and evidence he collected here informed the development of his theory of natural selection. His most famous book, On the origin of species by means of natural selection, was published 150 years ago in November 1859. Nothing was quite the same again.
Charles Darwin died on 19 April 1882, aged 73.