Transcript

Welcome, I'm in the bushland at Kamay Botany Bay National Park and I'm standing in a spot that the naturalist Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander may have stood in 1770.

Imagine their wonder at seeing this old man banksia for the first time. It's rough trunk, it's tough spiky leaves and huge flower cones. What a contrast to some of the soft pretty flowers of England where they came from.

Banks and Solander carefully cut specimens from each of the plants, making sure they collected examples of the different parts so they could record them for science. They were dried and drawings and paintings were made to record the colours and details.

They collected a hundred and thirty-two plant species from Kamay Botany Bay, collecting several specimens of each to take back to England to show the rest of the world.

Banks and Solander were amazed by the uniqueness and variety of plants at Kamay Botany Bay.

What do you find amazing about the Australian bush?

End of transcript.