The History of Plant Pathology in Australia

Abstract

Plant pathology in Australia began in the last century as a result of sporadic rust epiphytotics blighted wheat crops and devastated part of the vital food supply of the pioneers. Soon after the first settlement was established in Australia in 1788, Governor Phillip devoted all his spare time to the question of providing food for the young colony (84). The first crop· of wheat was grown (46) in what is' now the Sydney Botanic Gardens (28) . Collins was the first to record disease in wheat in 1795 in a crop of bearded cape wheat which was not worth the labour of at Pe­ tersham Hill, now the site of Sydney University (111) . Early settlers refer­ red to disease of wheat crops as blights or accidents, and the disease could not be identified. Joseph Holt, a farmer, gave an accurate description of a rust-infected wheat crop at Dundas, New South Wales, in 1803. After a few days of foggy weather and within 3 weeks of harvest, wheat was reduced in value from £1400 to less than £20. It covers the whole wheat straw with reddish powder .... (84, 90). The early Governors frequently mentioned crop losses in their des­ P!ltches to the British Government. Governor King in his despatch of 1804 (46) reported: Our last year's crop was much injured by rusts and smuts. The early records of rust attacks in the Australian colonies have been re­ viewed by Waterhouse (111), who showed that rust epiphytotics occurred in 1799, 1803, 1805, 1829, 1832, 1860, 1863, 1864, 1867, andI889. Not long after the founding of Victoria in 1851, the Board of Agricul­ ture (forerunner of the Department of Agriculture) was established. Within 5 years three rust epiphytotics occurred, causing the Board to appoint a committee in 1864 to inquire into the causes and prevention of rust. F. Mueller (later Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller), Government Botanist and Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, was chairman. The rust committee (72) determined the effect of agricultural practices on the inci­ dence of the disease and recommended early sowing and careful selection of wheat varieties as a means of control. In Australia this first official scientific inquiry into a major plant disease came at the time when plant pathology was established in Germany as a scientific discipline by de Bary. Following an outbreak of wheat rust in 1867 in South Australia the Gov­ ernment of that colony appointed a similar committee (88).