Charles Fraser (botanist)

Charles Fraser or Frazer or Frazier (born 1788 and died 22 December 1831) was Colonial Botanist of New South Wales from 1821 to 1831. He collected and catalogued numerous Australian plant species, and participated in a number of exploring expeditions. He was a member of the Stirling expedition of 1827, and his report on the quality of the soil was instrumental in the decision to establish the Swan River Colony.

Charles Fraser was born in Blair Atholl, Perthshire, Scotland in 1788. He worked as a gardener, probably for the extensive estates of the landlord, the Duke of Atholl, and subsequently had connections with the botanic gardens of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He enlisted as a soldier in the 56th Regiment on 8 June 1815, and served in the East Indies before arriving in Sydney on board the convict ship Guildford on 8 April 1816. There, his skills as a horticulturalist were recognised, and he was appointed superintendent of the Royal Botanic Gardens, a position that he would hold until his death. In November 1816, Fraser was transferred to the 46th Regiment. He again transferred regiments in August 1817, this time to the 48th Regiment of Foot. On 6 January 1821, Fraser was discharged from the army and formally appointed Colonial Botanist, a position that he had been holding informally at least since 1819. Over the subsequent decade, he organised the development of Sydney Botanic Gardens from the governors’ kitchen garden to a world-renowned botanic garden, receiving and sending plants and seeds to all the major horticultural centres as well as to penal settlements and major gardens in New South Wales.

From 1817, Fraser travelled extensively as a field collector. He was a member of three of John Oxley's expeditions: his 1817 expedition to the Lachlan River and Bathurst, his 1818 expedition into north-eastern New South Wales, and his 1819 expedition in the areas of Port Macquarie and Hastings River. He visited Tasmania in 1820, and in 1826 visited Tasmania, New Zealand and Norfolk Island.

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