Joseph Whittaker

Joseph Whittaker
Born	1813 Breadsall
Died	2 March 1894
Residence	Ferriby House, Morley
Nationality	British
Education	nurseryman
Occupation	schoolmaster, nurseryman
Known for	Flora of Australia, Flora of Derbyshire
Spouse(s)	Mary

Joseph Whittaker (1813 – 2 March 1894) was a British botanist who visited South Australia in 1839. Whittaker has 300 plants from that trip in Kew Gardens and a large collection of pressed British plants in Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

Whittaker's exact birth date is not known. He was christened at Quarndon near Derby on 8 February 1813. His father, also named Joseph, was a labourer, married to Sarah (born Clarke). The son is sometimes reported as being born in Breadsall in 1815.

In 1838 Whittaker gave his occupation as "gardener" when he set sail with his new employer Lt. Col. George Gawler, who had recently been appointed as the second Governor of South Australia. Whittaker, seven other employees from Derbyshire, Gawler and his wife and children arrived on the Pestonjee Bomanjee on 12 October 1838 in Adelaide. They had made a four-month journey via Tenerife and Rio de Janeiro. When Whittaker and Gawler arrived they found that conditions were poor, so gardening was not the top priority.

He is known for the plants that he collected around Adelaide in South Australia in 1839-40. During breaks in his employment Whittaker travelled to many places within South Australia where he collected and preserved a wide range of plant specimens. These included Mount Lofty range, Mount Jagged, River Torrens, River Murray and the Hindmarsh River. Whittaker was the first person to seriously collect from the mountainous district of the Fleurieu Peninsula, Encounter Bay and Mount Barker.

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