Julian Tenison Woods

'The Earnest Naturalist'
Julian Tenison Woods - Scientist
1832-1889

A Mary MacKillop Place Museum Temporary Exhibition.

This exhibition examines the scientific work of Father Julian Tenison Woods, co-founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

Mary MacKillop wrote of Father Woods' unlimited sense of the comic and his 'great capacity for work'. He was the 'earnest naturalist, the scientist priest, the lover of the beautiful'.

Woods was pre-eminently both priest and scientist. He managed, though sometimes at cost, to give due weight to the demands of science and ministry so that in his life each enhanced the other.

The list of the scientific writings of Julian Tenison Woods is impressive. The number of articles, over 200 of them, suggest the dedication of the professional scientist. The variety of his interests - molluscan fauna, geology, palaeontology, corals, botany, plant geography and more - highlight his versatility and talent. The recognition and acclaim of his peers give testimony to the importance of his contribution to nineteenth century Australian science.

'Searching for beetles, butterflies, rocks and fossils'

Woods was born in London on 15 November 1832 the fifth surviving child of James Dominic Woods and Henrietta Maria St Eloy Tenison and one of a family of seven sons and a daughter. Three other children died. His father worked as a parliamentary reporter for The Times and three of his brothers pursued careers in journalism. Woods also shared this family gift with words.

From his earliest years he showed an interest in natural history, and with his brothers collected and preserved butterflies, beetles, shells and rocks. His boyhood coincided with an unprecedented national obsession with natural science in England. Science fascinated the young man and he made the most of any opportunity to increase his knowledge and skill. While teaching English and pursuing theological studies at the Marist College at Toulon in the south of France in 1854 he also enrolled in classes in drawing, philosophy, natural history and chemistry. When a cholera outbreak caused the College to close in mid 1854 he returned to England and attended a mini course of lectures on scientific subjects. Apart from these short periods he had no formal training in science.

'The Priest'

By chance in October 1854 Woods met Bishop Robert Willson of Hobarton and, two weeks later at the bishop's invitation, he sailed for Australia to serve as a lay chaplain to the convicts of Van Dieman's Land. The arrangements did not work and before the end of 1855 he left Hobarton and eventually moved to Adelaide where James his brother had settled. Adelaide's first bishop, Francis Murphy, offered him, in mid-1856, the opportunity to complete his studies for the priesthood with the Jesuit priests at Sevenhill. Two earlier attempts to reach his goal of ordination had failed but this time he succeeded. Murphy ordained Woods as a priest on 4 January 1857.

As a priest he served in the vast parish of Penola in the south east of South Australia for ten years and there, with Mary MacKillop, co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph in 1866. In Adelaide, as Director of Catholic education (1867-1871) he played a major role in the establishment of a Catholic education system. Later from 1871-1883 he specialised in the preaching of missions in Queensland, Tasmania, and New South Wales and then spent some three years in South East Asia.

'The Scientist'

In Penola, Woods continued his interest in science. Though residing far from other men of science, he established contact with Ferdinand von Mueller, the Government Botanist of Victoria, with Frederick McCoy, Professor of Natural Science at the University of Melbourne and with the geologist clergyman, W. B. Clarke in Sydney. He also corresponded with overseas scientists, including Sir Charles Lyell, the great British geologist.

Von Mueller encouraged Woods to publish his first formal paper, `Observations on Some Metamorphic rocks in South Australia' in the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in November 1857. That paper and the others that followed during his years in Penola (1857-67) showed Woods to be a perceptive and careful observer, conversant with the scientific literature of the day, and an excellent writer.

With the publication in 1862 of his first book, Geological Observations in South Australia, Woods became well known as a scientist. As a first attempt at a systematic examination of the geology of South Australia, the book marked a noteworthy achievement in the history of such endeavours in the colony. British periodicals as well as the colonial press praised the book's style and its content. The South Australian Register, in an editorial in May 1863, declared it knew of no other book by an Australian which would bear comparison with Geological Observations for it contained so much useful matter for men of science and so much the ordinary reader could comprehend. In it Woods attempted to provide a model for the general reader to make geological observations in his own area and so contribute to the geological knowledge of Australia.

Unravelling the Natural History of Australia

In October 1857, at the threshold of his scientific career, he enunciated a basic principle that guided all his scientific writings - theory and generalisation could be validly attempted only when the hard work of 'detail' had been accomplished. He believed, quite correctly, that no generalisation of the natural history of an area, or comparison of one area with another could be undertaken until the fauna and flora, living and fossil, of the places had been adequately described.

When he found himself in places where the description of local species needed attention Woods turned to that work. Thus many of his contributions to the scientific journals consisted of description after description of various fossil and living molluscs, sea urchins, corals and other invertebrates. At the meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania in August 1875 he illustrated his belief in the importance of taxonomy, the description of species, by giving a practical example. The famous Baron Cuvier in his determination of the fossil bones of Montmartre in France was aided by earlier studies of freshwater molluscs. The association of the bones with known freshwater shells enabled Cuvier to explain the conditions under which the extant mammals had existed. Thus the seemingly endless descriptions in Woods' published works, about forty five per cent of his total output, were not ends in themselves but steps in the scientific process.

Where close observations had already been made and recorded he worked well beyond taxonomy. George Bentham, the famous English botanist, and Ferdinand von Mueller in their great work, Flora Australiensis (1863-1878), had already described and catalogued plant species. Thus Woods, in Queensland, began to investigate the range and abundance of plants mainly of the more northerly section of the State. His five-part 1882 series 'Botanical Notes on Queensland' provided at that time the most informative ecological information on Queensland plants. The manner in which he studied types of vegetation as distinct from flora resembled the approach plant ecologists developed in the early twentieth century.

What ever the level at which Woods worked he saw himself as a mainstream contributor engaged in helping to unravel the natural history of Australia.

Recognition as a Scientist

A most public acknowledgment of Woods as scientist occurred when the members of the prestigious Linnean Society of New South Wales elected him as president in 1879 and in 1880 and for the following three years as vice president. The Society then changed its rules in 1884 to allow for more than one vice president. This change enabled Woods to continue in office even though absence from Australia and then poor health on his return, would make it impossible for him to be an active vice president. Undoubtedly, his prominence as scientist made it of benefit to the Society to have him as one of its officials.

Other public successes followed. His book, Fish and Fisheries of New South Wales, which formed part of the New South Wales display at the Fisheries Exhibitions in 1883, won a diploma in London and a medal in Amsterdam. In 1888 he received the medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales and 25 pounds for his essay 'On the Anatomy and Life History of the Mollusca Peculiar to Australia'.

The ultimate Australian honour came to him when the Council of the Royal Society of New South Wales unanimously resolved to award him the Clarke Medal for 1888. This award recognised his contribution to Australian Natural History, especially in the field of geology. Woods, as the eleventh recipient of the Medal, joined an elite group of distinguished overseas and local scientists. Earlier winners included the anatomist, Professor Sir Richard Owen, the botanists, George Bentham, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and Baron Ferdinand von Mueller and geologists Professor James Dwight Dana and Alfred R.C. Selwyn. All of the recipients of this prestigious award with the exception of Woods were professional scientists.

The Evolution Debate

Given his involvement in science from the 1850s Woods inevitably had to face the question of evolution. Though he argued against evolution and natural selection on scientific grounds his basic objection centred on the denial of the involvement of God in life. Woods certainly did not advocate separate creations of 'the snap of the fingers, animal appears, type of event'. Moreover he saw no indignity in the derivation of the human body from a blob of jelly but insisted that someone must have given the blob the power of reproducing itself and of adapting to changing physical demands. While he criticised Darwin's conclusions he had praised the naturalist's method of scientific inquiry and in 1880 even declared that there was much truth in evolution. Woods believed, however, as did many of his contemporaries, that man's superiority came from his creation in the image and likeness of God and he could not compromise on that point.

Travels in Asia

By 1883 with the arrival in the Maitland diocese of the Redemptorists, a religious order of priests devoted to preaching parish missions, bishops no longer needed the services of Woods. Fortuitously for him, his old friend, Frederick Weld, former governor of Western Australia and of Tasmania and currently governor of the Straits Settlement invited him to investigate the mineral resources of the Malay Peninsula. Woods was a good choice. He had no financial interest in Malaysia and his reputation as a geologist could be convincingly demonstrated.

During his three years in South East Asia, in addition to reports, he wrote on his travels for the Sydney Morning Herald and some short pieces for the London scientific journal, Nature, as well as a few papers for the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He contributed only one article to the Australian scientific periodicals. The Linnean Society published his `Report on the Geology and Physical Geography of the State of Perak' in December 1884. His many other observations made in Malaysia, Japan, Borneo, the Philippines and other places and copiously recorded in his notebooks had to await his return to Australia for publication.

'Come then, sweet life, whom men call Death' - Julian Tenison Woods

When Woods died on 7 October 1889 after a long illness the various scientific societies of Australasia lamented his death as a severe loss. Professor Ralph Tate of Adelaide University later summed up the sentiments expressed in many of the tributes paid to Woods. Tate warmly acknowledged him as one of the leading Australasian naturalists whose writings in Geology, Palaeontology, Botany and Zoology had become a part of the story of scientific progress in Australasia. He also paid tribute to the influence of Woods' enthusiasm for science on his fellow naturalists and noted, too, his generosity as friend and skilled adviser. Above all he praised him as a devoted priest and as an earnest and powerful preacher.

Members of the scientific community joined the many mourners who attended his requiem Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. They and others who knew and appreciated Woods responded to an appeal, organised by his long-time friend William Archer of Melbourne, and erected in Waverley Cemetery a fitting monument to his memory.

In spite of his achievements and the acclaim he received during his life time, the memory of Julian Tenison Woods as scientist quickly faded. A mere seven years after his death an attempt to memorialise him, by giving his name to a peak in the Snowy Mountains, failed. Some 80 years later, in 1974, a 780 metre crest in the D'Aguilar Range north-west of Brisbane was officially designated 'Mount Tenison Woods'- a fitting honour at last!

Exhibition Photos