Andrew Goldie (1840-1891)
North Ayrshire Heritage Centre holds various paper documents and other artefacts relating to Andrew Goldie, a Scottish Victorian plant collector who was born at Kelburn, Largs, and spent his formative years in Millport, Isle of Cumbrae.
Andrew Goldie was born on May 5 1840, the first born child of David Goldie and Agnes Clark. At the time of Andrew’s birth, his father was the Head Gardener at the Kelburn estate, which belonged to the Earl of Glasgow. After completing his education on Cumbrae, Goldie worked with his father to learn about Gardening before working for the Duke of Atholl at Dunkeld House in Perthshire. The gardens there were full of exotic plants, and this may have encouraged Goldie so seek opportunities to see and work with exotic plants in their native habitat.
North Ayrshire Heritage Centre holds a diary that Goldie kept on his first voyage to New Zealand in 1863. This document details his personal experiences of travelling to the other side of the world on board the clipper ship “Queen of Beauty” and gives in depth detail of his observations about many different aspects of the journey, from religious services to meals and stores, the other passengers and meeting other ships, most notably their meeting with the CSS Alabama, a confederate commerce raider with the purpose of sinking or burning Union merchant ships to stop them completing trade. The crew on board the Alabama mistook the Queen of Beauty for a ‘Yankee’ trade ship and boarded her. Thankfully, the relevant paperwork proving that the ship was a British passenger ship was produced and the Queen continued on her journey. The Alabama burned 65 Union vessels during her 2 year service, before being sunk by the USS Kearsage in 1864. The Queen of Beauty reached Auckland, New Zealand on 10 August 1863.
In February 1875, Goldie entered into an agreement with B S Williams of Upper Holloway nursery, London, to collect plants and seeds in the ‘South Sea Islands or such other locality as the said Andrew Goldie shall deem most proper” and he then travelled back to Australia to begin his plant and animal specimen collecting adventures. He really meant to travel the New Hebrides, but on the toss of a coin, his fate changed and he decided to travel New Guinea.
North Ayrshire Museums Service holds in their collections a memoir written by Goldie of his travels from 1875-1879. The unfinished 120 page memoir of his first four years in New Guinea gives an insight into his life amongst the native people and missionaries in New Guinea, his successes and trials, his discovery of new places, a new river and new species of plant and animal.
Some of Goldie’s notable discoveries were:
The Goldie River
Goldie’s Bird of Paradise (Paradisea Decora)
Bauhinia Williamsii
Combretum Goldieanum
Goldie was also responsible for a minor Gold Rush in New Guinea in 1877. One of his native crew found gold in the Goldie River and many prospectors gathered but no quantities of gold were discovered.
Goldie died at Whinfield House, Millport in 1891 and is buried in the Old Kirkton Graveyard on the island of Cumbrae. There is a small display of artefacts from his travels on display at the Museum of the Cumbraes located in the Garrison House in Millport.
“Andrew Goldie in New Guinea 1875-1879: Memoir of a Natural History Collector” (Steve Mullins, Martin Bellamy and Clive Moore) was released a few years ago. The book focuses on the memoir that is held in our collections.
