This book argues that Australian science, like other aspects of Australian society, was dependent on the Australian state, and that the two developed in tandem. Key dates in establishing the three different parts of the book—1788, 1850, and 1901—correspond to watersheds in the establishment of the Australian polity: the foundation of the British colony, moves to responsible government, and Federation. The book concludes with the Second World War and its aftermath, since this is when government involvement with science was most clearly established. Within this structure, the book shows the development of the sciences in relation to the political and social life of Australia more generally. In discussing the nineteenth century, particular attention is devoted to natural history and the way in which its cultivation was linked with both elite culture and pragmatic requirements of the colonies. Increasing government involvement is also illustrated in relation to other sciences such as astronomy, meteorology, and geophysics. In covering the period from 1901 to 1945, warfare looms large and, with it, an expansion in government involvement in science—an important manifestation of which was the establishment of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in 1926. The book concludes with an epilogue considering how far the association between the state and science has continued since 1945.

John Gascoigne is Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, Australia, where he was a member of the School of History from 1980 to 2016. His publications have focused on the British Enlightenment, Joseph Banks and his world, Australia and the Enlightenment, the Pacific, and the relationship between science and the state.