Investigator Tree

Sketch of the living Investigator Tree from John Lort Stokes' Discoveries in Australia Vol. 11 from the Queensland Museum Rare Books Collection.

The 'Investigator Tree', Sweers Island, from a photograph taken in 1871 by Captain Sweet of the Gulhave.
Image: Queensland Museum Collection.

'…a very interesting discovery we made of the name of Flinder's ship cut on a tree near the well… on the opposite side of the trunk, the Beagle's name and the date of our visit were cut'

John Lort Stokes (1846) Discoveries in Australia Volume 11.

During the third expedition of the HMS Beagle in 1841, the crew landed on Sweers Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and found a tree bearing the inscription INVESTIGA 1802, evidence of the voyage of Matthew Flinders on the Investigator nearly 40 years earlier.

The captain, John Lort Stokes, dubbed it the Inscription Tree and added another carving to record the visit of the Beagle.

The Investigator Tree is a remarkable piece of exploration history. The tree's trunk has become an iconic object in Queensland Museum's collection of historical artefacts.

In 1988, Bill Kitson (Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying), together with the Department of Forestry (Indooroopilly) and CSIRO, identified the tree species from wood samples. As part of a bicentennial project a specimen of the same species, Celtis paniculata, was planted at the site of the original tree.