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Charles + Elizabeth Coxen Plaque
Charles + Elizabeth Coxen Plaque

Photographs supplied by Diane Watson

A plaque commemorates Charles Coxen and his wife Elizabeth Frances Coxen. 

Charles Coxen (20 April 1809 – 17 May 1876) was an Australian naturalist and politician. He emigrated to New South Wales, Australia, in 1834, to join his elder brother Stephen who had emigrated there seven years previously. During 1834-1835 he travelled through the sparsely settled country between the Hunter and Namoi Rivers, including the Liverpool Plains, collecting specimens of birds and mammals.

In 1851 he married Elizabeth Frances Isaac, a woman who, unusually for the times, became known for her studies in meteorology and conchology, later becoming the first woman member of the Royal Society of Queensland. In 1855 he helped found the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, became its first honorary curator and secretary, as well as being a trustee, in association with the explorer Sir Augustus Gregory. He was also a founder of the Queensland Philosophical Society in 1859, the predecessor of the Royal Society of Queensland.


From 1855 to 1860 Coxen served as a member of a standing jury appointed to try civil cases in Brisbane. In 1860 he was elected the representative of the Northern Downs to Queensland’s first parliament. In 1874 he was appointed to a commission inquiring into conditions of Aboriginals in Queensland. Coxen died at Bulimba in Brisbane in 1876.

 

Location

Address:Wynnum Road, Tingalpa Pioneer`s Chapel & Cemetery, Tingalpa, 4173
State:QLD
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -27.472658
Long: 153.111758
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Plaque
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Science
Link:http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/adbonli…

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Saturday 25th October, 2003
Front Inscription

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF CHARLES COXEN

1809 - 1876

naturalist, politician, pastoralist, public servant, founder of the Queensland Museum, the Queensland Philosophical Society, the Acclimatisation Society, and of Christ Church, Tingalpa

"A good Christian and sincere friend"

And

ELIZABETH FRANCES COXEN (nèe Isaac)
1825 -1908

his consort and companion. naturalist, meteorologist, pioneer, curator and first woman employed by the Australian museum, founder of St. John The Baptist Church, Bulimba

This plaque was erected by The Friends of Tingalpa Cemetery Heritage Group Inc and the Queensland Museum 25 - 10 -2003

Source: MA, ADB
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au