identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
039987BBFFA17478689CF9DDFE8B138E.text	039987BBFFA17478689CF9DDFE8B138E.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Emydura australis Gray 1841	<div><p>Provenance of the Emydura australis holotype</p><p>As noted above, the hand-written register entry for the E. australis specimen 40.12.9.82 says that it was from New South Wales, but the 1841 description by Gray says it was from “ Western Australia?” and the collection locality of the specimen is vague in all of Gray’s subsequent published writings.</p><p>Morphology (Cann 1998; Cann &amp; Sadlier 2017) and mitogenomics (Kehlmaier et al. 2019) clearly indicate that the specimen is from north-western Australia and is not conspecific with Emydura macquarii, and thus the following consideration of the likely source and provenance of the type specimen is focussed on expeditions to that region prior to its acquisition by the British Museum in 1840.</p><p>Historical evidence</p><p>In the mid-nineteenth century it took between four and six months to reach London by ship from Australia, so it is reasonable to assume that the specimen must have been shipped from Australia by no later than early August 1840. Most shipping between Australia and England then used the Australian ports of Perth, Hobart and Sydney, while there were occasional naval vessel passages from some other Australian locations including Port Essington in the north of the continent. This means that there was very likely to have been a period from when the specimen was collected in north-western Australia until its shipment from an Australian port to London, which in most scenarios would have been at least several weeks and potentially several months. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the specimen was collected by no later than June 1840. In considering information about where and when possible collectors operated within the distributional range of E. australis, it is reasonable to assume that this was approximately the latest by when it might have been obtained from the wild.</p><p>John Gould</p><p>The E. australis holotype is listed in the NHMUK register as “Presented by Mr. Gould ”. John Gould travelled to Australia from England, arriving in Tasmania (then Van Diemen’s Land) on 18 th September 1838 and collected specimens on the island until he travelled to New South Wales and was in the Hunter River / Liverpool Plains area in February and March 1839. He then travelled back to Tasmania until returning to New South Wales for the period from August 1839 to March 1840 (Albrecht &amp; Albrecht 1992). Gould and family left Sydney aboard the Kinnear on 9 th April 1840, reaching London about 18 th August 1840. Gould wrote to John Gilbert on 6 th November 1840 (National Library of Australia, Papers of John Gould MS 587) telling him that he and family had, “arrived back in London in good health after a pleasant voyage of four months and I am happy to say all the collections have reached their destination in good order. ” He mentions that these included ‘birds and quadrupeds’, which could have included turtles.</p><p>John Gilbert</p><p>John Gilbert collected natural history specimens in Australia for Gould after he travelled from England to Tasmania with the Gould family. Like Gould, he did not collect anywhere within or near the range of E. australis in north-western Australia, but his writings demonstrate that he was open to obtaining specimens collected by others. Gilbert was collecting natural history specimens in the Swan River (Perth) area of Western Australia from 6 th March 1839 until 29 th January 1840 (Whittell 1942a, b). In a letter to Gould of 11 th April 1839 (transcribed in full in Chisholm 1938) he mentions that the German collector Johann August Ludwig Preiss who was also collecting in the Swan River area offered Gilbert specimens that were excess to his own requirements. While Preiss collected only in south-western Australia (McGillivray 1975), this demonstrates Gilbert’s willingness to acquire specimens collected by others.</p><p>In assessing the possibility that the E. australis specimen was obtained by Gilbert from a third party, it is informative to consider what is known about shipments of specimens he sent to Gould before August 1840.</p><p>A letter from Gilbert to Gould of 20 th May 1839 (also transcribed in full in Chisholm 1938) says he was then sending Gould a box of 203 specimens on HMS Herald. It included, “ 203 specimens, and 75 species of birds, 2 reptiles …”. This reads as two species of reptiles (rather than two specimens), but if that is what he meant, it is not clear how many specimens were entailed nor what taxa they were.</p><p>On 3 rd September 1839 Gilbert wrote to Gould from Swan River that since he had last written he had, increased his collection, “to 150 species and 530 specimens of birds; 13 species of quadrupeds; about 70 skeletons; 7 bottles of reptiles &amp;c.; a few fish; 500 insects; a few crustacea; and 3 or 4 hundred plants.” (National Library of Australia, Papers of John Gould MS 587). He did not say whether he sent this collection to Gould at that time.</p><p>A shipment sent by Gilbert to Gould from Swan River on 1 st January 1840 left Fremantle aboard the Shepherd and arrived in London five months later. It was received by Gould’s secretary, Edwin Charles Prince, who acknowledged its arrival in a letter to Gould dated 4 th May 1840 (Hindwood 1938; Whittell 1942a). A list of specimens included in that shipment is held by the National Library of Australia. The list’s left column explicitly lists “8 Lizards” and “1 Turtle”. Its envelope is post-marked 4 th May 1840, evidently for the date of its arrival in London (National Library of Australia, Papers of John Gould MS 587).</p><p>That shipment reached London ahead of Gould’s arrival back there in August 1840 and so specimens from it could readily have been presented to the British Museum by Gould on 9 th December 1840. However, other than a single unspecified turtle, the specimens in this list from Gilbert do not coincide with the 40.12.9 series in the NMHUK register. There is only one ‘iguana’ (a specimen of Tiliqua scincoides) from NSW in the 40.12.9 series and it does not include the eight lizards from the Shepherd shipment. The list includes one turtle, while the register entries for the 40.12.9 series include four turtles (two of which are recorded to be from W.A.). Thus, at least three of the four specimens in the series accessioned by the Museum on 9 th December 1840 were not from this shipment sent by Gilbert.</p><p>After a fortnight collecting around Albany while the Caledonia was in port there, Gilbert reached Sydney on 30 th April 1840. On 15 th May he wrote to Gould (transcribed in part in Whittell 1942a). about another shipment he was sending from Sydney that included specimens he had collected around Swan River and a box of birds collected by Lieutenant Owen Stanley around Port Essington (Cobourg Peninsula, NT). In a further letter of 8 th June (again transcribed in full in Chisholm 1938) sent just prior to Gilbert’s own departure for Port Essington, he mentions that the shipment had included the “remaining portion of my collection formed at Swan River.” The National Library of Australia holds an undated list of Gilbert’s specimens with the Library’s title List of specimens sent to London from Sydney, 1839–1840 (National Library of Australia, Papers of John Gould MS 587) it is evidently Gilbert’s catalogue of this shipment as, in addition to his own material, it includes “21 skins of Birds from Port Essington collected by Lieutenant Stanley”. This shipment included “1 Fresh water Turtle (skinned)”, which is evidently an animal obtained by Gilbert because the Stanley collection included only birds and, while it was shipped by Gilbert to Gould, it was destined for the collection of the Zoological Society in London (Wheeler 1997), rather than for Gould himself or for the British Museum. The note that the turtle in this collection was skinned does not assist in its identification. The E. australis holotype and the lectotype Chelodina oblonga specimen which are both part of the NHMUK 40.12.9 series, are taxidermied and were prepared by cutting around the entire animal through the skin of soft parts and the plastral bridges to remove internal organs and musculature and then suturing the upper and lower portions back together after stuffing. Gilbert’s portion of this shipment from Swan River is the last from him that could have reached London in time for a specimen to have been lodged with the British Museum by 9 th December 1840. Gilbert himself sailed for Port Essington in mid-June and once there he was well outside the distributional range of E. australis . (and no Emydura inhabits Cobourg Peninsula where Port Essington was located). In addition, the lack of vessels passing through Port Essington meant that even if he had obtained it from someone else, he had no further opportunity to send it in time for it to have reached London before 9 th December 1840.</p><p>Possible collectors</p><p>Since neither Gould nor Gilbert collected within or near the range of E. australis in north-western Australia, it is evident that the type specimen was collected by someone else, from whom it was acquired by Gould. This could have happened during a meeting with another collector while Gould was in Australia, or the collector may have shipped the specimen to Gould in London or have given it to John Gilbert who was in Gould’s employ in Australia. During Gould’s absences from London his secretary, Prince, managed his affairs there and shipments of specimens from various sources were accepted by him (Tree 1991). It is likely that material received by Prince during Gould’s absence were maintained until Gould’s return, after which Gould deposited various specimens with the British Museum and other collections.</p><p>The only known excursions to the Kimberley by Europeans who may, or are known to have subsequently interacted with Gould were by British naval expeditions charged with charting the coast and a British army expedition under George Grey to the Prince Regent River area. Part of the commission of each of these was to collect natural history specimens. Emydura inhabit freshwater environments so it is relevant that these expeditions were specifically focussed on locating rivers as sources of freshwater and as potential routes to exploration further inland.</p><p>Phillip Parker King</p><p>Captain Phillip King commanded four naval explorations charting parts of the northern coast of Australia. The naturalist Allan Cunningham was a member of the crew with principal responsibility for collection of natural history specimens. King’s account of these voyages was published in 1827 as Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia performed between the years 1818 and 1822.</p><p>The first voyage, from February to June 1818 on the Mermaid, surveyed portions of the Pilbara and Arnhem Land coast. No part of that voyage was anywhere within the range of E. australis .</p><p>During the second voyage, King continued further and surveyed the coastline between Cape Wessel, N.T. and Admiralty Gulf, W.A from July until October 1819. The expedition found no freshwater along this portion of coast and had to travel from Cape Voltaire to Timor for water after which they sailed directly south and then east to return to Sydney.</p><p>King’s third voyage continued charting the coast to the south-west from Admiralty Gulf to Prince Regent River between August and October 1820. King’s account provides details of many fauna species encountered but not of any freshwater turtle. The voyage charted the estuarine portions of the Roe and Prince Regent rivers but did not pass above their tidal reaches into freshwater that is habitat of E. australis .</p><p>During parts of July and August 1821 on King’s fourth voyage further portions of the Kimberley coast were investigated. On July 26 the crew obtained much needed freshwater from the King’s Cascade tributary of Prince Regent River and they then travelled up Prince Regent River to the interface of fresh- and sea-water, which King noted was approximately 50 miles inland from the sea.</p><p>King’s account indicates that all these expeditions were very substantially confined to charting of the coast and that, while they frequently needed to replenish their supplies of freshwater that was achieved mainly by digging for it and they did not enter the freshwater reaches of any rivers that might have been habitat for E. australis .</p><p>Tree (1991) records that in December 1838 King commanded a government vessel on a short voyage in which Gould, accompanied by Lady Franklin wife of the Van Diemen’s Land colonial governor, attempted to collect birds around the south-west coast of Tasmania. King and Gould met again in Sydney in early 1839, by which time King had been appointed Port Officer and Superintendent of Government Vessels. Due to poor etiquette on the part of Gould, Lady Franklin later noted that, “Captn. King agreed with me as to Mr. Gould being an entirely uneducated man” (Tree 1991).</p><p>It is not likely that King collected the E. australis type specimen, or if he did, that he would have given it to Gould. His explorations of the Kimberley coast found very little freshwater and they had almost no encounters with habitat suitable for the species. King’s expeditions collected other reptiles, including specimens of shingleback lizard Tiliqua rugosa, frill-necked lizard Chlamydosaurus kingii (see Gray 1825, 1827), green tree snake Dendrelaphis punctulata (see Gray 1827) and others which were sent to England at the earliest opportunity after their collection and it would be extremely unusual for an official like King to have kept a specimen from at least 1821 until 1838 before giving it to Gould, whom he did not hold in high regard.</p><p>George Grey</p><p>British Army Lieutenant George Grey’s Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, during the Years 1837, 1838, and 1839 was published in 1841 and documented his expeditions in Western Australia. J.E. Gray’s descriptions of Emydura australis and Chelodina oblonga formed part of an appendix to that publication.</p><p>Grey and his party sailed from England to South Africa in the Beagle which was on its way to western Australia. In Cape Town they transferred to the Lynher and reached the Kimberley on 2 nd December 1837. From then until 15 th April 1838, they explored a small area between the lower Prince Regent River and the Glenelg River .</p><p>Grey’s sole record of a freshwater turtle in the Kimberley is dated 27 th March 1838 and is from the Glenelg River, as follows:</p><p>“This spot was very picturesque. The river as it issued from the gorge in the high wooded hills first formed a series of cascades, and then at the mouth of the gorge expanded into a large pool. It was at this point, although only a secondary stream in this country, far larger than any of the rivers of South-Western Australia. At the gorges, where they issue from the hills, its banks were clothed with the pandanus, lofty gum trees, and a very luxuriant vegetation. We first sought for a ford up the river in the direction of the rapids, but our search was fruitless. On returning to breakfast I found that the men had caught three fish and one of the long-necked freshwater turtle [sic] which are common over the whole of this continent. Mr. Lushington had also shot several black cockatoos so that we were supplied with a meal of meat, a luxury we had not enjoyed for a long time.” [emphasis ours]</p><p>When Grey’s party caught the turtle, they were seriously short of provisions and under extreme deprivation. Grey’s account is not clear whether his party ate the turtle and fish along with the black cockatoos. It is plausible that this turtle was not eaten and might have been collected as a specimen.</p><p>Grey’s reference to the animal as a ‘long-necked freshwater turtle’ suggests that it was not an Emydura which are short-necked. The Kimberley is inhabited by the long-necked Chelodina (Chelydera) kuchlingi (Kehlmaier et al. 2025) . Glenn Shea (pers. comm. 2023) has suggested that because Grey would have been unfamiliar with chelids he may have considered any side-necked turtle to be a ‘long-neck’ and thus that the animal obtained by Grey’s party may have been the E. australis specimen. That certainly may be the case, although it is of interest that subsequent to his experience with this animal and prior to preparing his journal for publication in 1840–1841, Grey encountered Chelodina oblonga which has neck anatomy very similar to that of C. kuchlingi . This occurred during his second exploratory journey which was north from Swan River (Perth). He wrote the following about that experience which occurred on November 30 th 1839:</p><p>“Mr. Smith and myself started at noon this day, accompanied by Corporal Auger and two natives, upon a trip in a northerly direction; about 5 P. M. we reached a lake distant about fifteen miles from Perth, and called by the natives Mooloore: we halted here for the night.</p><p>The horses were scarcely tethered and our fire made when four more natives joined the party; their names were Noogongoo, Kurral, Jeebar, and Dudemurry; they brought us a present of twenty-seven freshwater tortoises, the average weight of each of which was half a pound. They said that, although the lake was called Mooloore, the name of the land we were sitting on was Doondalup.” [emphasis ours]</p><p>The lake called Mooloore is Lake Joondalup and the only turtle inhabiting it is C. oblonga . Its neck anatomy is very similar to that of C. kuchlingi .</p><p>In volume 2, Grey gave further description of these long-necked turtles, as follows:</p><p>“The green turtle are surprised by the natives on the beach when they come to lay their eggs, and are very rarely taken much to the south of Shark Bay, but freshwater turtle are extremely abundant, and are in high season about December and January. At this time the natives assemble near the freshwater lakes and lagoons in large numbers; these natural reservoirs are then shrunk to their lowest limits from evaporation and other causes, and are thickly overgrown with reeds and rushes. Among these the natives wade with stealthy pace, so stealthy that they even creep upon wild-fowl and spear them. The habits of the turtle are to swim lazily along near the surface of the water, about half immersed, biting and smelling at the various aquatic plants which they pass, and turning their long ungainly necks in all directions. When alarmed by the approach of a native the turtle instantly sinks to the bottom like a stone, and its pursuer, putting out his foot, the toes of which he uses to seize anything, just as we do our fingers, gropes about with it in the weeds, until he feels the turtle, and then, holding it to the ground, plunges his hands and arms in and seizes his prey. I have known two or three of them to catch fourteen turtle, none of which weighed less than one, and many of them as much as two or three pounds, in the course of a very short time.</p><p>These freshwater turtle [sic] are cooked by being baked, shell and all, in the hot ashes; when they are done a single pull removes the bottom shell, and the whole animal remains in the upper one, which serves as a dish. They are generally very fat, and are really delicate and delicious eating; the natives are extremely fond of them, and the turtle season is looked forward to by them as a very important period of the year.” [emphasis ours]</p><p>On the face of it and in light of his familiarity with long-necked Chelodina when he wrote his journal for publication, it would appear likely that the turtle caught by Grey’s men in the Glenelg River was a specimen of C. kuchlingi . If that is the case, it is apparent that the turtle was not collected because no specimen of Chelodina kuchlingi was lodged with the British Museum collection in that period, and none has been since. It is also plausible that it was the E. australis specimen, as suggested by G. Shea (pers. comm. 2023), but that subsequent familiarity with C. oblonga influenced Grey’s recollection so that when writing his journals he called it a ‘long-necked’ turtle. It is evident that Grey’s party collected natural history specimens including birds, but it is unclear whether they did so during the latter portion of the expedition, when the turtle was found and they suffered from significant hunger, fatigue, illness and extreme heat until they re-joined their vessel and then rendezvoused with the Beagle.</p><p>Some of Grey’s land party remained close to the coast near the lower reaches of Prince Regent River during the period in which he and a small party explored inland and along the Glenelg River. The Lynher remained close to the coast for the duration of the land expedition. However, Grey (1841) makes no mention of any members of the base camp having collected any natural history specimens. Their camp, “was situated in the depth of a creek, into which a clear and sparkling stream of fresh water poured its abundance: the shore was formed of enormous granite boulders ”, so it is possible that they could have collected the specimen there. It would seem highly likely that men of this party would have fished with baited lines and hooks, in which case it is possible they may have captured turtles. Nevertheless, in Grey’s overall summary of the expedition he said:</p><p>“Turtles were abundant on the coast, and a freshwater tortoise was found inland”.</p><p>His reference to ‘a freshwater tortoise’ in the singular, indicates that the animal obtained on the Glenelg River on 27 th March 1838 was the only freshwater turtle the expedition encountered. As discussed above, Grey’s description of the turtle is not conclusive evidence that it was the E. australis specimen but that possibility cannot be ruled out.</p><p>In a letter to Gould of 20 th May 1839 (transcribed in full in Chisholm 1938), Gilbert said that he had lately met George Grey who had sent a box of bird skins to England for Gould. Chisholm (1938) says, “there is a record of Grey’s sending birds to Gould from Mauritius early in 1838”. That was after Grey and his party left the Kimberley coast aboard the Lynher from where they reached Mauritius on 17 th May 1838. The party remained there while Grey recuperated from a spear wound he suffered whilst in the Kimberley and they left on the 21 st August 1838, arriving at Swan River on the 18 th September. If the E. australis specimen was collected by Grey’s party, it is logical that it would have been sent as part of that shipment. Gould avidly obtained all manner of natural history specimens although he had a strong focus on birds, so while writers like Chisholm mention just birds as having been sent to him, that does not preclude the inclusion of animals other than birds in collections shipped to Gould. For example, in reference to the Short-eared Rock-wallaby Petrogale brachyotis in the same publication in which he described Emydura australis, Gray (1841) noted, “This species was discovered by Captain G. Grey, in his expedition, and the specimens he collected he gave to Mr. Gould, who described them. ” It is likely that Grey would have taken the opportunity to send all specimens from his Kimberley exploration in the shipment from Mauritius. That shipment would have reached London during Gould’s absence in Australia and have been received by his secretary Prince, but specimens would likely not have been deposited with the museum until after Gould’s return to London in August 1840. If the shipment from Mauritius included the E. australis specimen, the dates and period of shipment would allow for it to have been deposited with the museum by early December 1840.</p><p>If Grey collected the specimen, there were at least two subsequent occasions on which he could have passed it to Gould. Approximately twelve months after he left the Kimberley and after his recent return from the Shark Bay region, he met Gilbert in Perth (Gilbert, letter to Gould of 20 th May 1839 transcribed in full in Chisholm 1938). It is possible that he might have given the specimen to Gilbert, who had previously expressed interest in obtaining natural history material from other collectors. While it is possible that Grey could have passed the specimen to Gilbert in Perth during this period, it does not seem likely, because it would have entailed Grey retaining the specimen for more than 12 months after he left the Kimberley and he had already sent Gould a collection of specimens from the Kimberley whilst in Mauritius.</p><p>After a further period of some months in Perth, Grey spent a short period in Adelaide, from where he left for London on 11 th April 1840 (before returning as Governor of South Australia shortly thereafter). This trip to London was a further opportunity on which he could have taken specimens to England and given them directly to Gould well prior to December 1840. Regardless of when Grey provided specimens to Gould, it is evident that he did so and that Gould presented this material to the British Museum. In a letter to J.E. Gray dated October 1840 he said, “I send you the whole of Mr Grey’s collection with the exception of two small rock kangaroos.” (Library and Archives, Natural History Museum, London: The ornithological correspondence of John Gould MSS GOU A ZOO Manuscripts).</p><p>Officers of the Beagle</p><p>In a voyage charting the north-west coast of Australia, the British Naval vessel H.M.S. Beagle was under command of Captain John Clements Wickham. Other officers were Lieutenant John Lort Stokes; Lieutenant James Barker Emery; ship’s master Alexander Usborne; surgeon and natural history collector Benjamin Bynoe; ship’s clerk John Dring and mates Lewis Fitzmaurice and Benjamin Helpman.</p><p>Movements of the Beagle are documented in the ship’s log of the voyage and in a detailed account by Stokes describing the surveys under the command of Wickham and then himself. His journal was published as two volumes entitled Discoveries in Australia; with an account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837–38–39–40–41–42–43 (Stokes 1846). In addition to charting the coast, their commission from the British Admiralty included the quest to find a substantial river passage into the interior of the continent and to collect specimens of flora and fauna.</p><p>The Beagle sailed north from Swan River and between 7 th and 14 th March 1838 a party explored up the Fitzroy River for approximately 35 kilometres from its mouth to a point at 17° 44’ S, 123° 34’ E (Stokes 1846; Hordern 1989). This location is close to where the Great Northern Highway now crosses Fitzroy River near Willare Roadhouse. This lower portion of Fitzroy River is estuarine and subject to an exceptionally high tidal range that is routinely between eight and ten metres near its mouth (Harrington et al. 2011). That portion is generally not suitable habitat for Emydura . Stokes (1846) noted that during this excursion up the Fitzroy River they encountered only a few birds and he said they neither saw nor caught any fish. In their later exploration of the Victoria River, Stokes gave a detailed description of freshwater turtle shells they found (see below) so it is likely that he would have mentioned it if a turtle had been found in Fitzroy River.</p><p>From the mouth of the Fitzroy River, the expedition sailed north in King Sound. Stokes recounts that huge tides and expanses of tidal mudflats made it dangerous and very difficult for the expedition boats to explore this area. He makes no mention of the Meda, May or Robinson rivers that enter King Sound in Stokes Bay over extensive shallow mudflats, and it is evident that the crew did not discern their mouths from seaward.</p><p>From 23 rd to 29 th March 1838 while the Beagle remained in the natural harbour of Port Usborne, east of Cascade Bay, two whaleboats, one skippered by Usborne and the other by Stokes, explored the coast from the north-west of King Sound to Bathurst Island and then returned to the Beagle. Of those remaining on the Beagle Stokes (1846) says that:</p><p>“During the absence of the boats, tidal and magnetic observations had been made, some specimens in Natural History had been collected, and all that could in any way add to the interest of the expedition, had been as well attended to as the means placed at our disposal would allow.”</p><p>He provides no record of what the natural history specimens were, but this is the only reference to collection of unidentified natural history specimens he makes for the entire voyage. Presumably that is because in other instances he mentions particular specimens he collected himself or those obtained by others when he was present. The logbook of the Beagle records that during this seven-day period parties from the crew were sent ashore daily to obtain wood and freshwater and to wash their clothes. Along with a few freshwater streams supported by extremely small catchments, the Trent River drains into Port Usborne and in the period of seven days it would be unusual if this river had not been entered for the purposes of survey, collection of specimens and for freshwater. Benjamin Bynoe and John Dring, who provided Gould with various zoological specimens they collected during this trip, were present and would certainly have undertaken collections during this period. It is thus possible that the E. australis type specimen was one of the natural history specimens collected in that area.</p><p>The Beagle then sailed north to Port George IV in order to rendezvous with the Lynher and Grey’s expedition. On April 8 th Stokes with Helpman and Fitzmaurice took two whaleboats to explore south down the complex coastline of Colliers Bay which the Beagle had bypassed, but it is clear from Stokes’ account that during this excursion they did not enter freshwater environments that might support turtles. On 9 th April, near the entrance to Doubtful Bay, they encountered a stream of water running into the head of a cove that they named Freshwater Cove, but Stokes (1846) says that, “with the exception of a few land birds, there was a total absence of animal life”.</p><p>They entered further into Doubtful Bay but did not find the Glenelg River entrance into George Water. They did not enter Walcott Inlet, so did not encounter the Isdell or Charnley rivers that flow into it. The whaleboats re-joined the Beagle in Port George IV near the mouth of Prince Regent River on 16 th April.</p><p>The Beagle made rendezvous with George Grey’s expedition and the Lynher on 15 th April. After the rendezvous the Beagle sailed back to Swan River, which was reached in May 1838.</p><p>Hordern (1989) records that while in Sydney in early 1839, Stokes, Wickham, Bynoe and Emery met with Gould and that they agreed to supply him with drawings and preserved specimens. It is evident that they gave him specimens at that time as a letter from Gould in Tasmania dated 10 th May 1839 read at the meeting of the Zoological Society of London on 8 th October 1839 (Hope 1839), says:</p><p>“The greater number of the birds from which the following characters are taken are from the collection made by the officers of Her Majesty’s ship the Beagle. To Captain Wickham and the other officers of that vessel I am indebted for much kindness and attention. By the exertions of Mr. Bynoe, surgeon of the Beagle, science has been enriched, not only by the discovery of these new species of birds, but of several others, and some quadrupeds of a most interesting description, the whole of which have been placed in my hands for the purpose of describing, figuring, &amp;c”.</p><p>Gould exhibited various specimens of birds and mammals, but no reptiles, from Australia to the Zoological Society in London at meetings on 13 th October, 10 th and 24 th November and 8 th December 1840 (Gould 1840a, b, c, d) Among the specimens exhibited were some noted as having been collected “from the N.W. coast” of Western Australia by Grey, Dring, Emery and Bynoe.</p><p>In summary, the available evidence indicates that the E. australis holotype was collected either by George Grey’s expedition of 1837–38 or by that of the Beagle in 1838.</p><p>George Grey’s expedition spent time at the downstream portion of Prince Regent River, and along parts of the Glenelg River. As detailed above, Grey recorded collection of a single long-necked turtle from the Glenelg River. Emydura are short-necked, which means either that the animal found by Grey’s party was not the E. australis type specimen, or that he was mistaken in his reference to the neck-length of the animal when he subsequently wrote his account.</p><p>The naval officers of the Beagle and George Grey are known to have provided fauna specimens to Gould prior to his deposition of the E. australis specimen with the British Museum. In 1838 the crew of the Beagle explored and charted the coast of Western Australia from Fitzroy River to Prince Regent River. However, they encountered very few freshwater environments suitable as habitat for E. australis . The only location where they encountered freshwater and spent a number of days, and where Stokes records that they collected natural history specimens was Port Usborne, near the mouth of Trent River. So, if the specimen was collected by men of the Beagle, it is most likely that it is from there. Information collated here does not offer a precise collection location but, as members of the expeditions of Grey and the Beagle are the only possible collectors of the E. australis type specimen, the evidence allows us to constrain localities from which it might have been collected to the Prince Regent River, Glenelg River and Trent River and its immediate vicinity.</p><p>Type locality of Emydura australis</p><p>Morphology of the E. australis type specimen (Cann 1998, Cann &amp; Sadlier 2017) and mitogenomic evidence (Kehlmaier et al. 2019) demonstrate that the animal is from the Kimberley. The historical and further morphological information provided here are evidence that the name Emydura australis is valid for populations from at least a definable, small area of the western Kimberley including Prince Regent River, Glenelg River and Trent River and their immediate tributaries. We restrict the type locality of the species to the drainages of these rivers .</p><p>These rivers are on Country of the Dambeemangaddee People and within Wanjina-Wungurr Dambimangari Native Title Determination and the Dambimangari Indigenous Protected Area. In Woddordda language E. australis is ‘dujeegudee’ (Dambimangari Aboriginal Corporation 2023).</p><p>Today these rivers remain remote and there is no vehicular access to them. Respectively, they are protected by Prince Regent National Park, Kunmunya Aboriginal Reserve and the Australian Department of Defence Yampi Sound Training Area.</p><p>Additional evidence for the type locality may be available from comparison of the genetic profile of the type specimen with extant populations. To that end we have deposited tissue samples of the species from Trent River with WAM.</p><p>Emydura australis: NHMUK: 40.12.9.82 (type specimen number 1947.3.4.36); WAM: R47020; R47022; R47024; R47049: Prince Regent River Nature Reserve, W.A; R51636; R51637; R51638; R51639: Kimbolton Spring ( Trent River), W.A.; (WAM tissue sample) TR2367; TR2368; TR2369; TR2370: Trent River 15.3 km ENE Kimbolton, W.A.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039987BBFFA17478689CF9DDFE8B138E	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		MagnoliaPress via Plazi	Smales, Ian;Cann, John	Smales, Ian, Cann, John (2026): Historical evidence for provenance and collectors of holotypes of the north-western Australian red-faced turtles Emydura australis and E. victoriae (Testudines: Chelidae). Zootaxa 5845 (2): 281-303, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5845.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5845.2.4
039987BBFFA97464689CFE79FBE0138E.text	039987BBFFA97464689CFE79FBE0138E.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Emydura victoriae (Gray 1842)	<div><p>Provenance of the Emydura victoriae holotype</p><p>After leaving Swan River on 20 th June 1838, the Beagle charted portions of Bass Strait and Port Philip and then sailed to Sydney, arriving in early 1839. The Beagle left Sydney on 22 nd May 1839 for Port Essington on Cobourg Peninsula of modern Northern Territory. From Port Essington it sailed in September 1839 to chart the coast to the west. This voyage included exploration of downstream portions of the Adelaide River and nearby creeks, the Fitzmaurice River and a considerable distance up the Victoria River. In his account, Stokes (1846, volume 2) provided details of a turtle shell discovered on the Victoria River as follows:</p><p>“November 10</p><p>We crossed the river, or rather over its bed - a patch of stones - and found some shells of the water-tortoise at the remains of a native fire on the bank: we named the reach Tortoise Reach, in consequence.”</p><p>And on the expedition’s return through the same place, he says:</p><p>“November 12</p><p>NEW TORTOISE.</p><p>We here found the back-shell of one of the largest of the water-tortoises, from which the reach was named. It measured ten inches, was very narrow at the fore part, where the continuous line of the margin was broken by an arch where the head protrudes, and was much expanded posteriorly. It resembled greatly the Chelidona oblonga [sic], inhabiting Western Australia, with the exception of the arch and its more oval shape; and as in that kind, the last vertebral plate was divided by a suture. A shell of a Victoria River tortoise has been deposited in the British Museum.”</p><p>In combination, the original British Museum register entry for NHMUK 41.10.12.2 naming Stokes as the collector, along with Stokes’ account of his collecting the shell in his journal, provide clear evidence that he collected the E. victoriae specimen, contrary to the attribution given by Gray of it being from Campbell in the original description, and from others in subsequent publications.</p><p>Type locality of Emydura victoriae</p><p>The type locality of E. victoriae, as provided by Gray (1842) is “ Victoria River North-west coast of New Holland ” (now in Northern Territory). Historical information from Stokes’ journal is that the specimen was collected at Tortoise Reach, Victoria River. The Composite Gazetteer of Australia gives co-ordinates for Tortoise Reach as - 15.56S, 130.87E (https://placenames.fsdf.org.au/) .</p><p>In the local Yirram Gurindji language E. victoriae is “mungku” and the term for juveniles is “karrmaninmanin” (https://ngumpin.org.au/gurindji/dictionary/i-reptiles-english/).</p><p>Morphological evidence for the provenance of Emydura australis</p><p>A comprehensive consideration of variable morphology of Emydura across its entire geographic range in the Kimberley is beyond the scope of this work. Here we present comparison of some morphological characters of the E. australis holotype with samples of additional Emydura from two of the rivers within the restricted type locality and with a sample of specimens from Victoria River and its tributaries.</p><p>As noted previously, the type specimens of E. australis and E. victoriae are mature females.</p><p>The following additional adult female specimens from type localities were measured to permit comparison of shell morphologies (see Specimens examined).</p><p>• 4 from Prince Regent River Nature Reserve, W.A. (WAM) collected in 1974</p><p>• 3 from Trent River, W.A. (WAM) collected in 1975</p><p>• 3 caught, measured and released at Trent River, W.A. in 2024 (tissue samples deposited with WAM)</p><p>• 27 from Victoria River drainage, N.T. (NTM collected between 1975 and 2008 and MV collected in 1963 and 1964).</p><p>The small size of these samples from Prince Regent and Trent Rivers may not represent the full range of adult female ontogeny from those areas, but they do include a number of specimens of similar shell size to the E. australis type specimen. The sample of specimens of E. victoriae includes all adult females in the collections of the NTM and MV from the Victoria River drainage.</p><p>Individuals were considered to be adult females on the basis of secondary sexual characters, as noted above for the type specimens. Two males from Trent River were available for study (Fig. 4). They had carapace lengths of 114 mm and 116 mm and were mature, with total tail length: carapace length ratios, respectively, of 0.26 and 0.20 and a pre-cloacal length that extended beyond the overhanging rear marginals (FitzSimmons et al. 2016). Thus, even if not sexually mature, turtles could be confidently determined to be female if they had attained an equivalent carapace length but had a short tail and the pre-cloacal length did not, or barely reached to the posterior edge of the rear marginals.</p><p>A principal distinctive character of the E. australis holotype is its small size, with the following straight-line shell dimensions: carapace length 140 mm; maximum carapace width 115 mm; maximum shell depth 58 mm. Maximum length and width of the skull, respectively, are 41 mm and 32 mm.</p><p>The carapace of extant adult Emydura females from Prince Regent and Trent Rivers is relatively narrow. The mean of the ratio of maximum carapace width (CW) to carapace length (CL) = 0.80 (n = 10, range: 0.73–0.89). CW: CL ratio decreases with increased carapace length. The E. australis type specimen has a CW:CL ratio of 0.82 which conforms well with the specimens in this sample (Fig. 5).</p><p>The shell of extant adult Emydura females from Prince Regent and Trent Rivers is relatively deep (Fig. 6). The mean of the ratio of maximum shell depth (ShD) to CW = 0.55 (n = 10, range: 0.47–0.64). The E. australis type specimen has a ShD:CW ratio of 0.50 and in this parameter, it also conforms well with extant specimens from these rivers (Fig. 7).</p><p>In both of the shell characters assessed, and within the small available sample of specimens, the E. australis type specimen most closely resembles extant adult females from Trent River (Figs. 2 and 6).</p><p>As discussed by Cann (1998) and Cann &amp; Sadlier (2017), dwarfism is widespread, although not ubiquitous, in Emydura from the western Kimberley, while mature animals from eastern Kimberley waterways are generally larger. The E. australis type specimen and the sample of mature animals from extant populations from Prince Regent and Trent Rivers are small, in common with those from other western Kimberley waterways. The reason(s) for small body-size in these populations is a question for further investigation. The Emydura examined from these rivers had mean skull width to skull length ratio of 0.77 (n = 9, range: 0.69–0.88) and in the holotype this ratio is 0.78. These animals could withdraw the head between the anterior carapace and plastron. Individual females from some other locations are macrocephalic (see photographs in Cann 1998 and Cann &amp; Sadlier 2017) and cannot withdraw the head between the anterior carapace and plastron.</p><p>The E. victoriae type specimen is a shell only (Fig. 3). The anterior-most portion of the plastron has been broken and is missing. The specimen has straight-line shell dimensions of carapace length 210 mm, maximum carapace width 165 mm and maximum shell depth 67 mm.</p><p>By comparison with Emydura females from Prince Regent and Trent Rivers, the E. victoriae type specimen and a sample of adult females from the Victoria River drainage include animals that are larger, have shallower shells, and carapaces that are wider relative to carapace length (Figs. 3 and 5).</p><p>In adult females from Victoria River the mean of the ratio of CW:CL = 0.86 (n = 27, range: 0.81–0.97). In the E. victoriae holotype this ratio is slightly lower at 0.79 (Fig. 5). In the sample from Victoria River the mean of the ShD:CW ratio = 0.47 (n = 25, range: 0.39–0.53) and the holotype has a ShD:CW ratio of 0.41 (Fig. 7).</p><p>Shell shape is affected by size in females from all three drainages. In all of them, relative carapace width decreases, and relative shell depth increases with greater carapace length (Figs. 5 and 7).</p><p>Emydura victoriae: NHMUK: 41.10.12.2 (type specimen number 1947.3.5.96): Tortoise Reach, Victoria River, N.T.; NTM: R07052; R07053: Wattie Creek N.T.; R13520; R13522: Jasper Creek, Jasper Gorge, N.T.; R23783: Wickham River, Gregory National Park, N.T.; R23785: Wickham River Headwaters, Gregory National Park, N.T.; R35559: Victoria River Roadhouse, N.T.; R35585: East Baines River, Victoria Highway, N.T. MV: D10391; D10392; D10837: Jasper Creek, Jasper Gorge, N.T.; D10401: King Billabong, near Timber Creek, N.T.; D10393; D10839; D10840; D10843; D10845; D10851; D10853; D10854; D10855; D10856; D10862; D10863; D10864; D10865; D10868: Timber Creek, N.T.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/039987BBFFA97464689CFE79FBE0138E	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		MagnoliaPress via Plazi	Smales, Ian;Cann, John	Smales, Ian, Cann, John (2026): Historical evidence for provenance and collectors of holotypes of the north-western Australian red-faced turtles Emydura australis and E. victoriae (Testudines: Chelidae). Zootaxa 5845 (2): 281-303, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5845.2.4, URL: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5845.2.4
