The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Daintree, Richard
Daintree, Richard, C.M.G., sometime Agent-General for Queensland, was born at Hemingford Abbotts, Huntingdonshire, in Dec. 1851, and was educated at Bedford Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge. Being in delicate health, he was recommended a voyage to Australia, and arrived in Victoria in 1852, where he was employed as assistant to Mr. Selwyn, the Government Geologist, from 1854 to 1856, when Mr. Daintree returned to England, and was for six months a student in Dr. Percy's laboratory in the Royal School of Mines. In August 1857 Mr. Daintree returned to Melbourne, and in 1858 was appointed Field Geologist on the Geological Survey of Victoria, on which he worked for seven years, paying special attention to the Cape Patterson coal formation and the exploration of the Bass river. Having resigned his post in Victoria and engaged in squatting pursuits in North Queensland, he was appointed Government Geologist for North Queensland in 1868, and in March 1872 Agent-General for the colony in London. He held this position till 1876, when he was compelled to resign through ill-health. He had been created C.M.G. in 1875, and died on June 25th, 1878.