Have you ever wondered why Charles Darwin University was named after an English naturalist or why that naturalist, Charles Darwin, was such an important person in history?
This website brings together all sorts of information on both those questions, as well as other information related to the work of this University's namesake.
Browse using the top buttons to find out more.
During his five-year voyage around the globe from 1831 to 1836, naturalist Charles Darwin lived and worked in the poop cabin of HMS Beagle. The poop cabin housed the Beagle's library of around 400 volumes, many of which were used by Darwin during this formative period in his exploration of the diversity of life.
Scholars have reconstructed from textual evidence in Darwin's notes and so forth, a list of 144 items from the Beagle library, including scientific papers and around 120 books in four different languages, which Darwin used as references.
Dr John van Wyhe, an eminent Darwin scholar at the National University of Singapore and Charles Darwin University Professorial Fellow, has created the Beagle Library Online by sourcing and digitising most of these books, papers and documents from the Beagle library so that they can be made readily available online to scholars and the public as a permanent and valuable research tool.
The Beagle Library project was launched on 15 July 2014 and was jointly funded by the National University of Singapore, Singapore Government, Charles Darwin University and the Charles Darwin University Foundation. Visit the Beagle Library.
The Beagle Library complements other resources created by Dr van Wyhe - Darwin Online and Wallace Online
The Charles Darwin Scholar Program is a biennial initiative established in 2013 to enhance Charles Darwin University's links to the work and legacy of its namesake, Charles Darwin. The Program aims to bring eminent Darwin scholars to CDU to stimulate the University's and the Northern Territory's intellectual environment, academic enquiry and debate.
2013 marked the 150th anniversary of the year in which both Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace published papers on natural selection in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 1858 and was a fitting starting point for the CDU Charles Darwin Scholar Program.
The 2016 Charles Darwin Scholars are Emeritus Professors Peter and Rosemary Grant from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University.
Read more about past and present Charles Darwin Scholars.
The year 2009 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, one of the most influential scientists in human history. It also marked the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species.
These anniversaries were celebrated by events throughout the world, including in Darwin and at Charles Darwin University. CDU, in collaboration with the Northern Territory Government, held a major, two day symposium in September 2009, including international speakers and eminent scholars on the theme Charles Darwin: Shaping our Science, Society and Future.
Further information about the Symposium, including program and presentations, can be found on the 
Symposium website.
CDU also celebrated the anniversary of its namesake through the commission of a major public artwork, chosen through a nation-wide selection process. The theme for the commission was Charles Darwin’s Contribution to Science and Society.
The successful artists were Paul Johnson and Gail Mason, whose sculpture, Drawing Conclusions, traces Darwin’s travels around the globe in a six metre high aluminium and copper structure resembling both a ship’s rigging and a giant microscope through which meiotic cell division, the basis of genetic variation, can be viewed.
Drawing Conclusions is located in the entry courtyard of the Chancellery at Charles Darwin University’s Casuarina Campus.
Origin of the City’s Name
Darwin City, while named after the famous naturalist Charles Darwin, was never visited by him during his five year voyage around the globe on HMS Beagle. The Beagle under the command of John Wickham, who along with Lieutenant John Stokes had sailed with Darwin on the Beagle’s second voyage and were his good friends, did however later come to the harbour now named Darwin Harbour in 1839. Stokes and Darwin had shared the poop cabin on the Beagle where they both worked long hours at the chart table and slept in hammocks in the cramped space.
On 8 September 1839, John Stokes took a small boat and crew from the Beagle , moored off the coast, to explore the waterways surrounding Darwin Harbour, Hope Inlet and Shoal Bay. Since their boat was provisioned for four days, they continued on to the opening of Darwin Harbour. Arriving after dark they camped the night on cliffs, now named Nightcliff, at the entrance to the harbour. On 9 September the group rowed into the harbour and inspected the promontory they named Talc Head.
‘Stokes remarked on the soft white rock he found there, which he called ‘talc slate’. Then he wrote his famous comment: The other rocks near it were of a fine–grained sandstone; a new feature of this part of the continent, which afforded us an appropriate opportunity of convincing an old shipmate and friend, that he still lived in our memory; and we accordingly named this sheet of water Port Darwin’. As ship’s commander, John Wickham would have had the last word on the naming of Port Darwin, but it is clear that his regard for Charles Darwin was sufficient that he concurred with the name Stokes had bestowed. Port Darwin was the last good port to be discovered on the whole of the Australian coast.
A permanent European settlement at Port Darwin was not established until 1869. The City of Darwin was first named Palmerston after the British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston; however this name was changed to Darwin in 1911. The change of name was attributed to the ‘unsuitability’ of the name Palmerston, given the almost universal common usage of the name Darwin for the town, related to its location at Port Darwin. There were also towns named Palmerston in Queensland and New Zealand, being additional reasons cited for the need to change the name.
Darwin 200 Anniversary Celebrations
In 2009 Darwin City celebrated the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth with the commission of an artwork – the HMS Beagle Ship Bell Chime. Created by Dr Anton Hasell of Australian Bell Pty Ltd, the Bell Chime is a public artwork in the form of a musical instrument in the Civic Gardens. The Bell Chime links Darwin City to Charles Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle from 1831-1836 and includes a replica HMS Beagle ship’s bell as well as a series of cast bronze bells on top of which are bronze statues of a selection of the Australian parrots which fascinated Charles Darwin when in Australia. Find out more about the Beagle Bell Chime
Charles Darwin National Park
On the outskirts of the City of Darwin lies a small national park on the shores of Frances Bay that conserves important wetland, mangrove and woodland ecosystems of Darwin Harbour along with historical World War II infrastructure such as ammunition bunkers. This area known as Charles Darwin National Park is home to 36 species of mangroves and is part of the traditional lands of the Larrakia people. It provides a spectacular view of the City of Darwin across the Harbour.
A select list of Books about Charles Darwin held at Charles Darwin University Library – Casuarina Campus – 2013. (Please consult the Library’s catalogue for more information: http://catalogue.cdu.edu.au )