Distinguished British zoologist and ornithologist John Gould and his wife Elizabeth (nee Coxon), also an accomplished naturalist and illustrator, voyaged with their children to Australia in 1838 on the Parsee (ship), landing in Tasmania. Gould visited New South Wales, spent several weeks exploring the Murray scrubs in South Australia, mainly in the company of Charles Sturt, and also visited Kangaroo Island. Adelaide did not impress him: it was then (1839) merely 'a chaotic jumble of sheds and mud huts'.

Returning to Hobart, he went to New South Wales with his wife and two children, another son having been born in the meantime. The Gould party left Sydney on 9 April 1840, and publication of The Birds of Australia began in London on 1 December 1840. The final parts, making a total of thirty-six, appeared in 1848. They were bound in seven volumes and the cost to subscribers was 115 pounds (A. H. Chisholm, 'Gould, John (1804 - 1881)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, pp 465-467).

Birds were often mentioned by South Australian settlers in documents which are featured within SA Memory's The Foundation of South Australia, 1800-1851: for example, see letter to H. Tomlin from George P. Ingram, 1842, which refers to bird behaviour in the area of Adelaide.

Cayley, Neville W. What bird is that?, Dingley, Vic. : Redwood Editions, 2000

Gould, John. The Birds of Australia. London: Published by the author, 1848 (London: Printed by Richard and John E. Taylor)

Andre, Roger. 'Friends-funded artworks', Bibliofile vol. 10, no. 4, August 2002

'Gould commemorative issue', Emu, October 1938.

Hankel, Valmai. 'Our very special wrens', Friends of the State Library Newsletter no.1, August 1996

Australian Dictionary of Biography Onlinesee: Gould, John

Department for Environment and Heritage website: Animals in the Wild

State Library of South Australia, Exhibitions, Treasures Wall