[Le Cactoo ou Perroquet a Franges / Der Gefranzte Kakadu / Psittacus fimbriatus.]

Rare early c.19th German engraving of the Gang Gang printed in 1810.

The first illustration of the Gang-Gang appeared in the account and from the specimen collected from Churchill Island in 1801 by James Grant (1772-1833) during his survey of Western Port, in the Lady Nelson and published in 1803.

The specimen was sent to Thomas Davies a military officer, naturalist and artist who was elected in 1781 a fellow of the Royal Society. Lieutenant James Grant was given command of the Lady Nelson with the instructions to sail her to Sydney and hand her over to Matthew Flinders. He left Portsmouth on 17 March 1800 and while at Cape Town Grant received additional orders to search and sail through the recently discovered Bass Strait from the west. He made landfall on the Victorian coast near Mt Schank and Mt Gambier which he named and proceeded to chart the coast to Wilson’s Promontory. He sailed through Bass Strait becoming the first to do so from west to east and confirming a new route for shipping to the east coast and so avoid having to sailing south around Van Diemen’s Land. He also gave names to, Cape Banks, Cape Bridgewater, Cape Nelson, Cape Sir William Grant, Lawrence Islands, Lady Julia Percy Island, Portland Bay, Cape Otway, Cape Patton, Cape Danger, Governor King’s Bay, Cape Liptrap, King George’s Sound and Glennies Island.

Common name: Gang-gang Cockatoo
Modern binomial name: Callocephalon fimbriatum
First described: Grant 1803
Distribution VIC, ACT & NSW

From: Volume seven (1810) of  Bertuch, F., Bilderbuch für Kinder: enthaltend eine angenehme Sammlung von Thiere… 1792-1830