John Macadam (29 May 1827 – 2 September 1865), was a Scottish-Australian chemist, medical doctor, medical teacher, Australian politician and cabinet minister, and honorary secretary of the Burke and Wills expedition. The genus Macadamia (macadamia nut) was named after him in 1857. He died at sea, on a voyage from Australia to New Zealand, aged 38.
Early life
John Macadam was born at Northbank, Glasgow, Scotland, on 29 May 1827,John Macadam: www.earthwords.co.uk/macadam.htm the son of William Macadam (1783–1853) and Helen, née Stevenson (1803–1857).Sir Ivison Macadam Archives, Runton Old Hall, East Runton, Norfolk, UK His father was a Glasgow businessman, who owned a spinning and textile printing works in Kilmarnock, and was a burgess and a bailie (magistrate) of Glasgow.Edwin Macadam : https://www.shelwin.com/e/ancestry/macadam/macadam_history.htm#John%20Macadam,%20MD His fellow industrialists and he in the craft had developed, using chemistry, the processes for the large-scale industrial printing of fabrics for which these plants in the area became known.
John Macadam was privately educated in Glasgow; he studied chemistry at the Andersonian University (now the University of Strathclyde) and went for advanced study at the University of Edinburgh under Professor William Gregory. In 1846–47, he went on to serve as assistant to Professor George Wilson at the University of Edinburgh in his laboratory in Brown Square. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts that year, and in 1848, a member of the Glasgow Philosophical Society. He then studied medicine at the University of Glasgow (LFPS, MD,1854; FFPSG,1855).
He was a member of what became a small dynasty of Scottish scientists and lecturers in analytical chemistry, which included, other than himself, his eldest half brother William Macadam, his immediate younger brother Stevenson Macadam (a younger brother Charles Thomas Macadam,Charles Thomas Macadam (1832-1906) later held the royal warrant as "Purveyor of Chemical Manures" to Queen Victoria. although not involved as a scientist, was also indirectly involved in chemistry as the senior partner in Odhams,Odams was later acquired by Fisons (and then by ICI, and subsequently Akko Nobel). a chemical fertiliser company)The brothers' original interest in chemistry likely was derived from the advances and new inventions involved in the chemical printing processes of their father's commercial operations. and nephews William Ivison Macadam and Stevenson J. C. G. Macadam, as well as the former nephew's daughter, his great niece Elison A. Macadam.His great-nephew Ivison Macadam was subsequently somewhat involved in Australia when he assisted in getting financial support for the Australian Institute of International Affairs and organised some international conferences there.
On 8 June 1855, aged 28, Macadam sailed for Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria, Australia, on the sailing ship Admiral. He arrived on 8 September 1855.The ship sailed from London on 6 June 1855 with him acting as ship's surgeon and arrived at Hobson's Bay (Melbourne's port) on 8 September 1855. The Argos, Melbourne, Victoria, Shipping Intelligence, Monday, 10 September 1855Having acted as the ship's surgeon on the voyage: The Encyclopaedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History, Volume 3 edited by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III, Rowman and Littlefield, 2015
Australian academic career
In 1855 he was a lecturer on chemistry and natural science at Scotch College, which had been founded four years before in 1851, having been engaged for the position before leaving Scotland.The Late Dr. Macadam, The Australian Medical Journal, October 1865. pp 327-332.: https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/23129/267472_UDS2010779-118.pdf?sequence=10
In 1857 he was awarded an MD ad eundem from the University of Melbourne in acknowledgment of his MD from the University of Glasgow.Edwin Macadam : https://www.shelwin.com/e/ancestry/macadam/macadam_history.htm#John%20Macadam,%20MD.
In 1857-1858 he also taught at Geelong Church of England Grammar School (now Geelong Grammar School).The Encyclopaedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History, Volume 3 edited by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III, Rowman and Littlefield, 2015 In 1858, he was appointed the Victorian government analytical chemist. In 1860 he became health officer to the City of Melbourne. He wrote several reports on public health.
On 3 March 1862 he was appointed as the first lecturer in medicine (chemistry and practical chemistry) at the University of Melbourne School of Medicine. For the next few years he held classes for a small number of medical students in the Analytical Laboratory behind the Public Library. He was also a member of the Board of Agriculture.
Political life
Macadam became a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly of the self-governing Colony of VictoriaFrom 1851 until it 1901 - 50 years - it was the Colony of Victoria with its own government within the British Empire. In 1901, it became the State of Victoria in the Commonwealth of Australia. as a radical and supporter of the Land Convention, representing Castlemaine.
Appointed postmaster-general of Victoria in 1861,. Macadam resigned from the legislature in 1864. He had sponsored bills on medical practitioners and adulteration of food which became law in 1862 and 1863.
Royal Society of Victoria
Macadam was elected to the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1855 and served on its council. Between 1857 and 1862, Macadam served as honorary secretary of it and continued in that role when it became the Royal Society of Victoria in 1860,`"He was most enthusiastic in his endeavours to promote the success of any object he had in view. Through his exertions the number of members of the Institute was more than doubled in his first year he held office as Secretary." The Australian Medical Journal, October 1865 and was appointed vice-president of it in 1863. He was editor from 1855 to 1860 of first five volumes of the society's Transactions.The Encyclopaedia of the Industrial Revolution in World History, Volume 3 edited by Kenneth E. Hendrickson III, Rowman and Littlefield, 2015 He was active in erecting the Society's Meeting Hall (their present building)The present two-storey brick structure was erected in several stages beginning with the original, red brick Meeting Hall, which was completed in 1859 (later rendered as is now in 1880). Designed by renowned Melbourne architect Joseph Reed (who also designed such buildings as the State Library, the Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne Town Hall, Trades Hall, Scots Church, etc.), the building was officially opened by the Victoria governor, Sir Henry Barkly, who was also president of the society, on 10 December 1859. The building, still home of the society, is now a heritage building: Royal Society of Victoria http://royalsocietyvictoria.org.au/about-us/history/our-heritage-building/ and was involved in the institute's initiative to obtain a royal charter. He saw both happen while he held office, when in January 1860, the Philosophical Institute became the Royal Society of Victoria and met in their new building.The Australian Medical Journal, October 1865
Burke and Wills expedition
Between 1857 and 1865, Macadam served as honorary secretary to the Exploration Committee of the Royal Society of Victoria, which organised the Burke and Wills expedition.
The expedition was organised by the society with the aim of crossing the continent of Australia from the south to the north coasts, map it, and collect scientific data and specimens. At that time, most of the interior of Australia had not been explored by the European settlers and was unknown to them.
In 1860–61, Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills led the expedition of 19 men with that intention, crossing Australia from Melbourne in the south, to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north, a distance around 2,000 miles.
Three men ultimately travelled over 3,000 miles from Melbourne to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria and back to the Depot Camp at Cooper Creek. Seven men died in the attempt, including the leaders Burke and Wills. Of the four men who reached the north coast, only one, John King, survived with the help of the indigenous people to return to Melbourne.Burke & Wills: The Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition by E B Joyce & D A McCann, Royal Society of Victoria 2011 (celebrating the expedition's 150th anniversary).
This expedition became the first to cross the Australian continent. It was of great importance to the subsequent development of Australia and could be compared in importance to the Lewis and Clark Expedition overland to the North American Pacific Coast to the development of the United States.The Lewis and Clark Expedition departed St. Louis in 1804 and arrived on the Pacific Coast in November 1815 in what is now Oregon.
After the heavy death toll of the expedition, initial criticism fell on the Royal Society, but it became clear that their foresight could not have prevented the deaths and this was then widely recognised when it became known that as Secretary of the Exploration Committee of the Burke and Wills expedition, Dr. Macadam had insisted on adequate provisions for their safety.
Macadamia
The macadamia (genus Macadamia) nut was discovered by the European settlers,Previously the indigenous people had eaten them and had their own names for them. and subsequently the tree was named after him by his friend and colleague, Ferdinand von Mueller (1825–1896),Mueller in 1871 was made a hereditary baron by the King of Württemberg [then a German state], having been granted his 'von' in 1867. He was invested with CMG in 1869 and KCMG in 1879. He was awarded a royal medal of the Royal Society, London, in 1888 and won many European honours: Deirdre Morris, Sir Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von Mueller (1825–1896), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 11 September 2025. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.Edwin Macadam: https://www.shelwin.com/e/ancestry/macadam/macadam_history.htm#John%20Macadam,%20MD The tree gave his name to macadamia nuts. The genus Macadamia was first described scientifically in 1857 by Dr. Mueller and he named the new genus in honour of his friend Dr John Macadam. Mueller had done a great deal of taxonomy of the flora, naming innumerable genera but chose this "...a beautiful genus dedicated to John Macadam, M.D. the talented and deserving secretary of our institute."The proceedings of Philosophical Institute of Victoria, now the Royal Society of Victoria Rev: Mueller F (1857) Account of some new Australian plants. Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria 2: 62-77; Burke & Wills: The Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Exploring Expedition by E B Joyce & D A McCann, Royal Society of Victoria 2011
Australian rules football
On 7 August 1858, Macadam, along with Tom Wills, officiated at a game of football played between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar. This game was a predecessor to the modern game of Australian rules football and is commemorated by a statue outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The two schools have competed annually ever since, lately for the Cordner–Eggleston Cup.
University of Melbourne
Macadam acted as Secretary of the Victoria Industrial Exhibition in 1861 and soon after it closed started lectures to medical students on chemistry. These lectures helped in the formation in 1862 of the Medical School at the University of Melbourne. He was appointed the university's first lecturer in chemistry.
Learned societies
1847 fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts 1848 a member of the Glasgow Philosophical Society (now Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow)