David Thomatis (2 August 1851 – 14 December 1919) was an Italian born educator and

agriculturalist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the ...

. At the turn of the 19th to 20th century he developed in a plantation in today's Caravonica near Cairns in north-eastern Australia a strain of cotton named Caravonica Cotton which was marketed successfully around the world. For some years until 1909 he served as an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

in the Barron Shire Council, where he was chairman in 1906.

Life

Dr David Thomatis was born at Maro Castello, which in the 1920s became a part (''

frazione A ''frazione'' (plural: ) is a type of subdivision of a ''comune'' (municipality) in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town. Most ''frazioni'' were created during the Fascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territ ...

'') of Borgomaro in today's northwestern Italian province of

Liguria it, Ligure , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. His father was a descendant of the branch of the Douglas family which elected to follow Charles Edward Stuart (1720–1788), aka "Bonnie Prince Charlie" or "The Young Pretender" to Italy, and thereby forfeited his estates in Scotland. He married into the Thomatis-Caravonica family, which originated from Greece. Dr. Thomatis was the youngest of his family, and was educated in English schools. He graduated with honors in arts and sciences in the University of Turin when 19 years of age. He won a first-class diploma in the Royal Technical Institute, and was soon afterward appointed Professor of Technology, Political Economy, and the English Language, and made a member of the Geographical and Agricultural Societies. In 1870 he was elected a vice-president of the General Congress of Agriculturists in Florence, where he expounded his system of agricultural mutual credit. He was one of the directors of the first agricultural bank in Italy. He was appointed tutor to the Prince Imperial, and resided for some time in England, and traveled in Russia and Finland. There he was almost frozen to death during a severe winter at the top of the Gulf of Bothnia. In 1875 he landed in Sydney from the steamship ''SS St. Osyth'', having been a fellow-passenger with

Andrew Goldie Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...

(1840–1891), the Scottish

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

explorer. Dr. Thomatis was offered a prominent position in the colony proposed to be founded in New Ireland in New Guinea by the Marquis de Rays. The project collapsed, though. Thus far a biography of Thomatis as published in 1898 in the

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of Sydney, probably based on information provided by Thomatis himself. The veracity of his academic degrees obtained in Turin is doubted. In retrospect even his character as a whole was drawn into question. The arrival of the SS ''Orsyth'' in Sydney was within the first days of July 1875. Thomatis must have been among the third class passengers, as he was not mentioned in the list of passengers of the first two classes, like Mr. Goldie. Thomatis did not stay long in Sydney, if he had not, as a matter of fact, alighted already at the halt of the Orsyth in Melbourne late in June. By the end of July there was a report that he was with a fellow Italian, a Mr Aquarone, and several Italian labourers in Melbourne, examining settlement opportunities for Italians. He was introduced as a "professor of commerce and practical chemistry of a Royal industrial institute, and afterwards director of agricultural societies, president of a congress in Florence, and secretary of an agricultural bank". According to shipping notices he arrived anew in Melbourne in December 1875. By the end of the month he was advertised as the senior assistant to the principal of "Brighton College". His credentials given there were "Diploma Regius Professor Turin University" and "late Lecturer Harrowgate College, England". It was a short-lived appointment, because by July 1876 the Ballarat Grammar School advertised that it had "secured the services of Prof. David Thomatis, a first class Mathematical and Classical Scholar". It was also said that he was prepared to receive a limited number of boarders. By March 1877 the "Colac College" advertised itself with Principal Professor David Thomatis, M.A., Ph. Dr. Kt. L H.F. In August 1878 it was noted that the council of Colac dealt with a complaint of Thomatis about the footpath in front of the college. Thomatis stayed on and married in 1879"D.E.P.", ''

Listín Diario ''Listín Diario'' (Lit. ''Small Daily List'') is one of the leading newspapers in the Dominican Republic, and the oldest still being published.Rockhampton in Queensland. In July 1881 he arrived in

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and started a grammar school there. About 1884 he had moved to Cairns where ca. 12 kilometres north he purchased a tract of land 800 acres in size which he named Caravonica Park, after a small town close to his birthplace. Initially there he grew banana, maize, rice, ginger, etc. The land was located between the Barron River, where it had a frontage of 1.5 miles, and Thomatis Creek, the ranges and the sea coast in the north eastern corner, where it touched Trinity Bay, from where Thomatis Creek runs inland. It had a new railway running beside it. The soil consisted of 10 feet of black alluvial loam of mostly organic matter on top of pure sea gravel. Initially he leased portions of the land from Chinese farmers who had holdings of in average ten acres and mostly grew bananas. Thomatis experimented with growing rice, bananas, sugar, oranges, mangos, coconuts, etc. Tobacco was another unsuccessful crop, as the leaves turned out too coarse due to heat and rain. After his wife Marie Theresa died on 26 Jul 1886, Thomatis married Rachel Ellen Wallis (b. 1862 as daughter of Nathaniel Wallis and Mary Ann Turner) on 21 Mar 1888 in Sydney. At that time he also was headmaster of the Centennial College in Petersham there. This college apparently disappeared sometime in 1891.

Cotton farming

Inspired by finding some remnants of earlier cotton planting by some Chinese he found on his land he also began experimenting with this crop. This resulted in a tree cotton which would be grown as ''Caravonica Cotton'' and had three varieties: * The original Caravonica, Caravonica I, or ''Wood Cotton''. Presumably created by crossing two kinds of Sea Island Cotton a Mexican variety and a variety from the upper Amazon River. * Caravonica II, or ''Sillk Cotton'', presumably a cross between ''Wood Cotton'' and a rough Peruvian kidney cotton. * ''Alpaca Cotton'', or ''Kidney Cotton'', which essentially seemed to have been Peruvian kidney cotton. It was created with a view that freight costs from Australia would give it a handicap on world markets and therefore it should have a higher weight of lint compared to the seed. Caravonica Cotton produced about 45% lint, compared to about a third of the American varieties. This tree cotton was grown as a perennial plant and grew inside eight years up to a height of two to two-and-a-half metres. In 1906 the first sales of Caravonica Cotton were made in

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, England. In April 1909 he finalised the sale of his interests to a German group around Baron Curt von Grunan, Baron Wener von Grunan and Dr. Marcus. By the end of the following decade they should have sold the Caravonica property onward. Thence it should decline due to the fall of prices, absence of state support and the lack of cheap labour. Globally, Caravonica Cotton, which was also grown in the Americas and Africa, fell into disuse, because annual varieties were less prone to disease than tree cotton.

Later years in Mexico and the Dominican Republic

By invitation of the Mexican government he operated alongside other professional foreigners a tropical agricultural experimental station in Tapanatepec in the southern province of Oaxia, where he arrived ca. 1910. By 1913 he claimed to have discovered two hitherto unknown species of rubber plants. He praised the respect for science in Mexico that he has experienced by both sides in the ongoing revolution there, who left him and his family unmolested. The rebel leader even paid him a visit and safeguarded his residence, while all the other houses were burnt down. Probably in 1916, possibly earlier, he arrived in Barahona, Dominican Republic, where he established a cotton farm, the ''Algodonal Caravónica'' in the location Bahoruco. A fire destroyed three dwellings (''bohíos'') on his property in December 1916. In May 1918 information was provided, that his wife Rachel Ellen Wallis, whom he married 21 March 1888 in Sydney, has died in Barahona on 7 May 1917, aged 54 years and 7 months. On the occasion she was described as the "youngest daughter of the famous English General Sir William P. Wallis", ie. Sir Provo William Parry Wallis. In the same newspaper article his first wife, supposedly the aforementioned Marie Theresa Heley, was referred to as "a sister of Lord Roberts, Earl of Pretoria and Baron of Kandahar, probably referring to

Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, (30 September 1832 – 14 November 1914) was a British Victorian era general who became one of the most successful British military commanders of his time. Born in India to an Anglo-Iri ...

. When his second wife died, she was survived by their children Blanca, Ethel, Dione and John, who lived in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

at the time."Family Notices", ''Cairns Post'', 7 May 1918, p. 4 Dr. David Thomatis reportedly died himself December 1919 in the Dominican Republic from the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomatis, David 1851 births 1919 deaths People from Cairns Australian people of Italian descent People of Ligurian descent Australian educators Australian agriculturalists Italian educators Italian agriculturalists Deaths from Spanish flu