The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Günst, Johannes Werner
Günst, Johannes Werner, M.D., was born at Amsterdam, Holland, May 31st, 1825, and landed in Sydney, N.S.W., in May 1852. Shortly afterwards he commenced practice as an allopathic physician, and was appointed analytical chemist to the Government of New South Wales. In 1854 he visited New Caledonia, and claims to have been the first European who set foot there. His companions, nine in number were killed and eaten by the natives; and Dr. Günst only saved himself by hiding in the mountains till he was taken off by a passing vessel, after several, months of exposure, danger, and suffering. After practising his profession, combined with sugar growing on the Clarence and Richmond rivers in New South Wales, he went with an exploration party to Madagascar, and on his return through Paris was decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honour. Having abandoned allopathy, he has practised as a homoeopathic physician in Melbourne for upwards of twenty years.