In the early decades of British settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788, the struggling colonials tried their hand at growing edible bananas but invariably failed. However, they grew extremely well in the Moreton Bay colony (Brisbane) and over time banana growing became an important agricultural industry there, particularly after the introduction of the Cavendish variety. All was progressing well until a new disease appeared in plantations around Brisbane in the early 1870s. The medical practitioner and naturalist Joseph Bancroft investigated the problem and concluded that a fungus was implicated as the causal agent. In the early 1900s, following serious outbreaks of a disease with similar symptoms in Caribbean countries (where it was called Panama Disease), the American bacteriologist Erwin Frink Smith studied the same disease in Cuba, and named the pathogen Fusarium cubense. Another American scientist, Elmer Walker Brandes, conclusively proved that Fusarium cubense (now called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense) was the cause of the banana disease. Bancroft’s discovery of the disease now called Fusarium Wilt not only predates other reports of the disease in the Caribbean but also represents the first scientific investigation of a plant disease in Australia.

1788 年英国在悉尼湾定居的最初几十年里，苦苦挣扎的殖民者尝试种植食用香蕉，但总是失败。然而，它们在莫顿湾殖民地（布里斯班）生长得非常好，随着时间的推移，香蕉种植​​成为那里的重要农业产业，特别是在引入卡文迪什品种之后。一切进展顺利，直到 1870 年代初布里斯班周围的种植园出现了一种新疾病。医生兼博物学家约瑟夫·班克罗夫特（Joseph Bancroft）调查了这个问题，并得出结论认为真菌是致病因素。1900年代初期，加勒比国家严重爆发了一种具有类似症状的疾病（在那里被称为巴拿马病），美国细菌学家欧文·弗林克·史密斯（Erwin Frink Smith）在古巴研究了同样的疾病，并将这种病原体命名为古巴镰刀菌（Fusarium cubense）。另一位美国科学家埃尔默·沃克·布兰德斯 (Elmer Walker Brandes) 最终证明，古巴镰刀菌 (Fusarium cubense )（现称为尖孢镰刀菌古巴专化型(Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense )）是导致香蕉病害的原因。班克罗夫特发现的这种现在称为镰刀菌枯萎病的疾病不仅早于加勒比地区对该疾病的其他报道，而且代表了澳大利亚对植物病害的首次科学调查。