 This contributed to the extensive studies of barnacles which established Darwin as a biologist.Covington became Postmaster of Pambula in 1854, and managed an inn called the "Forest Oak Inn" built on the coast road above the floodplain where the first Pambula township had been repeatedly damaged by floods.His original inn was licensed in 1855, and the building which still stands was constructed on the same site about a year later.