THE EVANS PAINTING – AND A LITTLE MIRACLE For many years I have been attempting to trace four unidentified sketches by Elizabeth Macquarie, wife of Lachlan Macquarie, an early Governor of New South Wales. As a resident of the Blue Mountains, I would like to believe
Read more →
In 1809 Lachlan Macquarie sailed for New South Wales aboard the stores ship Dromedary, to begin his term as Governor of the colony. In 1821 the Dromedary sailed from Sydney back to England, carrying Commissioner John Bigge. Ironically, Bigge was carrying his famously adverse report on Macquarie’s
Read more →
In July 1818 Governor Lachlan Macquarie made an inspection tour of the Paterson River in the Lower Hunter region of New South Wales. On July 30 his diary records, ‘We then proceeded to view the rest of the Farms on both sides of the River—finding the soil
Read more →
A PRICELESS GIFT On September 26 1968, Australia’s Consul-General in New York, Sir Reginald Sholl, received a visit from an elderly gentleman offering to present the Australian government with a pair of earrings associated with Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s wife Elizabeth. Sholl’s visitor was Edward Manley Hopkins, great-grandson
Read more →
APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE, THIS STORY IS A BIT COMPLICATED! When St John’s church at Parramatta (New South Wales) was being remodelled circa 1817, Elizabeth Macquarie offered some advice to the project’s architect, Lieutenant John Watts (1786-1873). In 1895 Watts’ daughter, Mrs Margaret Elizabeth Bagot wrote; ‘Mrs Macquarie
Read more →
Browsing through images of paintings relating to early Sydney at the city’s Mitchell Library, I came across a striking portrait of an Aborigine. His eyes seemed to reflect all the pride and sorrow of his people. He was
Read more →
JOHN BIGGE; REGIME CHANGER Commissioner John Thomas Bigge (1780-1843) arrived in New South Wales in September 1819. He had been appointed to conduct a wide ranging inquiry into governor Lachlan Macquarie’s administration. Bigge was highly critical of the Governor’s championship of ex-convicts, and his ‘wastefully expensive’ building
Read more →
VISION FOR A NATION By 1815 Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s extensive building programme and his efforts to raise the moral standards of the colony of New South Wales were bearing fruit. Sydney, which had been little more than a squalid penal camp when he arrived, was becoming a
Read more →A WEDDING On November 3 1807, Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell married Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Macquarie at Holsworthy in Devon. The ceremony was conducted by the Reverend Owen Lewis Meyrick. Elizabeth had been caring for the minister’s grand-daughters, while impatiently waiting for Macquarie to return from army service in
Read more →
While in England some time ago I was shown an ancient piece of scrimshaw in a private collection. My interest was aroused because the whale’s tooth was carved with an image (artist unknown) of a three-masted sailing ship. On one side was the tantalizing inscription; STORES SHIP
Read more →