This year marks the 200th anniversary of the swearing in of Scottish-born military officer Colonel Lachlan Macquarie as the 5th Governor of the then colony of New South Wales. He served in that capacity from 1810 to 1821, during which time he was also promoted to Major General.
Governor Macquarie was born in 1762 to a tenant farming family on a tiny island off the coast of Scotland. His uncle paid for his education, and at age 14 he left to join the Army. He served in North America during the American colonists’ War for Independence – although he saw no action, being stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He then served in Jamaica, India and against Napoleon’s forces in Egypt before coming to the colony of New South Wales.
When he arrived in the colony he was given absolute authority, just as had his predecessors -including the infamous Captain William Bligh from ‘the Mutiny on the Bounty’ who served from 1806 through 1808. Macquarie got right to work, as he had a number of improvements in mind from his experience in colonial administration in other settings. His instructions from his superiors had been to “improve the Morals of the Colonists, to encourage marriage, to provide for Education, to prohibit the Use of Spirituous Liquors, to increase the Agriculture and Stock, so as to ensure the Certainty of a full supply to the Inhabitants under all Circumstances.”
He methodically divided Sydney into five districts each overseen by a dedicated constable and named most of the Sydney streets. He proceeded to utilise the labour force made possible by the transportation of convicts from Britain to build many roads, bridges, wharves, harbours and many other projects; his administration was responsible for about 265 public works in all. He also used this human resource to work in newly established iron foundries, sawpits, limekilns, quarries, brickworks and shipyards – and all contributing to his cherished vision of a prosperous, industrious and orderly state of affairs in the colony.
Macquarie instituted effective social reforms by issuing proclamations encouraging legal marriage, and limiting the number of alcohol outlets in the attempt to control the rampant public drunkenness, and imposed a strict curfew. During his time in office, church attendance and marriages both increased greatly.
He established firm financial foundations by instituting the first commercial bank, The Bank of New South Wales, and a convicts’ savings bank to encourage thrift and self-reliance. He was interested in the Indigenous people and encouraged the annual gathering of the tribes, authorising a village at Elizabeth Bay for the Sydney Aboriginal peoples and an Aboriginal farm at George’s Head. He promoted the education of Aboriginal children, for which he was the first to set up an educational institution, the Native Institution.
In fact he put a great deal of emphasis on education and its important role in nation building and by the end of his term a full 20% of state revenue was being spent on it. He encouraged the use of emancipist settlers as schoolteachers, and arranged for qualified teachers to be brought from England, as well. Macquarie opened up the whole colony to exploration and settlement, founding the first inland town, Bathurst, and also creating the towns of Campbelltown, Liverpool, Richmond, Castlereagh, Pitt Town, Wilberforce and Windsor.
His supporters were many but his detractors and critics were more powerful. The ‘free settlers’ did not like his equal and fair treatment of freed convicts, whose talent he used extensively. He not only permitted ex-convicts to return to the rank in society they had been before their prison term, he even appointed two emancipists to the position of magistrate in 1810 and utilised extensively the talents of people like the architect Francis Greenway.
At a time when 9 out of 10 residents were either convicts or the children of convicts his treatment of the people in his charge was unusually humanitarian and full of justice. He believed that when any prisoner had served his or her time they should be given the same opportunity as anyone else. And so, during his years in office, he granted many thousands of pardons, conditional pardons and tickets of leave. He believed in the intrinsic value of each person and the possibility of redemption; he gave second chances. He also rewarded merit and punished vice without regard to rank or status.
He was indeed a reformer on every level. Amongst his many achievements, he introduced the first coinage, the first horse races, the first botanic gardens, and instituted agricultural fairs. Governor Macquarie was the first governor to give official recognition to Australia Day – in 1818 – and decreed it a public holiday for government workers.
Under Governor Macquarie the colonists acquired their first places of worship, courthouses, independent newspapers, and reliable roads. He promoted cultural and civil amenities, even appointing the first Poet Laureate.
Governor Macquarie was deeply interested in the state of the public’s sickness and health – the poor, sick, homeless, destitute and abandoned, aged, and infirm. He was influenced by Dr Cowper of St Stephens Church to set up an aid fund to assist those in desperate need. He also established the first mental health institute. He wanted to eliminate factions and work towards tolerance, harmony, and fair play. People said that generosity to others was part of his basic character.
There is no doubt that he is inspirational to people today even though he was attacked, criticised and derided during his own day. Commissioner Bigge, who was sent by the British Government in 1819 to investigate all of the complaints against him, unfortunately sided with the critical free settlers. It is said that these two men, Bigge and Macquarie perceived the colony very differently from each other, with Macquarie seeing it as ‘an asylum on a grand scale’ while Bigge wanted it to be a free settlement. Bigge could not recognise the value of all that Macquarie had accomplished and wrote his report condemning him.
In response to the Bigge report Governor Macquarie tendered his resignation in 1817. However it was not accepted until 1821. Thousands of people came to his farewell celebrations thankful that he had turned their grubby convict colony into the basic foundations of an infant nation. He had a grateful people. But despite this grass roots acclaim it is said that he returned to Britain broken-hearted, believing he had failed; he died soon after.
My successor as President of the Rotary Club of Sydney, Mike Hodgetts, received a message from the Club at Oban Scotland, saying Macquarie’s mausoleum was in bad repair. So we raised funds, enlisted sponsorship from Macquarie Bank, and sent a group to the Isle of Mull to renovate the mausoleum, which is visited by tourists to this day. The tomb describes Macquarie as “The Father of Australia”.
That is how much we in New South Wales today think of the work Lachlan Macquarie did. And we believe that he should have been knighted for his service to this colony on his return, but powerful friends of Commissioner Bigge prevented the British Government from doing so.
We today in New South Wales know that Governor Macquarie did not fail. In fact he is revered, and acknowledged by historians as having left an outstanding legacy. This year there will be many public events and exhibits to mark his Bicentenary, any of which would be very worthwhile for family viewing. We should join together to honour this man, these 200 years later, for setting New South Wales on the path to greater things.
Reference: N.D. McLachlan, ‘MACQUARIE,L.’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 2, ed. Douglas Pike, pp 187 – (Melbourne University Press)
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC