The Legacy of Six Notable Australians Within the Greater Sydney Region 1 Introduction
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Eternally Current: The legacy of six notable Australians within the greater Sydney region 1 Introduction Australia’s banknotes are part of There are other ways in which the our everyday activities, but the lives legacies of these Australians are part and contributions of the people of our everyday lives. This guide they honour are extraordinary explores places within the Sydney ones. The representation of a region related to the lives and legacies historical figure on currency is an of several individuals depicted on affirmation of their contemporary Australia’s banknotes. Some of these relevance and enduring significance, places are well known; others are notwithstanding the passage of hidden in plain sight. Although some years between their times and are grand and monumental, others our own. In being depicted on are humble and unassuming. All of Australia’s banknotes, these these places cause us to contemplate individuals have each secured the contribution and experience of a unique form of familiarity as these men and women – Australians notable Australians. whose accomplishments have long outlasted them and who remain eternally current. The City of Sydney: a bird’s-eye view, 1888, M. S. Hill. State Library of New South Wales, ZM3 811.17s/1888/1A. Cover: Map of part of New South Wales, 1824, by William Home Lizars. National Library of Australia, NK 2456/106. 2 John Macarthur John Macarthur (1767–1834) sailed himself as the colony’s representative with his wife, Elizabeth, and their of the industry, and wrote his infant son on the Second Fleet to Statement of the Improvement and New South Wales, arriving in 1790. Progress of the Breed of Fine Woolled Three years later, he established Sheep in New South Wales (1803) for Elizabeth Farm at Parramatta, named the government. He secured Spanish after his wife. sheep from the Royal flock and a grant of further land that he named Macarthur’s quarrelsome nature led after his patron, Lord Camden, to a number of disputes with the the Secretary of State for War and colony’s governors, and to a duel with the Colonies. the Lieutenant Governor, Colonel Paterson. Paterson was wounded and Macarthur was sent to England in 1801 to await court martial. He turned the trip to his advantage by taking samples of fleece from his flocks, which impressed British clothiers with their quality. Macarthur styled $2 banknote (first series), showing John Macarthur, first issued in 1966. 3 BROKEN BAY Windsor SOUTH PACIFIC 1. ELIZABETH FARM Hunters 70 Alice Street, Rosehill Parramatta 2 Hill PORT Elizabeth Farm was built for John and Elizabeth JACKSON Macarthur in 1793. The colonial bungalow is located 1 just outside Parramatta. From modest beginnings, Sydney the couple gradually enlarged the building as their Rosehill Annandale wealth and influence in colonial society increased. Centennial It is one of the best preserved early colonial Park buildings in Australia. It is open to the public daily. Liverpool Matraville 2. HAMBLEDON COTTAGE 63 Hassall Street, Parramatta Camden BOTANY Hambledon Cottage was built for John Macarthur South BAY in 1824 to provide accommodation for visiting friends and family. Subsequent land subdivisions 3 Campbelltown have disconnected the cottage from Elizabeth Farm. The cottage’s interior retains much of its fine original PORT Georgian detailing. The house is open to the public. HACKING 3. CAMDEN PARK ESTATE Camden Park Estate Road, Camden South The Macarthur estate at Camden Park was developed from 1820. Camden Park House was the centrepiece of the estate and was completed in 1835 – the year following Macarthur’s death. Macarthur himself is buried on the grounds of the estate. The Macathur family continues to occupy the property, and open it to the public on annual open days. Camden Park Estate, late 19th century. State Library of New South Wales, PXA 4359. Macarthur John 4 5 ‘The residence of John McArthur Esqre. near Parramatta, New South Wales’, 1825 by Joseph Lycett. National Library of Australia, nla.obj-135702197. ‘Camden Park House’, 1843 by Conrad Martens. State Library of New South Wales, DG 473. 6 Mary Reibey The image of Mary Reibey (1777–1855) While working as a house servant at on the $20 banknote is based on the age of 13, she disguised herself a miniature portrait, painted in as a boy and stole a horse – perhaps watercolour on ivory. Intended as a as a misguided prank. Her identity family keepsake rather than a public was disclosed at the trial when she painting, it portrays Reibey in her was sentenced to transportation from indoor attire with a muslin cap of fine England for seven years. A petition embroidery. Although the portrait requesting her release proved to be suggests a demure and prosperous ineffectual and, in 1792, she arrived woman at home with her social in New South Wales where she was rank, her beginnings in the colony of assigned as a servant with the duties New South Wales were unpromising. of a nursemaid. On arrival, she wrote to her aunt, Penelope Hope, Born on 12 May 1777 in Bury, expressing in idiosyncratic spelling Lancashire, and christened her ambition to reduce her sentence Molly Haydock, she lived with her of seven years and to ‘watch every grandmother after she was orphaned oppertunity to get away in too or by her parents’ untimely deaths. 3 years. But I will make myself as happy as I can in my pressent and unhappy situation’.1 $20 banknote, showing Mary Reibey, first issued in 1994. 7 George Street from the wharf, 1829 by John Carmichael. One of the two-storey townhouses shown here belonged to Mary Reibey. National Library of Australia, nla.obj-134348824. Georgian hotel building located at 296 George Street, Sydney. At the age of 17, she married Thomas Reibey, an Irishman formerly of the East India Company, who held property on the Hawkesbury River and conducted businesses that included the shipping and trading of goods. After her husband’s early death, Mary continued his business interests with entrepreneurial plaintiff in court records, pursuing skill. She expanded his holdings of outstanding debts and deficiencies property and shipping, represented in her tenants. The premises on the banknote with an image of in George Street, Sydney, once the schooner, Mercury, which was owned by Reibey, are illustrated purchased by Thomas Reibey and his on the banknote by a drawing business partner for trading in the from Joseph Fowles’ Sydney in Pacific Islands. 1848. Her business abilities were acknowledged in 1817 when she Although her first experience of was appointed a founding member the courts was as a defendant, of the Bank of New South Wales. Mary Reibey later appeared as the 8 Mary Reibey’s business abilities were acknowledged in 1817 when she was appointed a founding member of the Bank of New South Wales. Reibey returned to England for a Returning to New South Wales, year-long sojourn in 1820. In her Reibey became increasingly known private journal kept during the for her support of charity, religion visit, she avoids any reference to her and education. Although she had conviction and transportation, even proven herself to be a respectable when she records returning to her member of colonial society, Reibey grandmother’s house. Her journal remained sensitive of her standing. relates that, ‘It is impossible to She wrote to her cousin, Alice Hope, describe the sensation I felt … on that ‘no one will do well that is not entering my once Grandmothers thrifty correct and Sober … this House where I had been brought up, place is not like England you are and to find it nearly the same as when under the Eye of every one and your I left nearly 29 years ago all the same Character Scrutinized by both Rich furniture, most of them standing in and poor.’3 Reibey outlived five of her the same place as when I left, but not seven children, and her will specified one person I knew or knew me’.2 that funds should be reserved for the ‘maintenance education and advancement in life’ of both her female and male grandchildren.4 9 BROKEN BAY Windsor 1. GEORGIAN HOTEL BUILDING 296 George Street, Sydney Although this former hotel was not one occupied by Reibey, it is one of just four Old Colonial Regency buildings remaining in the city – a rare architectural connection between Reibey’s lifetime and the present.5 SOUTH PACIFIC Nearby, between Pitt Street and Loftus Street, Reiby Place can be found. The street was named in memory of Mary Reibey, who lived in a property nearby on Macquarie Place. Before the area was drained, this house was directly on the waterfront. The house she lived in became Hunters the site of the Bank of New South Wales – Australia’s first bank, which Parramatta Hill PORT she helped to establish. Although the street takes Reibey’s name, JACKSON subsequent redevelopment in this area has removed all architectural 2 evidence dating from her lifetime here. Rosehill 1 2. FIG TREE HOUSE Sydney Woollahra 1 Reiby Road, Hunters Hill Annandale Centennial Fig Tree House was built for Mary Reibey around 1836 to act as her Park country retreat. Hunter Hill was known for the concentration of Liverpool entrepreneurial residents. Reibey’s ownership of such a large and Matraville impressive estate in one of Sydney’s most salubrious locales was a telling indicator of her success in business, and her rising prestige in 3 colonial society. The house is currently a private property, so please respect the privacy of its current owners. BOTANY BAY 3. GRAVE OF MARY REIBEY Camden Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park,South 12 Military Road, Matraville Campbelltown Mary Reibey died from pneumonia at the age of 78, having led an eventful and unusually long life.