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Copyright © Harry Dillon and Peter Butler 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. A William Heinemann book Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060 www.randomhouse.com.au First published by William Heinemann in 2010 Copyright © Intermedia International Pty Ltd and Harry Dillon 2010 The moral right of the authors has been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www. randomhouse.com.au/offices. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry Butler, Peter Brian, 1948– Macquarie/Peter Butler; Harry Dillon ISBN 978 1864 71030 4 (pbk) Includes index Bibliography Macquarie, Lachlan, 1761–1824. Governors – New South Wales – Biography New South Wales – History – 1788–1851 – Biography Other Authors/Contributors: Dillon, Harry James, 1953– 994.402 Typeset in 13/16 pt Mrs Eaves Roman by Post Pre-press, Australia Printed in Australia by Griffin Press, an accredited ISO AS/NZS 14001:2004 Environmental Management System printer 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper this book is printed on is certified by the © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. (FSC). Griffin Press holds FSC chain of custody SGS-COC-005088. FSC promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Copyright © Harry Dillon and Peter Butler 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Macquarie_Final Prelims.indd 4 4/05/10 10:57 AM Prologue Long before white settlers came to Australia, Europeans referred to an unknown southern landmass, or ‘Terra Aus- tralis Incognita’. Dutch explorers of northern and western parts of the continent during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries conferred upon it the name ‘New Holland’. When Captain James Cook claimed the east coast for Britain in 1770 he called it ‘New South Wales’. Captain Arthur Phillip’s com- mission for the settlement of New South Wales designated its western limit as the 135th meridian, about midway between the continent’s east and west coasts. In 1814 the great navigator-explorer Matthew Flinders published A Voyage to Terra Australis, an account of his 1802–3 circumnavigation of the mainland. Therein he said: ‘Had I permitted myself any innovation on the original term, it would have been to convert it into Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth.’1 Flinders also sug- gested this name avoided linking the new continent directly to either Britain or Holland, thus minimising any cause for disputation. 1 Copyright © Harry Dillon and Peter Butler 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Macquarie_Final Pages 001-.indd 1 4/05/10 10:58 AM Macquarie – from colony to country Major General Lachlan Macquarie, governor of New South Wales, 1810–21, was familiar with Flinders’ book and shared his preference for the term ‘Australia’. In correspond- ence with the Colonial Office in London, Macquarie began to refer to ‘the Continent of Australia, which I hope will be the Name given to this country in future, instead of the very erroneous and misapplied name, hitherto given it, of “New Holland”, which properly speaking only applies to a part of this immense Continent’.2 Macquarie’s adoption of ‘Aus- tralia’ spurred on the popularity of the name, which came to be generally accepted. When Britain claimed the continent’s western portion in 1829 it became ‘Western Australia’ and the nation’s identity was fixed. It is fitting that Macquarie initiated official usage of ‘Aus- tralia’ because he was among the first to see the country’s potential at a time when British politicians were continu- ing to regard it as a remote jail. Macquarie’s successes as governor precipitated changes in British policy that allowed colonies of free settlement to formally begin developing in Australia, although their penal function actually intensified for a time. Ironically, Macquarie paid a high personal price for his achievements, which were not fully appreciated at the time because they did not coincide with British priorities. However, he presided over an era during which Australia as a real geographic entity and a fit place in which to live came into existence. The national pride and independent outlook of the first generations of white Australians were a direct out- come of Macquarie’s policies. The Macquarie family’s stone mausoleum, located on the Isle of Mull in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, bears the inscription: 2 Copyright © Harry Dillon and Peter Butler 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Macquarie_Final Pages 001-.indd 2 4/05/10 10:58 AM Prologue major general lachlan macquarie of jarvisfield who was born 31st january, 1761 and died at london on the 1st of july, 1824 the father of australia This is an apt title for a man whose unique contribution to Australia’s development deserves the highest recognition. 3 Copyright © Harry Dillon and Peter Butler 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Macquarie_Final Pages 001-.indd 3 4/05/10 10:58 AM 1 The Macquarie heriTage May this, thy last born infant, then arise, To glad thy heart and greet thy parent eyes; And Australasia float, with flag unfurl’d, A new Britannia in another world. William Charles Wentworth, ‘Australasia’, 1823 In 1823, Australia was a lusty young offspring of Britain ready to answer a call to greatness in emulation of the parent’s noble historical role as ‘freest of the free’, or so W.C. Went- worth envisaged.1 Fear not, the Australian poet urged, for if the Britannic lion should ‘no longer roar the terror of the fight’ and find herself kneeling on ‘vanquished knee’ before a conqueror, Australasia would be ready to fill the breach as a ‘new Britannia’ rising in the antipodes. Dedicated to Lach- lan Macquarie, whose governorship of New South Wales had recently concluded, the poem just missed being awarded the chancellor’s medal at Cambridge University in England, where Wentworth had been studying. Motivated by partisan zeal for his southern homeland, the verse was a literary rally- ing call for Australia to achieve her potential as an exemplar of Britain’s heritage and institutions. At this time the name ‘Australia’ (or ‘Australasia’) was not 4 Copyright © Harry Dillon and Peter Butler 2010. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Macquarie_Final Pages 001-.indd 4 4/05/10 10:58 AM The Macquarie Heritage fully established in common and official parlance and it thus represented a novel topic for the annual poetry competition at the esteemed campus. Patriotism among Australians was equally novel, given that they inhabited a ‘thieves’ country’ into which Britain was pouring a seemingly endless stream of criminal exiles. As well, New South Wales remained under the control of a British military governor armed with auto- cratic powers, while the colony’s civil institutions were barely formed and more than one-third of its citizens were serv- ing sentences for offences committed in another country. All the same, significant changes had taken place in the set- tlements of eastern Australia, which finally bore the stamp of permanence and were increasingly regarded as ‘home’ by their inhabitants rather than as a temporary site of reluctant sojourn. In dedicating his work to Macquarie, Wentworth rightfully recognised the former governor’s crucial role in fostering these important changes during his 12-year term of office from January 1810 to December 1821. In his dedication, Wentworth praised Macquarie for pre- siding over the colony ‘with the warm solicitude of a parent’ and guiding it through ‘the helplessness of infancy to the first dawn of youth and independence’. The poet compli- mented the ex-viceroy’s construction works – ‘the forests you levelled, the roads you formed, the bridges you built, the pal- aces you erected, and the towns you founded’ – but reserved his greatest approbation for ‘that high tone of feeling, that great moral reformation’ which Macquarie had engendered. Wentworth went on to reassure the former governor, who was at the time facing strident criticism of his administration, that the British government would eventually recognise his (Macquarie’s) ‘zeal, ability and integrity’.