Australia art history 1: The penal settlement

1. Australia art history 1: The penal settlement 'Aborigines using fire to hunt kangaroos', Joseph Lycett, c1820, watercolour and gouache on paper. National Library of Australia

2. Terra nullius is a Latin expression deriving from Roman Law meaning 'land belonging to no one' (or ‘no mans land'), which is used in international law to describe territory which has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state, or over which any prior sovereign has expressly or implicitly relinquished sovereignty. Sovereignty over territory which is terra nullius may be acquired through occupation.

3. To anthropologists, Aborigines were passive subjects of scientific enquiry, rather than individual people, as seen in this illustration by J Redaway entitled ‘Aborigines of Australia: heads and implements’.(V*/Aust Abo/IML/1. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.) European scientists were endlessly fascinated and puzzled by Aboriginal customs. In this lithograph, Aboriginal methods of punishment by spearing are depicted. If Europeans found such customs abhorrent, Aborigines were just as revolted by some of the white man’s ways of punishing offenders. (Montague Scott: ‘Customs of Aboriginals in NSW – Punishment’, ZV*/Aus Abo/Man/1. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. "Description of Plate 7: The lowest race is the Tasmanian woman "Wapperty". An allied negrito is the Semang from Perak. The primitve negro woman (head index about 73) has curly hair, like her congener the Sakai. Then, nearer Asia, is the Malay zone, of which a primitive type (Sumatra) is shown, with a head index about 75. Higher again, and about our own ethnic level (76-79) are the Maori and the Tikopian… The Malay shows some Mongol traits… Somewhat above our ethnic level are the higher Polynesians (Tongan, 89) and the high-class Javanese woman (82). The high Amerind from British Colombia is added to show his Polynesian "European"" appearance. The latest evolved races (of Central Asia) are not shown.(Photo and quotation from Professor Griffith Taylor, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. Proceedings. Vol 16, Jan 1923, page 480. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.)

4. When colonising Australia, the British government used this term to justify the dispossession of Indigenous Australians. British colonists did not see the land being used in the way they would use it: they saw no evidence of agricultural, social or religious structure like their own and inappropriately concluded that Indigenous people did not 'own' the land but simply roamed it. Using Terra nullius the British government claimed sovereignty of Australia, ignoring the rights of the Indigenous Australians who had lived there for over 60,000 years. On 3 June, 1992 the High Court of Australia handed down the Mabo decision and ruled that treatment of Indigenous property rights based on Terra nullius was both wrong and racist. This was a turning point in Australian history.

6. Time line of Australia before British settlement1500-1700Indonesian trepang fishermen visit northern Australia.1606Dutchman Willem Jansz and his ship Duyfken explore the western coast of Cape York Peninsula and were the first Europeans to have contact with Australian Aboriginal people. There were clashes between the two groups.The Spaniard Luis Vaez De Torres sailed through Torres Strait.1623Dutchman Jan Carstenz described several armed encounters with Aboriginal people on the northern coast of Australia. Shots were fired and an Aboriginal man was hit.1697Englishman William Dampier visited the west coast of Australia.1768Anticipating that Captain Cook would discover the great southern land he was issued with special instructions to "with the consent of the natives take possession of convenient situations in the name of the King... or if you find the land uninhabited Take Possession for His Majesty".1770April 29 Captain James Cook in the Endeavour entered Botany Bay. After an encounter with local people in Botany Bay Cook wrote that "all they seem'd to want was us to be gone".1786August 18 the British Government chose Botany Bay as a penal colony.

7. 178818 January Captain Arthur Phillip entered Botany Bay. A total of nine ships sailed into Botany Bay over three days.Aboriginal people watched the arrival.25 January Phillip sailed to Port Jackson and between 25 January and 6 February 1 000 officials, marines, dependents and convicts came ashore.Frenchman La Perouse and two ships arrive at Botany Bay and remain until March 10.Resistance and conflict between Europeans and Aborigines begins almost immediately.Early February the French fire on Aboriginal people at Botany Bay.29 May the first conflict between the First Fleet arrivals and Aboriginal people takes place near Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. Two convicts are killed.December, Arabanoo is the first Aboriginal person captured by Europeans.Captain Phillip estimates that there are 1 500 Aboriginal people living in the Sydney Region.1789April, smallpox decimates the Aboriginal population of Port Jackson, Botany Bay and Broken Bay. The disease spread inland and along the coast.The settlement spreads to Rose Hill, later called Parramatta.November, Governor Phillip captures two Aboriginal men - Bennelong and Colebee. Colebee escapes but Bennelong is kept at Government House for five months.1790Bennelong and a boy named Yemmerrawanie are taken to England by Phillip. Bennelong meets George III. Yemmarrawanie dies in England. In 1795 Bennelong returns to Australia.1790September, Pemulwuy spears Phillip's gamekeeper, John McEntire, and Phillip orders the first punitive expedition. Pemulwuy and his son Tedbury led Aboriginal resistance in the Sydney area in a guerrilla campaign lasting several years.1791Time-expired convicts granted land around Parramatta.1792Colonists spread to Prospect Hill, Kissing Point, Northern Boundary, the Ponds and the Field of Mars.

9. 1792Colonists spread to Prospect Hill, Kissing Point, Northern Boundary, the Ponds and the Field of Mars.1794By August, 70 colonists farming on the Hawkesbury. Aboriginal people dispossessed of their land.1797Punitive party pursue Pemulwuy and about 100 Aboriginal people to Parramatta. Pemulwuy is wounded and captured but later escapes.1798Colonists dispossess Aboriginal people of land around Georges River flats and Bankstown.1799Two Aboriginal boys killed near Windsor by five Hawkesbury settlers. A court martial found them guilty but referred sentencing to the Secretary of State for Colonies and the men are released on bail. Governor Hunter is recalled. Acting-Governor King is instructed to pardon the men.Beginning of a six-year period of resistance to white settlement by Aboriginal people in the Hawkesbury and Parramatta areas. Known as the 'Black Wars'.1801April, Governor King orders Aboriginal people gathering around Parramatta, Georges River and Prospect Hill "to be driven back from the settler's habitation by firing at them".1802June 30, Proclamation stating: "His Majesty forbids any act of injustice or wanton cruelty to the Natives, yet the settler is not to suffer his property to be invaded or his existence endangered by them, in preserving which he is to use the effectual, but at the same time the most humane, means of resisting such attacks".Shortly after this Pemulwuy is shot by two settlers. Tedbury continues the resistance.1803Settlements established near present-day Melbourne at Port Phillip and in Tasmania at Risdon, on the Derwent River by Governor King. The settlement at Port Phillip is abandoned.Indigenous Australia Timeline - 1500 to 1900 Australian Museum, http://australianmuseum.net.au/Indigenous-Australia-Timeline-1500-to-1900

10. An Aboriginal rock engraving of an echidna. It is from the site known as 'Echidna and Fish' at West Head in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, less than 25 km from Sydney, New South Wales. Engraved on a horizontal Hawkesbury sandstone platform it has 12 infill lines from head to tail representing the echidna's quills. The photograph was taken in the late afternoon when the sun's slanting rays throw the grooves into relief. The pale greenish-coloured spots are lichen growing on the sandstone. The echidna is 90 cm in length. Indigenous Australia

11. Captain James Cook's three epic voyages to the South Seas, between 1768-1779, transformed the way Europeans viewed the Great South Land and the Pacific Ocean. James Cook's first voyage (1768-1771) aboard the Endeavour began on 27 May 1768. Cook's first goal was to establish an observatory at Tahiti to record the Transit of Venus, when that planet passed between the earth and the sun, on 3 June 1769. The second goal was the continuing pursuit of the Great South Land. The final aim of the expedition was to record natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks. The continued search for the legendary Great South Land also motivated Cook's second Pacific voyage (1772-1775). This voyage aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent in what we now know as Antarctica. Cook's crew included naturalists, astronomers, and the expedition's official artist, William Hodges. While Hodges drew coastal views for navigation purposes, his main work was to gather material for landscape paintings. Cook's third and final Pacific voyage, (1776-1779), was as important for exploration of the North Pacific as the earlier two had been for the South. The voyage aimed to find a north west passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In the process, Cook made the major discovery of the Hawaiian Islands in January 1778. It was to be his final achievement, for it was in Hawaii that he was later killed at Kealakekua Bay, on 14 February 1779. Captain James Cook

12. European styles of art and influencesNeo-ClassicismRomanticismGeorgian architecture and furnitureGothic revivalItalianate detailPicturesqueReligious images of hell and heaven- the antipodes. Hieronymous Bosch, Center panel, 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', circa 1504 Museo del Prado in Madrid

13. Captain John Hunter (1737–1821)The watercolours of Captain John Hunter (1737–1821) form one of the earliest European records of Australian birds, and one of the first collections of drawings made during the European settlement of the country.Hunter’s sketchbook, Birds & Flowers of New South Wales Drawn on the Spot in 1788, ’89 & ’90, contains 100 watercolours of animals, birds, fish and flowers, and four portraits of the region’s Indigenous people.Hunter arrived with the First Fleet in 1788 as second-in-command to Governor Arthur Phillip, later serving as the colony’s governor from 1795 to 1800. He conducted the first surveys of Sydney Harbour, Botany Bay and Broken Bay.In his Historical Journal, Hunter wrote: ‘there are a great variety of birds in this country; all ... are cloathed with the most beautiful plumage that can be conceived; it would require the pencil of an able limner [artist] to give a stranger an idea of them, for it is impossible by words to describe them.’In providing backing for several exploratory expeditions, Hunter was associated with the European discovery of the koala, platypus and wombat, and was the first European to draw the latter two.

14. John Hunter (1737–1821)Waratah Birds & Flowers of New South Wales Drawn on the Spot in 1788, ‘89 & ‘90bound volume of watercolours on paper; 23.8 x 20.0cmRex Nan Kivell Collection NK2039Pictures Collection National Library of Australia

15. The Port Jackson Painter (Date unknown) Port Jackson Painter fl. 1788–1972[Australian Aborigine] c.1790gouache; 30.5 x 24.3 cm National Library of Australia

16. "A woman of New South Wales cureing the head ache" Port Jackson Painter [between 1788 and 1797] 21.7 x 34.2 cm

17. Port Jackson PainterWatercolourist and sketcher, is the name now used for an unidentified painter (or painters) - the most prolific of the First Fleet artists - who worked in Sydney from 1788 to the mid 1790s. Although warning that the Port Jackson Painter may not be a single person, he (or they) was given this name by Bernard Smith in European Vision and the South Pacific (Melbourne 1960) on the basis of stylistic similarities observable in a large number of watercolours contained in collections of drawings relating to the beginnings of settlement in Sydney: notably the Watling Collection and the Banks ms 34 in the British Museum (Natural History), a collection of 100 bird drawings (ML) and some drawings in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection (NLA). On present evidence the most likely candidate for single authorship of the drawings would seem to be Henry Brewer, but this is not conclusive; another contender is Francis Fowkes.Bernard Smith describes the Port Jackson Painter as working within the traditions of naval topographical drawing but using characteristic mannerisms such as short dark curly lines for tree and rock markings and shadows. He appears to have influenced Thomas Watling's style in his natural history drawings. Watling is not known to have made any drawings of plants or animals before arriving in the colony and may have been ordered to copy his predecessor's watercolours, as Smith argues in The Art of the First Fleet (Melbourne 1988). In turn Watling, as the more skilful professional artist, may have influenced the Port Jackson Painter's work. A crucial piece of evidence to solve the puzzle would be an authentic example of Brewer's handwriting and/or artwork, the Port Jackson Painter having annotated almost all his watercolours in the Watling Collection.Staff writer Dictionary of Art online, College of Fine Art Sydney.

18. Joseph Lycett (1775- 1828) Slide number 14 Joseph Lycett,Aboriginies resting by camp fire, near the mouth of the Hunter River, Newcastle and NSW. In his: Drawings of the natives & scenery of Van Diemens Land, 1830. National Library of Australia.

19. Joseph Lycett was born in Staffordshire in around 1774 and worked as a professional portrait and miniature painter.  Like fellow convict, Francis Greenway, Lycett was convicted of forgery and transported to Australia for a term of fourteen years.In 1815, a year after he arrived in Sydney, he was again convicted of forging bank notes. As punishment, Lycett was sent to the secondary penal colony of Newcastle where he began work as a legitimate artist and designer. In Newcastle, Lycett attracted the patronage of the commandant, Major James Wallis, who had also commanded the General Hewitt – the ship on which Lycett was transported. Under Wallis, Lycett was involved in designing Christ Church, Newcastle, and painting its altar piece. Wallis’ influence earned Lycett a conditional pardon, and he carved out a successful career, primarily as a landscape painter. Samples of Lycett’s work were acquired by Governor Macquarie and sent to Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, in England. Views of Australia, a publication of engraved landscapes based on Lycett’s work, was published in London between 1824 and 1825. It is thought that Lycett may be responsible for some of the painted panels on two wooden collectors chests in the State Library’s collection. One of these is believed to have belonged to the Macquarie family. Certainly some of the panels are based on engraved views in Wallis’ 1821 publication, An historical account of the Colony of New South Wales. Wallis himself claimed to be artist of many of the original works on which the engravings are based, but some bear striking resemblance to Lycett’s work and are now credited to him. The engravings were the work of convict Walter Preston.State Library of NSW

20. Joseph, Lycett ca. 1775-1828. Kissing Point, New South Wales, the property of the late Mr James Squires. London (73 St. Paul's Church Yard) : Published by J. Souter, 1825. aquatint, hand coloured. 23 x 33 cm

21. Since Newcastle was first established as a penal settlement it could hardly have been graced with the presence of an artist of John Glover’s stature but the recidivist convict Joseph Lycett proved the perfect artist for the time and the place. He had the forger’s skill with details and eye for the main chance. Lycett’s views of Newcastle were made to please his gaolers and their audience in England who sought after evidence of the civilizing achievements in the colonies. To satisfy this demand and still retain a ring of authenticity, Lycett took the same tack used during his illegitimate labours as a forger, but the results were very different. An examination of the accuracy of his details might have been the undoing for his counterfeit banknotes, but it proved the making of his paintings.Inner view of Newcastle by Lycett gives central prominence to Nobbys Headland, the quintessential feature of Newcastle harbour. It was soon after Lycett’s painting was completed that Nobbys was anchored to the mainland with the connecting breakwater that made for a much less hazardous entry to the harbour.The layout of the town is probably as it was in 1818, although the sense of sanitized order is no doubt the forger’s clever accommodation of Captain James Wallis’s vision for the convict settlement. Artistic licence could only be encouraged when representing the Commandant’s achievements. Therefore the modest grandeur of the recently completed major buildings, the gaol, hospital and church, suggests they may have been in reality something less than imposing. The Christ Church is one of the dominating features of the painting, emphasising the symbolic importance placed on religion as a means of reforming the convicts. Lycett felt the influence more directly than most others since he helped decorate the interior of the church in 1817 when he painted the altar piece and several other panels. The experience didn’t change his ways however, since, after he returned to England following his pardon in 1822, he revisited his criminal craft of making banknote facsimiles. This was subsequent to a failed attempt at a legitimate venture publishing his collection of engravings Views of Australia 1824-25, a project he had begun while in Newcastle. Ross Woodrow, Newcastle Region Art Gallery

22. Macquarie collector's chest, ca. 1818Wooden chest  XR 69  The reasons for creating the chest, as well as the identities of the artists and craftsmen responsible, remain elusive. Like many beautiful and enigmatic objects, its mystery is part of its charm. Even the description 'collector's chest' is misleading, because it was not made to house classified scientific arrangements of specimens in the manner of a true collector's chest. The chest was almost certainly intended as a special presentation piece to celebrate the colony of New South Wales. The chest is constructed of a combination of Australian rosewood found from the Hunter River to the Port Macquarie region of NSW, and red cedar found in NSW coastal regions from the Illawarra to the north. It opens to present a wonderful array of artefacts, specimens, painted panels, and compartments. The artwork on the chest depicts colonial Newcastle and the surrounding areas. It is thought to be the work of Joseph Lycett - a noted convict artist of the period. Lycett was patronised by both Macquarie and Captain James Wallis, Commandant of the secondary penal settlement at Newcastle, north of Sydney.

23. John Eyre (1771–1812) Sydney Cove" by Australian painter John Eyre, produced in 1806 , State Library of Australia.

24. John Eyre was born in 1771 in Coventry, England. In 1799 he was sentenced to seven years’ transportation for housebreaking and arrived in Sydney in 1801. After three years in the colony, he received a conditional pardon and began work as an artist soon afterwards. He created naval charts for Governor Bligh and was also employed in more mundane artistic tasks, including painting numbers on the sides of buildings and painting offices. Eyre is probably best remembered for his drawings and watercolours of topographical views around Sydney. Many of these were used in publications such as Absalom West’s Views in New South Walesand David Mann's The Present Picture of New South Wales (London,1811). John Eyre left Sydney in 1812 for Europe. It is not known where or when he died.

25. Richard Browne (1771- Magill" (Birabahn). Watercolour ; 26.8 x 22 cm., c. 1819, by convict artist, Richard Browne of Newcastle, 1776-1824. National Library of Australia.

26. Richard Browne was born in Dublin in 1771. He was sentenced to transportation in 1810 and arrived in Sydney in 1811 on the Providence. Within a few months of arriving, he reoffended and was removed to the secondary penal colony of Newcastle. In Newcastle, Browne came into contact with the commandant of Newcastle from 1811-1814, Lieutenant Thomas Skottowe. Skottowe was interested in natural history and  commissioned Browne to create drawings of his collections to illustrate a manuscript entitled, Select Specimens From Nature of the / Birds and Animals &c& of New South Wales, Collected and Arranged by Thomas Skottowe Esqur. Drawings By T. R Browne, N.S .W. Newcastle New South Wales 1813. Browne’s illustrations of insects are particularly fine.Until 1817, many of Browne’s works are signed with an extra initial, usually J, I or T. Like Joseph Lycett, Browne contributed many of the original watercolours for Major James Wallis' An historical account of the Colony of New South Wales which were engraved by Philip Slaeger (Slingo) and Walter Preston. After 1817, when he gained his freedom, Browne returned to Sydney. His illustrations from this period concentrate on the Indigenous peoples of the Sydney area. Several of these are included in A collection of portraits, predominantly of Aborigines of New South Wales and Tasmania, ca 1817-1849. 

27. James Wallis (1785? - 1858) Kangaroos of New South Wales. 1821 engraving, printed in black ink, from one copper plate 18.7 x 16.9 cm (printed image) National Gallery of Australia

28. James WallisPainter and soldier, was born in Cork, Ireland, second son of James Wallis and Lucinda, née Hewson. Wallis joined the 46th Regiment as an ensign in 1803 and was promoted lieutenant in 1804. He fought with distinction against the French in the West Indies and was promoted captain in 1811. In February 1814 he arrived at Sydney in charge of a detachment of the 46th Regiment which was to relieve the 73rd as the military presence in New South Wales. The 46th sailed to Sydney in the convict transport General Hewitt; also on board, as a convict, was Joseph Lycett. On 1 June 1816 Wallis was appointed commandant of the penal settlement at Newcastle where, coincidentally, Lycett had been sent to serve a secondary sentence for forgery.Wallis set about reorganising the settlement, restoring discipline and erecting a hospital, gaol, and convict barracks, enlarging the wharf and beginning a breakwater. It has been said that both Elizabeth Henrietta Macquarie and Lycett had a hand in the design of Christ Church of England (1817), but its builder J.B. Clohesy in his evidence to Commissioner Bigge said that Wallis amended the original plan and supervised the erection. Relieved of his post in January 1819, Wallis sailed for England in March. Macquarie praised his 'zeal, ability and judgement' in the general orders of 24 December 1819 and sent a glowing testimonial to Earl Bathurst. In 1821 he was promoted major and served in India until his retirement in 1826. In December 1836 he married Mary Ann Breach at Clifton, Gloucestershire. He died at Prestbury, Gloucestershire, on 12 July 1858.

29. [possibly] Thomas Watling (1762–c.1814)A Direct North General View of Sydney Cove 1794 oil on canvas; 91.0 x 121.0cm Presented by Sir William Dixson, 1929 Dixson Galleries, State Library of New South Wales Thomas Watling (1762–c.1814)

30. Although his time in Australia was brief, Thomas Watling left an extraordinary legacy: the single largest collection of early colonial art.Sentenced to 14 years in Australia in 1792 for forging a bank note, Watling is best remembered for his natural history drawings and portraits of Aboriginal people, though he preferred landscapes.A Direct North General View of Sydney Cove depicts the colony in 1794, just seven years after settlement. It is the earliest oil painting of Sydney.The inscription on the back of the canvas is unequivocal: Painted immediately from nature by T. Watling. But Watling is not known to have painted in oils. Indeed, there is no record of any colonial artist using oils until 1812. Despite the inscription, it might have been painted later from drawings by Watling.Watling was rarely enamoured of the scenes before him. In a letter to his aunt, later published in a collection entitled Letters from an Exile at Botany-Bay to his Aunt in Dumfries, Watling said: ‘The landscape painter may in vain seek here for that beauty which arises from happy-opposed off-scapes.’Watling left for Scotland in 1800 after receiving an absolute pardon in 1797.Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

31. Richard Read Senior Lachlan Macquarie Jnr.?1823?Artist: Richard Read, Senior (c.1765 - ?)Watercolour17.3 cm x 13.1 cminside frame linesUntitled Original held by Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

32. Richard Read Senior was born in about 1765 in London. Not much is known of his life until 1812 when he was sentenced to 14 years’ transportation. He arrived in Sydney in October 1813 and was granted a ticket-of-leave eight weeks later. In 1814 Read opened one of Australia’s first drawing schools. As well as offering lessons, he undertook commissioned artworks, specialising in portraits and miniatures. He also sold paintings, drawings and embroidery designs. Read’s skill as a portrait painter earned him the patronage of many of the colony’s notable citizens, including Governor and Mrs Macquarie. Read continued his artistic career until the late 1820s. He may have left the colony at the end of his sentence. There is no record of his death, but it probably occurred in about 1829.Confusingly, another Richard Read came free to Sydney in 1819 and also worked as a portrait painter. Calling himself Read Junior, this man may have been the older Read’s estranged sonMitchell Library, State Library of NSW

33. Walter Preston and Philip Slaeger Walter PRESTON 1777 England – Unknown, possibly Australia 1819/0 Engraver Australia 1812-19 John EYRE born 1771 Coventry, England – after 1812 Print after Australia 1801 - after 1812? Absalom WEST England – after 1814 publisher Australia 1798-1814 Port Jackson Harbour, in New South Wales: with a distant view of the Blue Mountains. Taken from South Head. 1812 intaglio engraving, printed in black ink, from one copper plateImpression: undesignated impression as issued Edition: print run unknown printed image 22.2 h x 37.9 w cm Purchased 2004 Accession No: NGA 2005.291.2

34. Walter Preston was born in about 1777 and convicted of highway robbery in London. His death sentence was commuted to fourteen years’ transportation and he was assigned to printer Absalom West upon arrival in Sydney in 1812. Like Joseph Lycett, Preston was sent to the penal colony of Newcastle for a crime committed in Sydney and came under the influence of Major James Wallis. In 1819, Preston engraved the plates for Wallis' An historical account of the colony of New South Wales. He received an absolute pardon in the same year.Philip Slaeger (aka Sligo) was sentenced to seven years transportation at Maidstone in Kent. He arrived in Sydney in 1807 and worked as an assigned servant until the end of his sentence in 1812. His first work as an engraver also appeared in 1812 – two views of Sydney from Bennelong Point, engraved onto copper plate after paintings by John Eyre. In Sydney, both Preston and Slaeger were employed by Absalom West to engrave the copper plates for West’s Views in New South Wales which featured large prints of views engraved from originals by John Eyre. West’s Views were issued in Sydney in 1813 and cost three pounds.

35. Philip SLAGER 1755 England – Australia 1815 Engraver Australia from 1800 John EYRE born 1771 Coventry, England – after 1812 Print after Australia 1801 - after 1812? Absalom WEST England – after 1814 publisher Australia 1798-1814 A native camp near Cockle Bay, New South Wales, with a View of Parramatta River. Taken from Dawes's Point. 1812intaglio engraving, printed in black ink, from one copper plate Impression: undesignated impression as issuedEdition: printrun unknown Printed image 22.9 h x 36.7 w cm Purchased 2004 Accession No: NGA 2005.291.8

36. Francis Greenway - convict architect Francis Howard Greenway, Macquarie's architect, by unknown artist [possibly self-portrait]Pencil sketch State Library of NSW.

37. Francis Howard Greenway (born 1777 in Gloucestershire, England) had a promising career as an architect in the Bristol area until the firm went bankrupt. In March, 1812, Greenway was found guilty of the capital charge of forgery. His death sentence was commuted to 14 years' transportation to the colony of New South Wales. While awaiting transportation, Greenway spent time in Bristol's Newgate Prison.Greenway arrived in Sydney in 1814 on the General Hewitt. He brought with him letters of recommendation and his portfolio which he sent to Governor Macquarie. He was almost immediately granted a ticket of leave which enabled him to seek his own work to support his wife and children who arrived in July 1814. In December Greenway advertised his architectural services in the Sydney Gazette. Soon after his arrival, Macquarie requested that Greenway copy a design for a court house from an architectural pattern book. Greenway replied by lecturing the governor on his poor taste in design and suggested that he himself should be employed as the governor’s public works architect. Although Greenway was eventually compelled to copy the design as originally requested, by early 1816 Macquarie was impressed enough by the cocky architect to appoint him Acting Civil Architect. Governor and Mrs Macquarie had grand plans for the design and layout of Sydney town and an ambitious program of public and private buildings was begun in 1816. Francis Greenway’s commissions varied widely, from lighthouses to obelisks; churches to stables; barracks and prisons to private dwellingsFrancis Greenway’s talent and his knowledge of architecture and design at first complemented Macquarie’s grand vision for a Sydney full of imposing and gracious buildings. His personal style, however, was often arrogant and insolent which irked his superiors. In 1819 Commissioner John Thomas Bigge was sent to Sydney to look into the affairs of the colony. Bigge was critical of the amount of time and money wasted on over-ambitious and unnecessary public works. He also commented on Greenway’s contribution to the architecture of the colony. Francis Greenway died in 1837 on his farming grant and is buried in an unmarked grave near East Maitland. Despite this ignoble end, Greenway’s legacy lives on in some of Sydney’s finest colonial architecture.Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

38. The mock trial; [Scene inside Newgate Prison], 1812, painted by Francis GreenwayOil painting, State Library of NSW.

39. BibliographyOnline resourcesAboriginal Australia, Australian Museum, http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Aboriginal-rock-engraving-of-an-echidna-NSW/ cited 12.3/12also http://australianmuseum.net.au/Indigenous-Australians-Exhibition-Guide cited12/3/12Aboriginal Australia Maphttp://www.surrender.org.au/wpcontent/uploads/2009/09/map_largeweb.jpg no longer available onlineHistoric Houses Trust Joseph Lycetthttp://www.hht.net.au/discover/highlights/insites/joseph_lycett_convict_artist cited 12/3/12Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, About,http://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/nag/about/history cited 12/3/12City of Sydney , Indigenous History.http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Barani/themes/full_size_images/ML506_f.htmRoss Woodrow, Newcastle Region Art Galleryhttp://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/nag/about/historyRock Engravings West Head Sydney. Before white settlement, http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis@ozemail.com.au/pix/engr1.jpgUniversity of Newcastle Awaba Image Gallery- databasehttp://www.newcastle.edu.au/group/amrhd/awaba/images/magillbig.jpgDictionary of Artists online College of Fine Arts Sydneyhttp://www.daao.org.au/mainState Library of NSW, Convict artists of Governor Macquarie's erahttp://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/macquarie/artists/index.htmlNational Library of Australia Settlement Land and Naturehttp://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/discover_collections/history_nation/macquarie/artists/index.htmlBooksJames Gleeson, Australian Painters, Lansdowne Press Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1982.Robert Hughes The Art of Australia, Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 1981.Robert Hughes The Fatal Shore, Collins Harvill Press, Great Britain, 1996.Donald Williams, In our own image, The story of Australian Art 1788- 1989, McGraw Hill Book Company, Sydney, Second Edition,1993.