Sandstone Explorers Part 5 - Celebrating 200 years of The Crossing of the Blue Mountains - William Charles Wentworth

The last explorer in the series celebrating the crossing of the Blue Mountains is William Charles Wentworth. Perhaps the best known of the 3 Blue Mountains explorers at the time of the crossing.

W. C. Wentworth was the acknowledged son of D'Arcy Wentworth and a female convict named Catherine Crowley, who rose to be one of the most prominent men in the colony, not only as an explorer but a poet, journalist and politician.

After his birth on the ship Surprize in Norfolk Island, his parents returned to Sydney in 1796 and moved to Parramatta where his father became a successful land owner. In 1803 he was sent to England to be educated and returning in 1810 with no immediate job prospects,  he rode his father's horse Gig to victory in the first official horse race in Australia at the Hyde Park races, on the track that was where the modern day Hyde Park is today.

 

In 1811 Lachlan Macquarie selected Wentworth as acting provost-marshal and he was granted 1750 acres on the Nepean River. In 1813 driven by the desire to find new pastures and his adventurous nature he led the expedition to cross the Blue Mountains with Blaxland and Lawson. Like Blaxland and Lawson, Wentworth also wrote a journal documenting their expedition and describing the landscape in great detail.

 

Wentworth returned to England in 1816 to make his way and become a lawyer. In 1819 he wrote a book, the first by an Australian which was encouraged by young John Macarthur the son of the  John Macarthur senior the father of the wool industry in Australia.

 A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and Its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land, With a Particular Enumeration of the Advantages Which These Colonies Offer for Emigration and Their Superiority in Many Respects Over Those Possessed by the United States of America.

 

He spent a great deal of time with the Macarthurs and hoped to marry Elizabeth but this did not eventuate (and there are two versions of what happened) either because William had convict parents or there was a dispute over money.

 

 

He was called to the bar in 1822 and spent time at Cambridge. In 1824 he returned to the colony and after his father's death in 1827 inherited his property and became one of the wealthiest men in the colony. It is at this time that bought land at Vaucluse and built the mansion known as Vaucluse House which still exists today as part of the Sydney Living Museum's properties.

 

The towns of  Wentworth and Wentworth Falls and the waterfall Wentworth Falls and the electoral division of Wentworth are named after this Australian explorer.

 

There is much more to tell about W C Wentworth but I will keep that for a later post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beauty of sandstone - Victoria Regina

With so many beautiful sandstone buildings in Sydney, there are also many sculpted features that adorn them.

Many of them have various images of Queen Victoria on them as it was during her reign that the majority of these buildings were built. But not only were her images carved into stone on buildings but her initials were represented on various sandstone structures in and around Sydney.

 

 

Above the entrance to the Lands Department building in Bridge Street.

 

 

Above the entrance to Customs House Circular Quay.

 

 

Battlements at North Head.

 

 

Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 - 1901 was over a significant period of development in Australia hence why so many images of her exist in our heritage buildings.

 

Interesting fact - the "R" stands for Regina which means reigning queen.

Sandstone Explorers Part 4 - Celebrating 200 years of The Crossing of the Blue Mountains - William Lawson

Next in the series on Sandstone Explorers is William Lawson a member of the party that crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813.

William Lawson arrived in Sydney in 1800 as an ensign in the navy. Soon after he was posted to Norfolk Island for 6 years returning in 1806, when he was promoted to lieutenant and was made commandant at Newcastle until 1809.

 

 

 

As with many of the officers who arrived in the colony at the time Lawson soon acquired land and began developing his agricultural interests. At first a small property near Concord which quickly grew to 70 acres where he grazed mostly cattle.

 

During his time as an officer he acted on several court martials including D'Arcy Wentworth and John Macarthur just before the Rum Rebellion against Governor William Bligh. This is of particular interest to me as I work at Elizabeth Farm, the historical home of John Macarthur. During this time he received a grant of 500 acres at Prospect which was confirmed by Governor Macquarie after returning to the colony from his role as a witness in the trial of Major George Johnston. He named it Veteran Hall and built a 40 room mansion.

 

Being a qualified surveyor, when he was asked by Gregory Blaxland to join the expedition to cross the Blue Mountains he accepted and joined with him and William Charles Wentworth setting off in May 1813.

 

During the expedition all three explorers kept journals but it was Lawson's that was expertly completed with accurate measurements of time and distance and allowed the route to be accurately retraced.

 

As with Blaxland and Wentworth, when the explorers returned they were rewarded with 1,000 acres west of the mountains and Lawson chose his on the Campbell River near Bathurst. In 1819 Lawson was appointed commandant of Bathurst and remained in this post until 1824 after which he retired to Veteran Hall. 

 

While living in Bathurst Lawson continued his explorations opening up the area around Mudgee. He had large parcels of land on which he grazed cattle, sheep and horses. His horses were well renowned throughout the colony as coach horses.

 

Lawson supported the foundation of the Scots Church in 1824 and Scots Church Parramatta in 1838. During his time as a magistrate he signed an approval for trial by jury.

 

He died in 1850 leaving most of his estates to his son William.

 

Interesting fact  - he was nicknamed "Old Ironbark" because of his strength and endurance.

Sydney Sandstone - Museum of Sydney

While the Museum of Sydney is not one of the original sandstone buildings along Bridge Street it is of significance because it is on the site of the First Government House and still has some of the original sandstone foundations on display.

I have also included it because the façade of the museum shows the evolution of the way sandstone was used in buildings in Sydney. From the rough hewn original blocks at the bottom of the photo, progressing to the more refined squarer blocks  further up and then through to the smooth finish in top of the photo.

Sydney sandstone known as Yellowblock was quarried in and around Sydney predominantly around Pyrmont where there were approximately 50 quarries. The main public buildings built in Sydney from the 1850's until the 20th century were built using this stone.

 

 

 

The Museum of Sydney is well worth a visit as it interprets the archaeological remains of first Government House and also looks at the stories of Sydney both past and present through interesting stories and interactive displays.

Sandstone Explorers Part 3 - Celebrating 200 years of The Crossing of the Blue Mountains - Gregory Blaxland

Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth are three names synonymous with Australian exploration. They are credited with being the first Europeans to cross the impassable Blue Mountains and open up the fertile plains to the west of Sydney.

While this has always been the historical version of the opening up of the inland, by the time Gregory Blaxland had received approval from Governor Macquarie to mount an expedition to find a way over the Blue Mountains, a great deal of information had already been gathered from others who had tried and failed.

                                                                 Gregory Blaxland

Blaxland emigrated in 1805 with the promise of free passage, land and convict servants upon arrival. People like the Blaxlands were encouraged to emigrate because the government wanted 'settlers of responsibility and capital'.

Upon arrival Blaxland sold the provisions he had brought with him for a tidy profit and bought cattle which he grazed on land he located. He also bought land from D'Arcy Wentworth at Brush Farm near Eastwood.

Like a lot of the free settlers they did very well in the colony but always thought they should be entitled to more. And in 1808 Blaxland with his brother John signed the petition to arrest and overthrow Governor Bligh.

After further grants of land by Lieutenant-Governor William Paterson which were confirmed and added to by Governor Macquarie, Blaxland realised that this was still not enough for his ever expanding sheep and cattle flocks.

In 1810 this lead to Blaxland exploring the Nepean River and realising that the way to obtain new land was to explore the interior west of Sydney. He petitioned Governor Macquarie to form an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains and on 11th May 1813 he set out with William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth.

They made their way over the mountains following the ridges rather than looking for a way through the valleys and completed the crossing in 21 days.

In later years Blaxland tried to persuade Governor Macquarie to allow a scheme to utilise the interior for grazing his own flocks but Macquarie would not allow it.

Blaxland then experimented with a number of different crops including viticulture for which he won a silver medal for wine in 1822.

After the death of his wife in 1826 he returned to England taking with him a petition with support for trial by jury and some form of representative government. He also took another sample of wine for which he won another medal.

After returning to the colony he pursued his agricultural and viticultural interests until his suicide in January 1853.

Sandstone buildings - Chief Secretary's Building

One thing synonymous with Sydney are the beautiful sandstone buildings we have all over the city. Bridge Street from Macquarie Street running down to George Street is one of the streets with a number of these buildings. These buildings are mostly government departments built from the early 1870's until the 1890's.

A number of the buildings in this period were designed by colonial architect James Barnet, being in that position from 1862 - 1890.

One of these is the Chief Secretary's Building originally the Colonial Secretary's Building. This building faces Macquarie Street and stands on the city block bounded by Bridge, Phillip and Loftus Street.

                                        
                                     View looking from the corner of Macquarie and Bridge Street.

It features 9 life size statues, 6 on the outside (3 of which you can see in the photo above and below) and 3 on the inside. These external statues were sculpted by Achille Simonetti who also worked on the Governor Phillip Fountain.
 A fifth floor and dome were added in the 1890s by Barnet’s successor Walter Liberty Vernon, as well as an extension south at 50 Phillip Street.

                                        View looking from the corner of Phillip and Bridge Street

One of the statues on the corner of Phillip and Bridge Street.

 

 

Another of the statues on the corner of Phillip and Bridge Street.

 

Another of the statues on the corner of Phillip and Bridge Street.

 

This view faces Bridge Street

 

This view faces Macquarie Street. 

 

The building houses The Industrial Relations Commission of NSW offices.

Interesting fact - the dome was originally covered in aluminium which was one of the first uses of the material.

Again seem to be having trouble uploading photos so will have to work through the problem over the couple of days.

Not sure whether it is the new Microsoft edition but can't seem to pin point what the problem is!


But will keep trying and hope to be back soon. Wish I had a techie in the family.

Sandstone Explorers Part 2 - James Meehan

One of the lesser known explorers and certainly not as famous as many of our others is James Meehan. He came to Australia in 1800 penalised for his part in the Irish rebellion of 1798. After arriving he was assigned as a servant to Charles Grimes, the surveyor general at the time.

While there are no great exploits attributed to his exploration he was instrumental in supporting the surveyor generals and mapping large areas of the colony.

He accompanied Grimes and Francis Barrallier exploring the Hunter River in 1801 and in 1802 -03 exploring King Island and Port Phillip.

When Charles Grimes was on leave James Meehan was the only qualified surveyor in the colony and having been pardoned, did most of the departmental duties during this time. In 1805 he surveyed the track between Prospect and Cowpastures. He also marked out 5000 acres for John Macarthur at Camden Park. At this time he was granted land in the district of Minto and after it was initially withdrawn, in 1810 Governor Macquarie granted him 1140 acres to be known as Macquarie Field.

He was very nearly appointed Surveyor General in 1812 but another one of our famous explorers John Oxley petitioned the British Government tirelessly and Oxley was eventually appointed. Governor Macquarie then appointed Meehan deputy surveyor of lands.

During the following years he measured every farm not only in New South Wales but in Van Diemen's Land also. He accompanied Governor Macquarie on most of his tours of inspection in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.

In 1818 Governor Macquarie sent him with Charles Throsby to look for a way from Sutton Forest to the coast at Jervis Bay. From this expedition he left Charles Throsby and where he went downstream, Meehan went upstream following the Shoalhaven gorge and discovered Lake Bathurst and the Goulburn plains.

He made significant contributions to the mapping of the colony, exploring, laying out and measuring Sydney, Parramatta, Bathurst and Port Macquarie and surveying the townships of Richmond, Castlereagh, Windsor, Pitt Town, Wilberforce, Liverpool and Bathurst in New South Wales, as well as Hobart Town in Van Diemen's Land.

In 2010 James Meehan was honoured with inclusion of a statue on the façade of the Department of Lands building on the Loftus Street side. Made from Appin sandstone it was carved at the NSW Public Works stone yard.


Interesting fact - being a convict there were no portraits of James therefore the statue is based on a photograph of his son Thomas, with the stonemason hoping that he looked a lot like his father.

Sandstone Explorers

It's been awhile since I last posted and in that time I haven't really expanded my historical photo library much, so I am determined to get back into blogging and photography with renewed interest.

One of my favourite things about Sydney is all of the beautiful sandstone buildings. In the following posts I am going to look at some of these buildings. The first one was  designed by James Barnet, colonial architect - The Lands Department Building in Bridge Street. And in particular the explorers and legislators which adorn the façade.

There are 23 in total, too many to post one after the other or even blog about so I am going to choose my top ten and intersperse them with other posts.

This first post is about 2 explorers whose names are synonymous with early exploration of Sydney's waterways and quite often spoken about together - Bass and Flinders

George Bass and Matthew Flinders met as young men on board the HMS Reliance in 1795 on a journey to Sydney and discovered they both shared an interest in navigation and sea exploration. As soon as arriving in the new colony they made plans to explore in a small rowboat called the Tom Thumb, which George Bass had brought with him on the journey.

 

Their first exploration took them south to Botany Bay where they explored the Georges River (named in honour of King George III) which led to establishment of  the settlement of Bankstown. Incidentally this is the area in which I live.

 

On their second journey they discovered and named Port Hacking and Lake Illawarra.

 

Both Bass and Flinders, having also explored separately were convinced there was a body of water between mainland Australia and Van Diemen's Land and in 1798 they rowed along the northern coast of Van Diemen's Land, and rowed up the Tamar River near where Launceston stands today. While there they climbed Mount Wellington which overlooks Hobart. They proved that there was water between Australia and Van Dieman's Land and it was named Bass Strait by Governor Hunter.

Both of these explorers had unusual ends to their lives.

George Bass resigned from the Royal Navy and sailed trading vessels until in 1803 he left Sydney Harbour for Chile and neither he nor his boat or crew were ever seen or heard from again.

In 1803 Matthew Flinders sailed for England as a passenger on a ship which was wrecked on a coral reef off the Queensland coast, he took control of the lifeboat and sailed it back to Sydney to get help for his fellow passengers.

He then set sail in a small schooner back to England but it proved unseaworthy and he sailed to Mauritius seeking help but unknown to him at that time England and France were at war and they arrested him as a spy and kept him  in gaol on the island for 6 years.

He eventually returned to England in 1810 and in poor health died just 4 years later in 1814

Both of these men had a great influence on the exploration of the Australian coastline as we know it today.

King Edward VII Statue

The statue of King Edward VII is an impressive bronze sculpture which stands outside the Conservatorium of Music on Conservatorium Road looking down Bridge Street.

 

Three different views of King Edward VII.

 

 

When we took part in the Public Art walk with Dr Nicholas Hardwick we were given an information sheet about the art that we viewed. In this information the sculptor of the Sydney statue is Sir Thomas Brock and it was completed in 1922.

 But when researching more information about the statue on another site it has been attributed to Sir Edgar Bertram Mackennel. On further investigation this statue can be found in Melbourne Queen Victoria Gardens and was completed in 1920, two years before the Sydney one. Perhaps more evidence of the rivalry between these two cities.

 

Interesting trivia, Sir Thomas Brock is best known for his public monuments and statuary in London, especially the Victoria Memorial in Buckingham Palace.

"A Palace for Horses" - Conservatorium of Music

As we approached the end of our public art walk we viewed the building that was originally designed to be the stables for the new Government House that Governor Macquarie had planned to build in the Government Domain. It is the Conservatorium of Music formally the Government Stables.

In 1816 Governor Macquarie commissioned Francis Greenway to design an impressive  residence and stables in the castellated style.

Due to his penchant for building and what was termed his extravagance in his term of office Governor Macquarie's vision was only partially completed, that being the stables we see now.

 
                                         View from the Old Mill Garden in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The positioning of the stables at the time determined the style and site of the second Government House.

In recent times the Governor of NSW has again taken residence in Government House.

 

Allan Cunningham Obelisk

The next part of our public art walk took us past The Allan Cunningham Obelisk set in a pond near the Botanic Garden Restaurant.

It is in honour of Allan Cunningham who was an explorer and botanist. He worked for sir Joseph Banks in London and travelled with Phillip Parker King on four journeys to survey the Australian coastline. He was also a Superintendent of the Botanic Garden for a short time "resigning when, as a newspaper put it he 'would no longer consent to be a mere cultivator of cabbages and turnips'.

 

He died in 1839 and was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery but his remains were moved in 1901 to the memorial obelisk above. His tombstone is mounted on the wall of the National Herbarium of NSW.

 

The plants in the garden beds around the obelisk pond are examples of plants collected by Allan Cunningham from the Illawarra between 1818 and 1822.

 

This monument is difficult to photograph because it is always in shade. 

 

Magnolia Seed and Palm

These two sculptures are two of the more modern ones in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

They are a pair of metal structures by Bronwyn Oliver in two locations placed under a magnolia and a palm tree representing the site of the First Farm in Sydney Cove. This area of the Gardens was originally a mud flat that had any manner of organic debris washed up onto the shore which could take root and grow. These sculptures symbolise "the potential for transformation and new life" (taken from the plaque beside the sculpture).

                                                                       Magnolia Seed

 

Palm

 

 Another sculpture "Vine" is located in the foyer of the Sydney Hilton. Most Australian galleries have sculptures by this sculptor who passed away in 2006

Seasons 2

The other two statues in this series of four are of course Autumn and Winter.

Three of the four statues are represented by nubile young woman, but in the Winter statue it is represented by an old man. By the looks of that statue it is in need of some TLC because as winter has us cloaked up in coats he has a cloak of green covering him.

                                                                              Autumn

 

Winter

 

The statues have been restored by the carving skills of Polish- born master mason Jacek Luszcyk. They were unveiled in their original positions after restoration in 2010.

Seasons

Throughout the Royal Botanic Gardens there are many wonderful statues that adorn the steps and

paths.

As it is Spring in Sydney at the moment I thought I would start with my two favourites seasons, Spring and Summer.

 These two statues are part of a group of eight statues imported from Italy in 1883 and include Seasons, Boy Extracting Thorn, La Ballarina, Sweep Boy and  a young girl with a scarf, clogs and musical instrument from the Donizetti opera ‘Linda di Chamonix’.  

 

Sir Henry Parkes promoted the use of public sculpture to beautify the colony and for the so-called "uplifting of the lower orders" and used classical statuary in gardens to educate those who could not afford the "grand tour" and see sculpture like this for themselves.

 

Over time the statues at various times were removed and kept at the gardens in a shed known by staff as the Graveyard, as they had become subject to vandalism, decapitation and deterioration.

Governor Phillip Fountain

As we continued on our public art walk with Dr Nicholas Hardwick we viewed this spectacular fountain in honour of our first Governor, Captain Arthur Phillip.

The fountain was commissioned by Sir Henry Parkes as part of the 1888 Centennial celebrations but it wasn't finished until nearly a decade later. Originally expected to be completed in 4 years by sculptor Achille Simonetti, it was plagued with issues from interfering politicians, not only changing what it should look like but Governor Dibbs putting a halt to entire project for a year.

It consists of a Carrara marble pedestal upon which a bronze statue of  Governor Phillip stands with  3 relief panels representing Justice, Patriotism and Education.

Around the pedestal are 4 reclining figures made of bronze of Neptune, Cyclops, Agriculture and Commerce. Between these 4 figures are giant clam shells featuring four bronze prows of ships which feed the water into the white marble basins.

                                                  
                                                                                  Commerce

                 
                                                                      Agriculture

                                                                       Cyclops - representing Mining

                                                              Neptune - representing Navigation

The fountain was unveiled by Lord Hampden on the 22nd June 1897 on the celebration of the 60th year of the reign of Queen Victoria. A truly magnificent tribute to a great man.

Garden Palace Gates

The gates to the Royal Botanic Gardens from Macquarie St, known as The Palace Garden Gates, are the only remaining signs of a contentious building that was built to show the world that the colony had come a long way from it's humble beginnings.

The Garden Palace was a purpose built exhibition building in Sydney to house The Sydney International Exhibition in 1879. It was designed by colonial architect James Barnet and built in just 8 months. This was largely due to the importing of electric light from England allowing work to be done 24 hours a day.

After the exhibition was finished the building was used as office space for a number of government departments. It also held the records of the 1881 census, railways surveys and land titles. The building was made of wood and in 1882 fire destroyed the palace along with all it's contents.



Another interesting fact connected to the staging of this International Exhibition was that Aboriginal people were still living on the harbour near where the Museum of Contemporary Art is now and the government didn't think that this presented a good image of Sydney so they encouraged them to move out of the city with many moving to La Perouse where there was a large Aboriginal community.

Hi there

I seem to be having some technical difficulties with uploading photos to the blog at the moment so until I can figure out what is happening, there will be  no new posts for the near future.

Sorry about the interruption but as I said in the intro this is my way of keeping computer savvy so this will test my limited knowledge.

Enjoy your weekend and hope to be back online soon.

Cheers

Kim

The Morshead Fountain

The Morshead Fountain was erected in remembrance of Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead and  the men who served with him in the war of 1914-18 and in the defence of Tobruk Libya in 1941 for which he was knighted.

It is located across from the State Library of NSW at one of the entrance gates to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

 

 

The fountain was designed by architects Woodward, Taranto and Wallace. A new fountain head was installed in 1983.

It was unveiled by Lady Morshead in 1966.

Unfortunately the day I photographed the fountain the water wasn't flowing while I was there.

Equine Heroes of WWI

The Desert Mounted Corps Memorial is a piece of public art that most people would probably miss, as it is almost hidden, set back into the south west external wall of the Royal Botanic Gardens.


It is a memorial to the 140,000 horses that served in the desert campaign in World War One, only one of which was able to return to Australia. The memorial was erected on Anzac Day 1950 by the friends and members of the Desert Mounted Corps. It was unveiled by Lady Chauvel, whose husband General Sir Harry Chauvel commanded the Desert Mounted Corps.

The memorial consists of  horses with ammunition pouches around their necks and reins held by a trooper in short sleeves, hats and boots, with ammunition pouches across his chest.

Like the Shakespeare Memorial this was also moved to its present location in the mid 1960's due to the construction of the Cahill Expressway.