Early Changes

 

With progress comes a passing of what has been before and Macquarie Place has not been immune to this since it's inception.

 

In 1819, Governor Macquarie commissioned Frances Greenway to design and build a Doric fountain, which was to be located at the western corner of the park. Elizabeth Macquarie was instrumental in the fountain's design and construction, having a large section of its stonework pulled down and rebuilt after its niches were originally omitted. It supplied water to the local residents.

 

 

 

 

Above is a watercolour of the fountain which was demolished to make way for a statue of  prominent businessman Thomas Sutcliffe Mort.

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort was a  leading Sydney businessman in auctioneering and pastoral finance, owner of the largest commercial dry dock in Australia, a pioneer of frozen meat exports and a founder of the Australian Mutual Provident Society (AMP). He died in 1878 and the statue, by sculptor Pierce Francis Connelly, was erected in 1883.

Thomas Mort was also one of the most prominent Anglican laymen in Sydney. He gave the land for St Mark's Church Darling Point , commissioning Edmund Blacket to design it and contributed generously to its building and upkeep as well as to the building of St Andrew's Cathedral and St Paul's College, University of Sydney.
 
His statue looks towards Bridge St which at the time and still does have the most substantial sandstone buildings in Sydney.