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 At this time he was granted land in the district of Minto and after it was initially withdrawn, in 1810 Governor Macquarie granted him 1140 acres to be known as Macquarie Field.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.