Page 28 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sydney

26  INTRODUCING SY DNEY

The Georgian Era

Sydney’s early decades were times of turbulence and growth.
Lachlan Mac quarie, governor from 1810 to 1821, was one of
the most significant figures. He took over a town-cum-jail and
left behind a fully fledged city with a sense of civic pride. Noted
for his sympathetic attitude to convicts and freed women and
men, he commissioned many fine buildings, including work
by convict Francis Greenway (see p116). When Macquarie left Growth of the City
in 1822, Sydney boasted main roads, regular streets and an Today 1825
orga nized police system. By the 1830s, trade had expanded,
and labour and land were plentiful. In 1840, transporta tion of
convicts was abolished. A decade of lively debate followed: The domed saloon
on immigration, religion and education. is elliptical, and has a
cantilevered staircase.
Bedroom
The breakfast
room was used for
informal dining.

View from the Summit
Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth were
the first Europeans to cross the Blue
Mountains in 1813. Augustus Earle’s
painting shows convicts work ing on
a road into this fertile area.

The kitchen was
originally in a sepa rate
block to avoid the
danger of fire.

The Macquaries Elizabeth Bay House
Governor Macquarie and his wife This extravagant Regency villa was built in 1835–9 for
Elizabeth arrived in the city with Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay (see p122).
a brief to “improve the morals of After only six years’ occupancy, lavish build ing and
the Colonists”.
household expenses forced him into bankruptcy.

1814 Holey dollar eases coin shortage 1830 Sir Thomas
1820 Macquarie Chair crafted of Mitchell discovers
Holey dollar and she-oak and wallaby skin megafauna fossils in
dump, made from New South Wales
Spanish coins Macquarie Chair
1810 1815 1820 1825 1830
1816 Convict architect Francis 1817 The Bank of NSW 1831 First Australian
Greenway designs his first building, opens. Macquarie novel, Quintus Servinton,
Macquarie Lighthouse recommends adoption of is printed and published
the name Australia for the
continent, as suggested by 1824 Hume and Hovell are the first
explorer Matthew Flinders Europeans to see the Snowy Mountains

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