Aussie inventor

Although an increasingly multi-cultural society, this is an important year for Australia's Scottish community in that it is two hundred years since a Scotsman, Lachlan Macquarrie, was appointed Governor of New South Wales. His is one of those classic stories of a native son leaving home to conquer the world. It is also provides an example of how the enlightened thinking of one man can shape the future.

From the start of his governance, Macquarrie encouraged those sent out as convicts under his control to settle permanently instead of returning to Britain when they had completed their sentences.

In so doing, he met with fierce opposition from the early “free settlers”, who understandably felt that they had precedence over the land.

But it is generally agreed that Australia would be a very different place today had Macquarrie's policies not succeeded. Over a period of twelve years, he transformed what was in effect a penal colony into a thriving country and Sydney from a makeshift shanty town into a fine Georgian city.

Moreover, Lachlan Macquarrie was the first person to make use of the name Australia in an official document. Not without justification is he therefore regarded as the “Father of Australia”.

But who was this British army officer who took up what was considered a most unenviable post and left a mark which none of his predecessors could ever have emulated?

Lachlan Macquarrie was born in 1762 on the island of Ulva in the Inner Hebrides. Closely related ...

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• By : Roddy Martine
• In : Roddy Martine's World
• Issue : 49
• Page : 7
• Words : 798