This walk will help you re-imagine early nineteenth-century Sydney Town and the task of governing the colony of convicts. Colonel Macquarie had to bring order to a society riven by conflicts. How would you bring combative groups together? Horse races, dinners, fairs, feasts? We’ll look at his public achievements including roads, town planning, a hospital, church and barracks. Ultimately his “reward merit, punish vice” approach was difficult for a servant of Empire. We’ll enjoy our morning tea in the Botanic Gardens. The walk is 3 hours and requires a reasonable level of fitness plus a hardy attitude to whatever the weather dishes up. Meet at Circular Quay, in front of Wharf 6 (wharf closest to MCA) 10 minutes before the tour starts so it can commence on time.
This walk will go ahead whatever the weather, except where the guide deems there to be a threat to health and safety. In this situation you will be contacted with an alternative date. Please ensure your mobile phone number is up-to-date with WEA before enrolling and make sure you take it with you on the day in case the tutor needs to contact you.
- Slattery, Luke. The First Dismissal (2014 Penguin Specials)
- Kieza, Grantlee. Macquarie (2019 ABC Books)
- Karskens, Grace. The Colony: a history of early Sydney (2009 Allen & Unwin)
- Ritchie, John. Lachlan Macquarie: a biography (1986 Melbourne University Press)
- Grapps, Stephen. The Sydney Wars: conflict in the early colony 1788 - 1817 (2018 NewSouth)
- Lachlan Macquarie’s life, convicts, emancipists, free settlers, the military, the Appin massacre
- Roads & town planning, old Government House, the Rum Hospital
- Hyde Park Barracks, St. James church and Francis Greenway
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- Support a healthy lifestyle by walking
- Gain background to heritage items on the walk
- Understand Lachlan Macquarie's legacy
