Return to The World Upside Down Home Page
Bigge's Commission

Bigge’s Commission from George III 1819
MS2815 A40001733

1819
January
1
A Male Orphan School is opened in Sydney

5 J.T. Bigge is commissioned by Colonial Secretary Lord Bathurst to inquire into conditions in New South Wales and the administration of the colony

June
4 Hyde Park Barracks is officially opened by Macquarie

5 A public meeting is chaired by Macquarie who decides to establish a savings bank

25 The road from Hobart to New Norfolk is completed

26 Reverend L.H. Halloran arrives as a convict on the transport Baring. He is given a ticket-of-leave, and opens a private school in Sydney on 10 January 1820

July
17 The first savings bank in Australia, is founded by Barron Field and Robert Campbell in Sydney, Parramatta, Liverpool, and Windsor

November
18 Captain Louis De Freycinet puts in at Port Jackson having surveyed from West Australia to Timor, New Guinea, and the Mariana Islands. He finds the town greatly changed since his last visit with Baudin in 1802

Other
Barron Field, produces First Fruits of Australian Poetry, the first book of Australian verse

William Charles Wentworth produces A Statistical, Historical and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales, the first book written by an Australian-born author