Chapter 3

Sydney Australia 1828

Sydney Cove

‘Australia’s meteoric developments are due in no small part to the fortitude, fidelity. sweat, blood and tears of our ancestors who helped to make this country. It’s our duty to see they are not forgotten.’

In 1828 when the Twins arrive Sydney had expanded considerably from its early beginnings. Governor Macquarie had approved a town plan of most of the main streets including Macquarie and George Street, and Hyde Park. Several major buildings including Hyde Park barracks, St James Church and Sydney Hospital on Macquarie Street, had been built by convicts and designed by ex convict Francis Greenway. 

The vast majority of the population was still convicts but most of them were not confined and had been assigned to work on a government project or for a free settler. Many convicts had obtained their ticket of leave at the end of their sentence and had become “emancipists”. There was friction with free settlers, the “exclusives”, who believed they had more rights than the emancipists. 

All Governors had recognised the value of using well trained convicts in key roles and frequently pardoned them. Francis Greenway, forger and brilliant architect, and William Redfern, D'Arcy Wentworth and William Bland, all medically trained, became upright and reliable citizens of their adopted country.  

By 1828 the Colony had become self sufficient and settlement in nearby areas was expanding rapidly. Blackland, Lawson and Wentworth had found a way through the Blue Mountains and a road had been built by convict labour from the Blue Mountains to Bathurst to open up the inland grazing lands. Similarly a 250km road was being built to the Hunter. Meanwhile land grants were available for fertile land on the Hawkesbury, Williams and Hunter Rivers, which were easily accessible via sea and river. In 1831-32 two sail and paddle steamers started a regular service from Sydney to Newcastle and even up the Hunter River to Raymond Terrace. 

 

It was a time in Sydney and the expanding regions for the enterprising. While it was still basically a penal colony the opportunities for free settlers were huge, especially as free convict labour, and free or cheap land was available. The twins took advantage of both. 

 

In the early days of the colony there were few women except female convicts who were normally shunned by free settlers. Most of the earliest free settler migrant women arrived on assisted passages exchanging poverty at home to become indentured servants in Australia. Archibald and George married their indentured servants, Harriet Farquharson and Jane Blanch. They were strong women who provided them with apparently successful marriages and many children to be proud of who formed the basis of the Australian Mosman family of today. 

Next Chapter - 3.1 Mosman Twins arrive Sydney 1828