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Governor Bourke's statue, Domain 1871

Governor Bourke's statue, Domain 1871

By

Charles Percy Pickering

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

[a325056 / SPF/1056]

(Mitchell Library)

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Irish in Sydney from First Fleet to Federation

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Sculpture

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Bourke, Richard

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The Domain

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Sir Richard Bourke statue

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Pickering, Charles Percy

State Library of New South Wales

Irish in Sydney from First Fleet to Federation

A large part of Sydney's European community from its earliest days, the Irish helped shape the colony and its cultural and religious institutions. While many Irish immigrants, both convict and free, prospered and flourished in Sydney throughout the nineteenth century, they rarely forgot their homeland and its struggles, and remained a community which never thought of England as 'home'.

Sculpture

Bourke, Richard

full record »

Former soldier who was a popular early Governor of New South Wales between 1831 and 1837, he is generally considered enlightened or progressive in his reforms, especially in relation to the judicial process, the treatment of emancipists and convicts, and religion. His proclamation on 10 October 1835 was responsible for implementing the concept of terra nullius, upon which British settlement was based, and the dispossession of Aboriginal people across Australia until this was overturned in 1992.

The Domain

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Park in central Sydney which dates from the colony's earliest days.

Sir Richard Bourke statue

full record »

Statue of Governor Sir Richard Bourke that was unveiled in 1842 'on the rising ground at the entrance of the Government Domain from Bent Street', five years after he had departed the colony. Australia's first monument, and the only statue of a British colonial governor built with money raised by public subscription. In 1838, Bourke's son in London commissioned the English sculptor Edward Hodges Baily was commissioned to create the work on behalf of the committee in Sydney. The statue was moved in 1925 and now stands in front of the Mitchell Library, at the interesection of Macquarie Street and Shakespeare Place.