Macquarie

Governor Lachlan Macquarie was the governor of New South Wales from 1810 until 1821. Known as the ‘Old Viceroy’, Macquarie became revered by the general public and sometimes loathed by historians. ‘Lachlan Macquarie was a spendthrift and a moral prig.’ That statement, a harsh indictment of Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s administration and personality, is ambiguous and isn’t a consistent with the nature of Macquarie’s tenure as governor of New South Wales. Macquarie inherited a colony on the verge of economic depression and social upheaval. In this tumultuous period, Governor Lachlan Macquarie managed to maintain a growing population while at the same time dealing with social and economic expansion. Indeed, Lachlan Macquarie was a flawed individual but he had a good grasp of what it took to run New South Wales. This does not mean, however, that the claims of Macquarie the ‘spendthrift’ and ‘moral prig’ are untrue. They are part of a bigger picture that shaped Gover...