When my weekly column commenced in June 2010 there was a focus on who Armidale’s streets were named after. Week after week we looked at names such as the Dumaresq brothers, Henry Dangar, Patrick Kennedy, Matthew Marsh, John Galloway, George Barney, Thomas Rusden, the Markham brothers, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Richard Taylor. Most of those people had a connection with Armidale, but exactly how their names were given to our streets has been an ongoing mystery. Last Friday I attended a most interesting talk at UNE where Mick Reed gave his interpretation of how Armidale’s streets were named. It is quite possible that some things that were written by me and previous writers will need revising.
Nowadays it is difficult to understand why the history of the naming of Armidale’s streets was not researched years ago, but the simple fact is that it wasn’t. At best, numerous researchers looked at some of the relevant documents and it seems they drew some wrong conclusions.
Mick Reed’s talk shed some very useful light on things. For instance, he drew our attention to an article written by D N Jeans, titled ‘Official Town-Founding Procedures in NSW, 1828-1842’. That article explains what the rules and regulations were, including that the Governor had the right to name streets. Mick also pointed out that instructions given to the surveyor John James Galloway were not studied closely by previous researchers.
Those instructions make it clear that the vital decisions were made in the Surveyor-General’s Office and not here in Armidale. Mick also displayed images of some important plans which show that Galloway’s 1849 Plan was an extension of the one composed by John Valentine Gorman in 1846, and that many additions were made to both the original 1846 and 1849 Plans. The additions to the 1849 Plan included features that did not actually appear until well after 1849, so great care should be taken when interpreting it as the 1849 Plan.
Against that background, this is my updated version of how Armidale’s streets were named in the early years. Let’s start at the beginning.
Australian Aborigines were gradually dispossessed of their land after Europeans settled here from 1788. Many of these ‘New Australians’ had been selected by some of the best English judges. From time to time some of the newcomers went home, but there were ongoing arrivals as the boats kept coming. By 1821 the Europeans had opened up of the Hunter Valley, and some settlers soon went beyond the Liverpool Range and came north.
To enforce Law and Order, the Government sent Commissioner George MacDonald and his party of Police in May 1839. He was able to obtain supplies from the Saumarez Store and settled on the southern side of the Dumaresq Creek, where he founded the place which became Armidale.
White men with their women and children arrived in the New England district from the 1830s. With their animals, tools, clothing and other possessions, these new settlers also brought memories, hopes, fears and their religion. It was because there were Christians here that travelling clergymen occasionally visited.
William Grant Broughton, the first and only Anglican Bishop of Australia, visited Armidale in October 1845 and decided that a resident minister was needed in Armidale. Bishop Broughton also decided that an Anglican church, to be called St Peter’s, should be built in Armidale, so a site had to be surveyed. The NSW Surveyor-General sent a Government surveyor, John Valentine Gorman.
Meanwhile, time had passed and the infant village had grown, so the survey had to take into account the buildings which were already here. Gorman’s 1846 Plan shows that the east-west track was named “the road to Beardy Plains” and became Beardy Street in the official documents. Golgotha Street was the second street to get a name, to show the site of the designated cemetery on the western side of the infant town. The crossing over Dumaresq Creek at what is now Faulkner Street had a road described as “the road to the Darling Downs”.
Gorman drew a Plan defining the relevant part of Rusden Street, Faulkner Street and Dangar Street, where the Anglican Church and Parsonage were to be located, and the boundaries of Armidale’s town reserve. When Governor Fitzroy visited Armidale in March 1847 he ordered a more detailed survey, which was carried out by John James Galloway.
Galloway was given a copy of Gorman’s Plan on which additions had been made by the Surveyor-General’s Office. Galloway was instructed to use that document as the basis of his new work.
His first plan of Armidale was drawn in August 1848 and was done contrary to instructions. He aligned the town due north instead of eight degrees off, as Gorman had done, so that Rusden Street would be parallel with Beardy Street. Many buildings in Armidale, including the five inns, did not readily fit into Galloway’s rigidly orientated grid of streets. His plan had the streets running through all the pubs and some private residences. He also set aside Reserves on land which was already occupied. The Armidale residents successfully petitioned Governor Fitzroy, and Galloway was instructed to re-align the town in 1849. Henceforth, Armidale’s north-south streets did not face due north, but slightly north-west. And the pubs were saved.
Galloway’s 1849 Plan has 80 town allotments. He set aside 2086 acres for Armidale, roughly equal to three square miles. By the end of 1849 Armidale was an established township.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, Galloway’s 1849 Plan had been studied by Thomas Livingston Mitchell (the Surveyor-General) and his Deputy, Samuel Augustus Perry. They gave the names to Armidale’s streets, secured the Governor’s consent, and instructed Galloway in a letter dated June 14, 1849, to inscribe the names on the 1849 Plan which was kept at the Armidale Court House.
Next week we’ll look at the names which Mitchell had chosen.
