Mick Reed recently gave a new interpretation of how Armidale’s oldest streets were named. Previously many writers had suggested that the surveyor, John James Galloway, had given the names to the streets when he drew up his Plan of Armidale in 1849. It seemed obvious that the streets carried the names of the founding fathers, but there was a problem – there was no Mr Brown after whom Brown Street was named. And who were Mr Canambe and Mr Douglas? The story continues from where we left off last week.
As we saw last week, there were real people whose names matched the names of Armidale’s oldest streets: the Allingham brothers, George Barney, Henry Dangar, the Dumaresq brothers, John Galloway, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Patrick Kennedy, Robert Kirkwood, the Markham brothers, Matthew Marsh, Thomas Rusden 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.
Mick Reed argues that the vital decisions were not made here in Armidale but in the Surveyor-General’s Office in Sydney. Galloway’s 1849 Plan of Armidale was studied by the Surveyor-General (Thomas Livingston Mitchell, 1792-1855) and his Deputy (Samuel Augustus Perry, 1787-1854). It seems 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.
“Once Mitchell is recognised as the key decision maker for the street names, former certainties dissolve, and other options emerge,” claims Mick Reed. “We need to get inside Mitchell’s thought processes, life story, and range of contacts to explain them in the absence of specific evidence.”
Born on June 15, 1792 in Scotland, Thomas Livingstone Mitchell was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 95th Regiment in 1811, served in the Peninsular War at the battles of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz and Salamanca, and was engaged by Sir George Murray (the Quartermaster-General) to produce plans of the major Peninsular battlefields. Commissioned a Major in 1826, Mitchell became Assistant Surveyor-General of NSW, where he commenced a general survey of the colony, and succeeded John Oxley as Surveyor-General in 1828. Mitchell made good use of his connections with his old patron, Sir George Murray, when he was the Secretary of State for the Colonies from May 1828 to November 1830.
Mitchell undertook four expeditions of discovery. The first, late in 1831, went through Tamworth to Narrabri and Moree. His second began in March 1835 to trace the Darling River to its junction with the Murray. His third (starting in March 1836) had similar purposes. He took 18 months’ leave from May 1837 and published an account of his explorations which appeared in 1838 as Three Expeditions Into the Interior of Eastern Australia, and in 1839 he was given a knighthood and an honorary doctorate of civil law from Oxford. He returned to Australia in 1841. Meanwhile, Armidale had been founded in May 1839.
In December 1845 Mitchell began his fourth expedition which took over 12 months, exploring around the headwaters of the Maranoa, Warrego and Belyando Rivers, and charting an extensive area of country without losing a man or suffering serious incident. He took more leave from March 1847 and arrived back in Sydney about July 1848. During the next two years he gave Armidale streets their names. Below (in alphabetical order) are Mick Reed’s suggestions about the possible basis of the names.
Barney Street could derive its name from the Aboriginal guide who went with Mitchell on his third expedition of discovery in NSW, or more likely, from George Barney, the Colonial Engineer and Commissioner of Crown Lands. For the life of George Barney, see Column No 7, August 4, 2010.
Brown Street could be named after John Brown, who was Mitchell’s convict man-servant on all four of his inland expeditions, or the botanist Robert Brown, who greatly influenced Mitchell.
Canambe Street probably owes its name to Canambe, a town in Portugal, where Mitchell served in the Peninsular Wars.
Dangar Street is probably named after Henry Dangar, but Mitchell’s dog was named Dangar. Did Mitchell name his dog after Henry Dangar? For the life of Henry Dangar, see No 3, July 7, 2010.
Douglas Street could be named after John Douglas who was on Mitchell’s third and fourth expeditions, or after Mr Douglas who was a friend of Mitchell and one of his agents.
Dumaresq Street most certainly honours William Dumaresq (the brother-in-law of Governor Darling) and the man who sat with Darling and Mitchell on the committee which set out the regulations about street width and lot size in towns in NSW. For the lives of the Dumaresq brothers, see No 2, June 30, 2010.
Jessie Street, previously presumed to be named after the ship on which Henry Dangar came to Australia, could be named after Mitchell’s daughter Georgiana, who was also known as Jessie.
Kennedy Street may not be named after the early Armidale settler, Patrick Kennedy (see No 4, July 14, 2010), but is possibly named after Edmund Kennedy, the surveyor on Mitchell’s fourth expedition. Much respected by Mitchell, Kennedy was killed by Aborigines in Cape York in 1848.
Mann Street seems certainly to be named after Mitchell’s friend, John Frederick Mann, a surveyor who later married Mitchell’s daughter, Camilla. Curiously, a good biography of Mann is not readily available.
Marsh Street may not be named after the early Uralla settler and Armidale Justice of the Peace, Matthew Henry Marsh (see No 5, July 21, 2010), but is possibly named after Stephen Hale Marsh who set some of Mitchell’s poems to music.
Although there were several people named Rusden, including Thomas Rusden, a pastoralist at ‘Europambela’, near Walcha (see No 15, September 29, 2010), Mick Reed suggests there was an Amelia Rusden, who had “briefly caught the eye of Mitchell’s brother, Houston”.
Taylor Street may not be named after the early Armidale settler, Richard Taylor (see No 20, November 3, 2010), but could be named after Sir Herbert Taylor, an important figure in the War Office, or Edward Taylor, who was on Mitchell’s fourth expedition.
Until a better case is presented, Mick Reed’s version has considerable merit. It seems then that we now have a plausible origin for the naming of Brown Street and Canambe Street. However, Mick Reed has offered no Mitchell connection to account for the old streets named Allingham, Kirkwood or Markham, yet men with those names were all local identities, so the story remains a work in progress.
