Governors of New South Wales

Date: 26 Jan 1788
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Surnames/tags: New_South_Wales governors

Contents 1 Background 2 List of Governors of New South Wales 3 The Role of the Governor 4 Government House 4.1 Sydney 4.2 Parramatta 4.3 Summer residence 5 Support 6 Sources

Background

Badge of the Governor of New South Wales

The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal representative of the Australian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, in the state of New South Wales; and performs constitutional and ceremonial functions. The office is established by the New South Wales Constitution Act, 1902.^[1]

When the eleven ships of the First Fleet anchored in Sydney Cove on 26th January 1788, the king's proclamation regarding the founding of the penal colony of New South Wales was read and Captain Arthur Phillip RN commissioned as the colony's first vice-regal governor. Of course, then New South Wales encompassed the land from the northern tip of Cape York, Queensland to the southern extremity of Tasmania. And it was just weeks before the colony's boundaries were stretched to include places such as Norfolk Island. As time marched on, Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania), Port Phillip Bay (Victoria), Moreton Bay (Queensland) and Norfolk Island became independent of New South Wales.^[1]

List of Governors of New South Wales

No.	Photo	Name	Birth-place	Spouse	Years as Governor	No. years	Notes
1		Captain Arthur Phillip RN	Allhallows, London, England	-	1788-1792	4yrs 11mths	encouraged exploration, emancipation and self-sufficiency
2		Captain John Hunter RN	Leith, Midlothian, Scotland	-	1795-1800	5yrs	encouraged exploration, emancipation and Christianity
3		Captain Philip Gidley King RN	Launceston, Cornwall, England	Anna Josepha Coombe	1800-1806	5yrs 11 mths	encouraged exploration, emancipation and agriculture
4	Image:Bligh-45.jpg	Captain William Bligh RN	St Tudy, Cornwall, England	daughter, Mary Putland	1806-1808	1yr 5 mths	was subject to a military coup led by ex-NSW Corps officers
5		MAJ GEN Lachlan Macquarie CB	Island of Ulva, Inner Hebrides, Scotland	Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell	1810-1821	11yrs 11 mths	encouraged exploration and emancipation, built infrastructure and sited towns
6		MAJ GEN Sir Thomas Brisbane GCH GCB, Bt	Noddsdale, Ayrshire, Scotland	Anna Maria Hay Makdougall	1821-1825	5yrs	worked to improve the land grants system and to reform the currency, agriculture
7		LT GEN Sir Ralph Darling GCH	Ireland	Elizabeth Dumaresq	1825-1831	5yrs 10 mths	education, female convicts, promote Christian teaching, and protect indigenous population
8		MAJ GEN Sir Richard Bourke KCB	Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland	Elizabeth Jane Bourke	1831-1837	6yrs	trial by jury and civil juries in criminal cases; economic growth; religion and education
9		Major Sir George Gipps	Ringwould, Kent, England	Elizabeth Ramsay	1838-1846	8yrs 5mths	exploration; equality for all; partial representative government
10		LT COL Sir Charles Fitzroy KCH KCB	England	Mary Lennox	1846-1855	8yrs 5mths	constitution providing for an elected lower house in a bicameral legislature; Sydney Uni.
11		Sir William Denison KCB	London, England	Caroline Hornby	1855-1861	6yrs	education; orphanages; Christianity
12		The Rt Hon. Sir John Young GCMG KBE, Bt	Bombay, Mahārāshtra, India	Adelaide Tuite-Dalton	1861-1867	6yrs 7mths	charities; Christianity
13		The Rt Hon. Sir Somerset Lowry-Corry GCMG PC, Earl Belmore	London, England	Anne Gladstone	1868-1872	4yrs 1mth	-
14		The Rt Hon. Sir Hercules Robinson GCMG	Rosmead, Westmeath, Ireland	Nea Annesley	1872-1879	6yrs 9mths	responsible government
15		The Rt Hon. Sir Augustus Loftus GCB, Lord Loftus	Bristol, Gloucestershire, England	Emma Greville	1879-1885	6yrs 3mths	Sudan War
16		The Rt Hon. Sir Charles Wyn-Carington GCMG PC, Lord Carrington	Whitehall, London, England	Cecilia Harbord	1885-1890	4yrs 11mths	-
17		The Rt Hon. Sir Victor Child-Villiers GCB GCMG PC, Earl of Jersey	Berkeley Square, London, England	Margaret Leigh	1891-1893	2yrs 2mths	-
18		The Rt Hon. Sir Robert Duff GCMG	Fetteresso, Kincardineshire, Scotland	Louisa Scott	1893-1895	1yrs 10mths	-
19		The Rt Hon. Sir Henry Brand GCMG, Viscount Hampden of Glynde	Devonport, Devonshire, England	Susan Cavendish	1895-1899	3yrs 4mths	-
20		The Rt Hon. Sir William Lygon KCMG PC, Earl Beauchamp	London, England	Lettuce Grosvenor	1899-1901	1yr 11mths	Boer War; federation
21		Admiral Sir Harry Rawson GCB GCMG RN	Walton-on-Hill, Lancashire, England	Florence Shaw	1902-1909	7yrs	the first naval officer since William Bligh to hold the post
22		The Rt Hon. Sir Frederick Thesiger GCSI GCMG GCIE GBE, Lord Chelmsford	London, England	Frances Guest	1909-1913	3yrs 8mths	had been governor of Queensland from 1905
23		The Hon. Sir Gerald Strickland GCMG, Count della Catena, Lord Strickland	Valletta, Malta	Edeline Sackville	1913-1917	4yrs 7mths	supported efforts during The Great War
24		Sir Walter Davidson KCMG	Valletta, Malta	Dame Davidson, nee Margaret Feilding	1918-1923	5yrs 7mths	died in office
25		Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair KCB KCMG MVO	Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada	Enid Struben	1924-1930	6yrs 2mths	-
26		Air Vice Marshal Sir Philip Game GCB GCVO GBE KCMG DSO	Streatham, Surrey, England	Gwendolen Hughes-Gibb	1930-1935	4yrs 8mths	dismissed the NSW government in May 1932
27		Brigadier Sir Alexander Hore-Ruthven VC GCMG CB DSO, Earl of Gowrie	Windsor, Berkshire, England	Zara Pollok	1935-1936	12mths	was appointed Governor General of Australia
28		Admiral Sir David Anderson KCB KCMG MVO	Newton by Chester, Cheshire, England	Dame Anderson, nee Edith Teschemaker	1936-1936	2mths	died in office
29		The Rt Hon. Sir John de Vere Loder KCMG, Lord Wakehurst	Chelsea, London, England	Margaret Tennant	1937-1946	8yrs 9mths	the last non-Australian-born governor of NSW; supported the war effort
30		LT GEN Sir John Northcott KCMG KCVO CB	Creswick, Victoria	Mary Paton	1946-1957	10yrs 11mths	first Australian-born (Victoria) governor of New South Wales
31		LT GEN Sir Eric Woodward KCMG KCVO CB CBE DSO	Hay, New South Wales	Amy Weller	1957-1965	8yrs	first NSW governor to have been born in New South Wales
32		Sir Arthur Roden Cutler VC KCMG KCVO CBE	Manly, New South Wales	Helen Morris	1966-1981	14yrs 365 days	NSW's longest-serving governor
33		Air Marshal Sir James Rowland AC KBE DFC AFC	Armidale, New South Wales	Faye Campbell	1981-1989	8yrs	a 'man of the people': opened Government House on a more frequent basis and invited a broader range of society to official functions
34		Rear Admiral Sir David Martin KCMG AO RAN	Sydney, New South Wales	Suzanne Millear	1989-1990	1yr 7mths	-
35		Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair AC RAN	Manly, New South Wales	Shirley McLellan	1990-1996	5yrs 7mths	living as of 2019
36		The Hon. Gordon Samuels AC CVO QC	London, England	Jacqueline Kott	1996-2001	5yrs	-
37		Professor The Hon. Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO	Narrandera, New South Wales	Sir Nicholas Shehadie	2001-2014	13yrs 7mths	living as of 2019
38		General The Hon. David Hurley AC DSC	Wollongong, New South Wales	Linda McMartin	2014-2019	4yrs 7mths	living as of 2019
39		The Hon. Margaret Beazley AO QC	Sydney, New South Wales	Dennis Wilson	2019-	incumbent	-

The Role of the Governor

As Australia's, and therefore New South Wales', monarch lives predominantly outside New South Wales' borders, the governor's primary task is to perform the sovereign's constitutional duties on his or her behalf, acting within the principles of parliamentary democracy and responsible government as a guarantor of continuous and stable governance and as a nonpartisan safeguard against the abuse of power. For the most part, however, the powers of the Crown are exercised on a day-to-day basis by elected and appointed individuals, leaving the governor to perform the various ceremonial duties the sovereign otherwise carries out when in the country; at such a moment, the governor removes him or herself from public, though the presence of the monarch does not affect the governor's ability to perform governmental roles.^[1]

The first ten governors of New South Wales, covering the colony's first 67 years, were primarily overseeing the running of a penal settlement, or settlements. The early colonial governors held a virtual autocratic power due to the distance from and poor communications with Great Britain, until 1824 when the New South Wales Legislative Council, Australia's first legislative body, was appointed to advise the governor.

Between 1850 and 1861, the governor of New South Wales was titled governor-general, in an early attempt at federalism. During that time all communication between the Australian colonies and the British Government was meant to go through the governor-general, and the other colonies had lieutenant-governors. As South Australia (1836), Tasmania (1855), and Victoria (1855) obtained responsible government, their lieutenant-governors were replaced by governors. Queensland (1859) went directly to governor and independence. It is from this time that New South Wales became as is known today.

The six British colonies in Australia joined together to form the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. New South Wales and the other colonies became states in the federal system under the Constitution of Australia. The New South Wales Constitution Act 1902 confirmed the modern system of government of New South Wales as a state, including defining the role of the governor as the monarch's representative, who acts by and with the advice of the Executive Council.^[1]

Government House

Sydney

On his arrival in Sydney in 1788, Arthur Phillip resided in a temporary wood and canvas house before the construction of a more substantial house on a site now bounded by Bridge Street and Phillip Street, Sydney. This first Government House was extended and repaired by the following eight governors, but was generally in poor condition and was vacated in 1845.^[1]

Government House Sydney c1809

From 1845, Government House has been the house designed by Edward Blore and Mortimer Lewis and built in Macquarie Street overlooking Farm Cove and the Sydney Harbour.^[1]

Government House Sydney

With the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901, Government House was leased to the new Commonwealth Government to serve as the secondary residence of the new Governor-General of Australia. The NSW Government leased the residence of Cranbrook, Bellevue Hill as the residence of the governor. This arrangement lasted until 1913 when the governor-general moved to the new Sydney residence of Admiralty House. The governor from 1913 to 1917, Sir Gerald Strickland, continued to live in Cranbrook and on his departure his successor returned to Government House.^[1]

In an attempt to 'force' republicanism on the nation, on 16th January 1996, the premier, Bob Carr, announced that the (then) next governor, Gordon Samuels, would not live or work at Government House. Infact, Carr turned the office of governor into a part-time affair. In October 2011, the new premier, Barry O'Farrell, announced that the governor, Dame Marie Bashir, would move back into Government House.^[1]

Parramatta

In 1790, Arthur Phillip had a secondary residence built in the township of Parramatta. In 1799, John Hunter, established a more permanent building erected on the same site - the oldest surviving public building in Australia - and now known as Old Government House, a National Trust of New South Wales managed property.^[2] This residence remained occupied until the completion of the primary Government House in 1845.^[1]

Old Government House Parramatta

Summer residence

From 1868, The Earl Belmore and his successor, Sir Hercules Robinson, used Throsby Park at Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands as his summer residence. In 1879 it was decided that the colony should purchase a house at Sutton Forest for use as a permanent summer residence, and in 1881 the NSW Government purchased for £6000 a property known as Prospect that had been built by Robert Pemberton Richardson (of the firm Richardson & Wrench). This was renamed Hillview, and became the primary summer governor's residence from 1885 to 1957; when, seen as unnecessary and expensive, Hillview was put up for sale.^[1]

Hillview, Sutton Forest

Support

The governor is but one person in the vice-regal household; managed by the Office of the Governor. He or she is helped in the execution of constitutional and ceremonial duties by the Official Secretary and Chief of Staff, currently Colonel Michael Miller RFD. Other support staff include aides-de-camp, press officers, financial managers, speech writers, event managers, protocol officers, chefs and other kitchen employees, waiters, various cleaning staff, as well as tour guides. In this official capacity, the entire household is usually referred to as Government House.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} Wikipedia: Governor of New South Wales; accessed 14 Oct 2019
2. ↑ National Trust: Old Government House; accessed 14 Oct 2019