Elizabeth Macarthur Onslow, John Macarthur’s granddaughter, encouraged the maintenance of the proprieties of life, moral order and good works, as well as memorialising her family by donating a clock and bells to St John’s Church in 1897. The English-style gentry practised philanthropy in Camden to maintain its moral tone. Camden Park, for example, had a population of 900 in 1850. The population of Camden grew from 242 in 1846 to 458 in 1856, although the gentry’s estates still dominated the village. The first land sales in the village occurred in 1841, which stifled the growth of the existing European settlements in the area. Many immigrant families came to the area under Governor Bourke’s 1835 plan and settled on the gentry estates as tenant farmers, some establishing businesses in Camden. This image is by Charles Kerry in the 1890s (Camden Images) St John’s Anglican Church in its hilltop location at the top of John Street Camden. There were a number of large gentry estates built on convict labour in the surrounding farmland, the largest being the Macarthur family’s Camden Park of over 28,000 acres. The fine English Gothic-style church was funded mainly by the Macarthur family and has been the basis of the town’s iconic imagery. The ridge-top location of St John’s Church (1840) on the southern end of the town meant that it towered over the town centre and had a clear line of sight to the Macarthur family’s Georgian mansion at Camden Park 2.6 miles to the southwest. On his death in 1834, his sons had a different worldview and moved to establish an English-style estate village dominated by a church. Macarthur claimed that the town’s establishment threatened the security of his landholdings at Camden Park and opposed it during his lifetime. The grants were part of the dispossession of traditional lands of the Dharawal people by the British settler colonial project and inevitably led to conflict and violence. Please read our Expedited Review application for more information regarding the submission process and requirements.The town’s site, as part of the Macarthur grants, was located on some of the finest farming country in the colony in the government Cowpastures reserve on the colonial frontier. Projects under one acre are eligible to request an expedited review of their E&S plan submission for an additional fee.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |