Print this page The Improving Macquaries: Elizabeth

This walk will help you re-imagine early nineteenth-century Sydney under Governor Macquarie.  It encompasses both the natural environment and built heritage. Elizabeth’s husband had to bring order to a society riven by conflicts, and he had an intelligent, compassionate wife to support him. We’ll bring a morning tea and enjoy it in the Botanic Gardens. The walk is 3 hours and requires a reasonable level of fitness plus a hardy attitude to whatever the weather dishes up. Meet at Circular Quay, in front of Wharf 6 (wharf closest to MCA) 10 minutes before the tour starts so it can commence on time.

This walk will go ahead whatever the weather, except where the guide deems there to be a threat to health and safety. In this situation you will be contacted with an alternative date. Please ensure your mobile phone number is up-to-date with WEA before enrolling and make sure you take it with you on the day in case the tutor needs to contact you.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

SUGGESTED READING

• Macquarie, Grantlee Kieza
• In her Own Words: the writings of Elizabeth Macquarie, ed. Robin Walsh
• Persuasion, Jane Austen
• The Colony: a history of early Sydney, Grace Karskens (2009 Allen & Unwin)
• Lachlan Macquarie: a biography, John Ritchie (1986 Melbourne University Press)

COURSE OUTLINE

• Elizabeth’s life, convicts, emancipists, free settlers, the military
• Mrs. Macquarie’s road & chair, life at Government House
• Her interests in convict women, orphans, Aborigines and gardening, the Governor’s Demesne

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Support a healthy lifestyle by walking
2. Gain background to heritage items on the walk
3. Understand Elizabeth Macquarie's legacy
4. Discover historical changes to vegetation at Farm Cove (Botanic Gardens)