These pages are a Sydney Morning Herald liftout for the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet — the 1938 sesquicentenary, not the 1888 birthday party and not the 1988 Bicentenary. The paper itself is older than the anniversary it was selling: the Sydney Herald began in 1831 and took the Morning Herald name in 1851. What you are looking at is how Granny Herald packaged a century-and-a-half of British settlement for readers on the eve of another world war.
Official Sydney and national celebrations that year ran hard on progress, re-enactment and Anglo inheritance. The same Australia Day, Aboriginal organisers marked a Day of Mourning — the anniversary was never one story. For a paste intro you don’t need a thesis; you do need the year right so this set doesn’t bleed into the 1888 centenary scrapbooks elsewhere on the blog.
Read the mastheads and page dates on the photos before captioning. Keep the twelve liftout images; this is a newspaper scrapbook, not a second Federation essay.
150th Anniversary Liftout From The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Herald was first published in 1831 and adopted the name The Sydney Morning Herald in 1851. The 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet was marked in 1938. This newspaper liftout records how that anniversary was presented to Australian readers.
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938, page 5 – Dangar, Gedye & Malloch advertisement (close-up))
Close-up of part of the Dangar, Gedye & Malloch centenary advertisement. The full advertisement is transcribed after the full-page photo further down.
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938 – "Governors of the Young Australia")
GOVERNORS of the Young AUSTRALIA
By GEORGE MACKANESS,
Author of "Admiral Arthur Phillip," etc.
[Section headings visible on the page:] Reign of the Rum Officers. / The Arrest of William Bligh. / Macquarie the Nation Builder.
[Caption under Bligh portrait:] (Above.) A portrait of Governor Bligh, and (left) a drawing made to illustrate the allegation that Bligh was hiding under a bed when he was arrested.
[Most of the body text is too small to read in this photo; the readable parts are transcribed after the close-ups below.]
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938 – top of the page spread)
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SESQUI-CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT, MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1938.
[Headlines visible:] …of the Young AUSTRALIA (see above) / "Time rolls its… (see the advertisement below)
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938 – "Governors of the Young Australia")
Transcription above (headline, byline and section headings; the body text is too small to read in this photo – the opening paragraphs are transcribed after the close-up below).
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938, page 5 – Dangar, Gedye & Malloch advertisement (close-up))
Close-up of the lower part of the Dangar, Gedye & Malloch centenary advertisement. The full advertisement is transcribed after the full-page photo below.
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938, page 5 – advertisement)
"Time rolls its ceaseless course"
The centenary of Dangar, Gedye & Malloch Limited which occurs this year is invested with additional interest because it coincides with the sesqui-centenary celebrations.
1838
Closely interwoven with many important events in the development of N.S.W., the history of Dangar, Gedye & Malloch Limited forms a most picturesque and colourful story.
One hundred years ago there were three storekeepers carrying on business in the northern districts of New South Wales.
Richard Cary Dangar was in business in Muswellbrook in 1838; Jeremiah Brice Rundle was storekeeper in Page's River and Murrurundi in 1839; and James Gilchrist established himself in Armidale as storekeeper in the "forties." Each of these early colonial business men contributed in his turn to the foundation and development of the House known as Dangar, Gedye & Malloch Limited.
Richard Cary Dangar seems to have been the most enterprising of the three, inasmuch as he made several voyages between Australia and England—no small undertaking in those days—and he was the moving spirit in the partnerships that ensued. He first came to Sydney by the vessel "Florentia," in 1836, and, besides establishing himself in business two years later in Muswellbrook, he acquired pastoral interests, and seemingly took an active interest in the Church, since he was trustee of the Muswellbrook Church Fund.
Believing that Sydney offered greater scope for business than the country, Mr. Dangar and his storekeeper friend from Murrurundi, Jeremiah Brice Rundle, joined in partnership, and commenced trading as Rundle, Dangar & Co., Sydney. It was on one of his visits into the country that Mr. Dangar wrote from Gostwyck on the 13th October, 1853, to his partner, Mr. Rundle, advising that Mr. Gilchrist, storekeeper at Armidale, was "doing a very large business, especially in spirits and in gold buying;" and Mr. Dangar suggested various lines of merchandise which Rundle, Dangar & Co. might sell to Mr. Gilchrist. Evidently Mr. Dangar registered a high opinion of Mr. James Gilchrist's business ability, as he later dissolved his partnership with Mr. Rundle, and became associated with Mr. Gilchrist, trading under the name of Dangar, Gilchrist & Co., Sydney. In 1855, Mr. Dangar admitted his nephew, Mr. Frederick Holkham Dangar, into the firm.
1870
Eight years later (1867) Mr. R. C. Dangar died, and some time afterwards Mr. Gilchrist retired. Mr. F. H. Dangar, in 1870, admitted into the firm his senior assistant in the business—Mr. Charles T. Gedye—whose name was substituted for that of Mr. Gilchrist. It is of interest to note that Mr. Gedye was manager of the Meat Preserving works established in Newcastle in the "forties" by Mr. Henry Dangar, the surveyor. The firm thus became known as Dangar, Gedye & Co., and thereafter there was no change in the name for 67 years, although its activities were extended far beyond its original limits. In addition to their business as Stock and Station Holders and Financiers, Wool Shippers and General Importers, the firm had large shipping interests. They owned the sailing ship "Neotsfield," and were agents for many of the famous sailing vessels, including some of the crack wool clippers — the "Torridon," the "Brilliant," the "Halloween," and the "Cutty Sark." Incidentally, it was from the latter vessel that many of the trade names of the goods sold by the Company were derived.
Mr. F. H. Dangar went to London in 1882. It was about this time that the Company began to take an interest in Shearing Machinery. Years later, after the death of Mr. Gedye, he handed over the business to his partner, Mr. Andrew Johnstone Sievers, who carried it on until his death in 1916. In that year the business was acquired conjointly by Mr. Robert A. Malloch (then a partner of Malloch Bros., Perth, W.A.) and Mr. William H. Carver, who had been with the firm for 45 years. Mr. Carver died in 1919, and his share of the business was acquired by Mr. Malloch.
1916
1938 And so now, after one hundred years, we proudly announce our Centenary!
Dangar, Gedye & Malloch Ltd.
Malloch House, Young Street, Sydney
—1838 – 1938—
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938, page 5 – advertisement (close-up))
Transcription above
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938, page 5 – advertisement (close-up))
Transcription above [below the rule, part of a large script heading on the next item: "…l Tasm…" – cut off]
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938 – "Governors of the Young Australia" (close-up of the opening))
GOVERNORS [of the Young Australia]
By GEORGE MACKANESS,
Author of "Admiral Arthur Phillip," etc.
WHEN Miss Fanny Chapman wrote in her Bath diary that Admiral Phillip combined in him the three essential elements that go to the making of a great man, "the gentleman, the scholar, and the seaman," she epitomized in a phrase the predominant qualities of our first Australian Governor. The stamp of merit, intellectual and moral, was undoubtedly impressed on him, a merit, as Viscount Wakefield put it, "that was revealed in the three qualities essential to creative work — vision, faith, and courage."
These qualities were so equally combined in Phillip that, to-day, we can confidently place his name high in the ranks of Empire-builders, a man, who, upon what in his day appeared to be but rotten and insecure foundations, built far better than he knew.
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938 – "Governors of the Young Australia" (close-up, later in the Phillip section))
[…] Wales, Phillip was charged with the transportation of more than a thousand persons to a land that was almost unknown, and across uncharted seas. If anything was overlooked in the preliminary arrangements, at least six months must elapse before the oversight could be remedied, and then only by a dangerous voyage to the Cape or Batavia. It was Phillip's own industrious and exact foresight, combined with importunity, which enabled him, in spite of much official neglect and stupidity, to establish the colony, and provide his charges with most of the essentials of life.
As a public administrator, Phillip was immeasurably superior to some of the men who succeeded him. A modest, self-[illegible] [illegible] he made few complaints [illegible] his letters about the difficulties he encountered, and no boasts at all of his success in overcoming them. His despatches show him to have been of an exact and precise mind, one who believed in the virtues of a plain tale plainly told.
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938 – "Governors of the Young Australia" (close-up, continues from the opening above))
[…better than he knew.]
Though several suggestions have been made to explain why Phillip was chosen to lead the expedition to New South Wales, the precise reason that led Lord Sydney to select him for the post is still uncertain.
Lord Howe confessed that Phillip's name was not very familiar to him. The appointment may have been due to the influence of Sir George Rose, Treasurer to the Navy, a near neighbour of Phillip, who at the time was farming at Lyndhurst in the New Forest of Hampshire, or was possibly just another example of eighteenth century patronage by some unknown nobleman.
Be this as it may, prior to his appointment, Phillip had proved himself to be an active and zealous officer, possessed of "habitual prudence," and with a sound knowledge of men and their manners, qualities that were revealed during his service with the Portuguese navy. The Marques do Lavradio was able to pronounce him "an officer of education and principle, clean-handed, of great truth, and very brave, saying what he thinks, but without temper or want of respect." In an age of quarter-deck martinets, Phillip, though endowed with autocratic powers, never during his governorship exercised them without tact and forbearance.
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Sesqui-Centenary Supplement, Monday 24 January 1938 – "Governors of the Young Australia" (lower part of the page))
[Caption, top, partly readable:] "If Phillip was the founder of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie may rightly be called the [illegible]."—A study of Macquarie.
[Caption, right:] (Above.) A portrait of Governor Bligh, and (left) a drawing made to illustrate the allegation that Bligh was hiding under a bed when he was arrested.
[End of the article, right-hand column:]
[ob]tained Bathurst's permission to retire, but did not leave Sydney until December, 1821.
His successor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, was faced with the task of putting into operation the reforms suggested by Bigge, but as an administrator he was not a success, for, being peace loving and a little deficient in energy, he was unable to prevent his best intentions from being thwarted by officials. Nevertheless, he effected many important changes.
After Brisbane came Sir Ralph Darling, a distinguished soldier and a man of high administrative ability, whose main services to the colony lay on the reorganisation of the administrative departments, the encouragement of explorers, and the opening up of the Moreton Bay district.
The administration of the next Governor, Sir Richard Bourke, was marked by much colonial progress, for his tact and sympathy ensured the adoption of many necessary social and political reforms, some suggested by the home authorities, others initiated by himself. Most important of them all was the inauguration of the "squatting" system, a device which gave room for the development of the wool industry, without disposing irrevocably of valuable Crown lands.
With the coming of Sir George Gipps, Bourke's successor, in February, 1838, we reach the end of half a century of the history of New South Wales.
