Vaucluse Bay. Port Jackson. New South Wa…

Rare, early hand coloured c.19th engraved view of Vaucluse which was named by the Irish convict Sir Henry Browne Hayes who had acquired the property in 1803. It later became the residence of William Charles Wentworth in 1821. 

Although the engraving has the attribution below the image, from an Original Drawing by Capt. Wallis 46th Regt., the engraving is actually based on a watercolour by Joseph Lycett (1777-1828) now in an album of original drawings by both Captain James Wallis and Joseph Lycett, c.1817-1818, in the State Library of New South Wales. The watercolour is item number  [2.] [Vaucluse Bay, Port Jackson, New South Wales, by Joseph Lycett] Watercolour Inscribed lower centre in ink `Drawn by a Convict.’  (SLNSW, Call number SAFE/PXE 1072)

The rocks on the right known as Bottle and Glass Point were destroyed in a naval gunnery exercise. Wallis an amateur artist of considerable ability, was appointed captain on 19 December 1811 and arrived in Sydney with the 46th Regiment to relieve the 73rd, Macquarie’s regiment, in the transport General Hewitt, arriving on February 1814. On 1 June 1816 he was appointed to relieve Lieutenant Thompson as commandant at Newcastle at a salary of £136, and on 8 June embarked in the brig Lady Nelson with a detachment of his regiment. He immediately implemented new regulations and, through stringent discipline, curtailed the prevailing laxity. He also began constructing new public and governmental buildings. When Governor Macquarie visited Newcastle in 1818 he was impressed by Wallis’s building activity. His influence was of profound importance on the developing settlement at Newcastle. In December 1818, Wallis was relieved by Captain James Morisset of the 48th Regiment. He reached Sydney on 9 January 1819 and on 3 March sailed in the transport Tottenham to join his regiment in India. He proceeded to England and in 1820 and supervised the publication of, An Historical Account of The Colony of New South Wales and its Dependent Settlements.

From: Wallis, J. An Historical Account of The Colony of New South Wales and its Dependent Settlements; in Illustration of Twelve Views, Engraved By W. Preston, a Convict, from Drawings Taken on the Spot