• Fifth Governor of the Colony of New South Wales.

• His army career began in 1776, when he joined the British Army as a volunteer at the age of 14. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the 71st Regiment in January 1781. In 1787, as a lieutenant in the 77th Regiment, he went to India, remaining there until 1801.

• In 1801, Macquarie was appointed deputy-adjutant-general to the 8000-strong army, under the command of Major-General David Baird that was sent to Egypt to defeat Napoleon and expel the French. Macquarie returned to England in 1803, but in 1805 he returned to India where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 73rd Regiment. After serving in northern India until 1806 he returned to Britain.

• In April 1809 Macquarie was appointed Governor of New South Wales to replace William Bligh whose governorship had been wracked with controversy. Macquarie and his wife arrived at Port Jackson on 28 December. He took up his commission as governor on 1 January 1810. He had the same full powers and responsibilities as the Colonial Office had given Phillip.

• As Governor of New South Wales, he also assumed control of the North Island of New Zealand by the appointment of a Justice of the Peace for the Bay of Islands.

• The British Government decided to recall the Rum Corps and replace them with the 73rd Regiment. As he was the officer commanding the 73rd Regiment, he was at a distinct advantage to his predecessors as senior officer of the garrison as well as Governor. These were disciplined men who would help to bring law and order to the colony.

• As with previous governors, Macquarie was given absolute authority in making laws and carrying them out. He was the last governor with such autocratic and non-constitutional power. The first exercise of authority was in the revoking of all (controversial transactions) of the rebel regime. These consisted of government appointments, land grants, leases, sentences and pardons. His Instructions were "To improve the Morals of the Colonists, to encourage marriage, to provide for Education, to prohibit the Use of Spirituous Liquors, to increase the Agriculture and Stock, so as to ensure the Certainty of a full supply to the Inhabitants under all Circumstances."

• He established a male orphanage and other charitable institutions including the Bible Society.

• He brought with him the first properly trained law officer for the colony, Ellis Bent but later fell out with him over authority to courts.

• Macquarie insisted on morality, virtue and temperance. He closed 55 inns and increased tax on imported liquor, he remodeled the commissariat, and the organisation of the Police Fund as the basis of colonial revenue, levied customs duties, opened a new market place, created a coinage to replace barter, (particularly the ‘rum currency’) and established the first bank. He opened schools for the young so that the children would become better citizens than their parents. He used emancipist settlers as teachers and eventually at his request, qualified teachers were sent out from England.

• He allowed ex-convicts to be re-admitted to the rank in society they had forfeited including appointing two emancipists to the position of magistrate in 1810. Many in the colony did not agree with this practice and as a result, J.T.Bigge was appointed as commissioner to enquire into the affairs of the colony.

• Was the first Governor to concern himself conscientiously and constructively with Aboriginal welfare. Macquarie tried to be on friendly terms with the Aboriginal peoples and to compensate for them being driven from their traditional homes. He organized the Native Institution (a school for Aboriginal children), a village at Elizabeth Bay for the Sydney Aboriginal peoples and an Aboriginal farm at George’s Head. He hosted an annual "feast" in the Parramatta market place where he distributed food, drink, tobacco and clothing and told the Aboriginal peoples of his plans for their Christianization and civilization. This began in 1814 and continued for 21 years. In 1816 he published a set of regulations stating that Aborigines were not to appear armed within a mile of any settlement or farm but those Aboriginal peoples who desired British protection and who conducted themselves in a suitable manner were to be supplied with a "Passport or Certificate" signed by the Governor.

• Macquarie founded new towns to the west of Sydney and expanded the settlement. He visited Van Dieman’s Land, Newcastle and Illawarra and founded Port Macquarie. He encouraged exploration including the crossing of the Blue Mountains and opening access to western lands and was responsible for the extension of the colony.

• Macquarie was also responsible for expanding the public works program including new army barracks, a road to Parramatta from Sydney and a new general hospital. Overall he was responsible for 265 public works of varying scale during his administration. His chief architect was Francis Greenway an ex-convict.

• Central to Macquarie’s administration was his concern for public morality. In some of his earliest orders the prevailing habit of cohabiting without marriage was denounced, constables were directed to enforce laws against Sabbath breaking, and a regular church parade was introduced for convicts in government employment. It seemed that he was successful in increasing "Religious Tendency and Morals" as church going and the marriage rate both increased.

• In the later years of office, Macquarie like all the former governors, had bad reports sent back to England by his enemies. Commissioner Bigge, who was sent out by London to investigate the administration, also put in a report influenced by those colonists who opposed Macquarie. Bigge felt that Macquarie’s public works policy was ‘absurd’ and they disagreed on Macquarie’s appointment of Dr Redfern, an emancipist, as a magistrate.

• The basic difference between Bigge and Macquarie was that they saw the colony of New South Wales in two different ways. Macquarie viewed it as ‘a Penitentiary or Asylum on a Grand Scale’ though he believed that one day it must be one of the greatest and most flourishing Colonies belonging to the British Empire’. While Bigge was influenced by people like John Macarthur who saw its potential as a free settlement and wool growing area. Bigge could not see the advantages in either the aims or achievements of Macquarie’s emancipist policy.

• The result of the Bigge Report to England was to establish firmly the executive and legislative authority of the Governor and, at the same time establish a separation of powers between the Governor and the Judiciary.

• There is no doubt that Macquarie was the most important NSW governor of the 19th century. He rescued the dignity and respect of the position of governor after the debacle of Bligh’s administration.

• Died in England in 1821.

N.D. McLachlan, 'MACQUARIE,L.', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 2, ed. Douglas Pike, pp 187 – (Melbourne University Press)