Congratulations to our three wonderful speakers who gave fascinating insights into the Macquarie era and stories of those associated with the Colony and Governor Macquarie. The bicentenary of Governor Macquarie is being celebrated this year and this event was an official Macquarie 2010 Commemorative event. Dr Grace Karskens from the University of New South Wales spoke about the influence of Macquarie's wife, Elizabeth, on his famous building program and vision for the colony generally; Mr. Robin Walsh, librarian/curator for The Lachlan Macquarie Room, Macquarie University Library, explored Macquarie’s character through the eyes of his Indian manservant 'George' whom until now has not been fully researched, and Lisa Slade, Curatorial Consultant at the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery was dynamic in her talk about the wonderful Macquarie Chest , a “collector’s chest”, regarded as the holy grail of Australiana that was almost certainly made in Newcastle in 1818 with painted views of the area. Thank you also to Dr Josephine May (Senior Lecturer Faculty of Education and Arts at The University of Newcastle) who did a great job at chairing the evening and to Prof Maynard(Head of School of The Wollotuka Institute The University of Newcastle, Australia) for conducting welcome to country. We hope that the wider Hunter community enjoyed the evening and the Hunter Regional Committee of the National Trust would like to thank those who attended for their great support and look forward to organising future forums.
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