630 presidknt's address. 



Sir George Macleay, K.C.M.G.. F.L.S. 



Third sou of Alexaiulei' Macleay, born in London in 1809, edueatod at West- 

 minster, resident in Australia lor more tlian thirty years, removed to England in 

 1859, died at Mentone, June 26th, 1891. 



George Macleay came out to Australia with his father, or soon after, but I 

 am not sure which. He and his younger brother James were in charge of their 

 father's property at Brownlow Hill and the farm at Glendarewel attached to it, 

 near Camden, in 1829. The first record of George in print is a.s the coniiianion 

 of Captain Charles Start on his "Expedition down the Morumbidgee and Murray 

 Rivers in 1829-30." The details of this adventurous undertaking were given in an 

 "Official Keport to the Colonial Government," which appeared in the Sydney 

 Gazette in May 1830; and more fully in Sturt's Narrative of the Expedition, 

 published in London in 1833, second edition 1834, as the second volume of the 

 work entitled "Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia, 1828-31." 

 The first volume gives the account of the expedition which resulted in the dis- 

 covery of the Darling, in 1829. 



Sturt, in his Narrative, speaks in the highest terms of Macleay. He men- 

 tions "the generous feelings that had prompted McLeay to participate in every 

 danger with me" ; and, "it was sufficiently evident to me, that the men were too 

 much exhausted to perform the task tliat was before them without ii-ssistance [on 

 the return-journey against the stream], and that it would be necessary both for 

 McLeay and myself to take our share of labour at the oars. Tiie cheerfulness 

 and satisfaction that my young friend evinced at the opportunity that w;is thus 

 afforded iiim of making himself useful, and of relieving those under him from 

 some portion of their toil, at the same time that they increa.sed my sincere esteem 

 for him, were nothing more than what I expected from one who had endeavoured 

 by every means in his power to contribute to the success of that enterprise upon 

 which he had embarked." 



Their association during this adventurous excursion was tlie beginning of a 

 warm and lifelong friendship . Sturt's home for some years was at Bargo Brush, 

 and afterwards at Varroville near Liverpool, so that their neighbourly intercourse 

 continued. From 1839-53 he resided in South Australia, and then returned to 

 England, where he and Macleay renewed their friendship. 



Mrs. Napier George Sturt's biography of her father-in-law, "Life of Charles 

 Sturt, sometime Captain 39tii Regiment, .and Australian Explorer" (London, 

 1899) gives numerous extracts from Sturt's lettei-s to Macleay. The last of them, 

 dated June 8th, 1869, was a sympathetic reply to one from his friend, announcing 

 the serious illness of his wife, who suffered from bronchitic trouble, and that 

 alarming symptoms had supervened. Sturt died peacefully, while he was alone, 

 eight days Inter, on ,Iune 16th. Mrs. George Macleay died shortly after. 



Another early notice of George Macleay and his brother James, is given in a 

 recently j)ublished, most interesting book, "Some Early Records of the Macarthurs 

 of Camden. Edited by Sibella Macarthur Onslow'" (1914). In a letter dated 

 Camden, December 27th, 1830, written by Mrs. John Macarthur to her eldest 

 son, Edward, then in England, she narrates bow two expected visitors, friends of 

 her son, lost their way, were out in the bush all night in pouring rain, and — 

 "in the morning they made their way to the al)ode of the young McLeays [Brown- 

 low Hill] — apropos, these young McLeays are very agreeable neighbours of Wil- 



