XIII. 
Sir William Macleay’s Australian career covering a period of nearly fifty-three 
years, throughout which, except for a few months’ absence during the cruise of the 
Chevert, he never left Australia, presents three important stages. For the first 
fifteen years an active participation in the development of the material resources of 
the country kept him fully occupied; then as his success as a squatter became 
assured he turned his attention to polities during seven consecutive Parliaments ; in 
the meantime his taste for natural history had begun to assert itself, and for 
fourteen years contemporaneously with his Parliamentary duties he did a good deal 
of scientific work ; from the date of his retirement from the Legislative Assembly in 
1874, and onwards for the rest of his life while health permitted, he gave himself up 
almost exclusively to the pursuit of biology. 
Sir William Macleay did little directly to facilitate the work of any would-be 
biographer ; consequently of the first period above referred to not very full details 
can now be given, though his pioneering experiences as recorded by himself could not 
fail to be interesting. Shortly after his arrival in the colony he and his brother 
John, like many others who came to Australia about the same time, decided on 
embarking their patrimony in squatting pursuits, which they accordingly did, first in 
the Fish River District, near Goulburn, afterwards in the Lachlan and Murrum- 
bidgee Districts. Mr. John Macleay was of less robust constitution than his brother, 
and not long after his arrival, on account of his delicate health he set out on his 
return to England, but died on the voyage home. Sir William, though he continued 
to be largely interested in station property on the Murrumbidgee until within a few 
years before his death, was able from about the time of his entering Parliament to 
rely more and more on his managers, and to withdraw the active supervision of affairs 
which at first had been necessary; for a time indeed he was joined by another brother, 
Alexander Donald, who shared the responsibility of management, but who afterwards 
returned to Europe. 
In the absence of fuller personal details, a little background of contemporary 
history may here be sketched in, because if it be true that “Men are what circum- 
stances make them, and that it is especially the early circumstances and the minuter 
details in a young man’s life that mould the character in the light of which the 
actions of the maturer years must be studied,” then, looking at the commencement of 
his career in the light of the knowledge of its later developments and of its end, it is 
not unreasonable to suppose that the experiences and discipline of those early days 
had some not inconsiderable share in developing and accentuating the manly 
qualities which characterised him, and in after years bore such good fruit. 
Not only had he the initial difficulties and hardships necessarily attendant upon 
a squatter’s taking up new country to contend with, but these were intensified by a 
