George Barney

George Barney
George Barney, c. 1860
Born(1792-05-19)19 May 1792
Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Died16 April 1862(1862-04-16) (aged 69)
St Leonards, New South Wales
RelativesJoseph Barney (father)
Maria Jane Scott (daughter)
Military career
AllegianceUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Branch
Board of Ordnance
Years of service
1808–1846
Rank
Lieutenant Colonel
Service number402
UnitCorps of Royal Engineers
CommandsCRE, New South Wales, 1835–43
CRE, Athlone District, 1845
CRE, Woolwich, 1846
Campaigns
MemorialsMemorial to Lieutenant Colonel George Barney, Bligh & Barney Reserve, The Rocks, Sydney
Other workColonial Engineer, 1835–44
Superintendent North Australia, 1846–47
Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, 1849–55
Member of the Legislative Assembly, 1851–56
Surveyor General, 1855–59

Lieutenant Colonel George Barney (19 May 1792 – 16 April 1862) was a military engineer of the Corps of Royal Engineers: 17  and became Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of North Australia.

Early life

George Barney was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, the son of Joseph Barney, drawing master at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, England, and Jane, née Chandler (or Chambers). He entered the army at 16 as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. He served in the Peninsular War and in the West Indies. He had several years experience of civil engineering in Jamaica. He was promoted to captain in 1825.

Career in Australia

Military enginner

From 1835 a number of Royal Engineer officers with a detachment of the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners were sent out to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, Australia. Captain George Barney, Commanding Royal Engineer of New South Wales, arrived at Sydney on the British Sovereign with his wife and three children on 15 December 1835. He was followed in by Lieutenant Henry Williamson Lugard, RE, on the Hive and Tamar on 16 December, and their Clerk of Works, George Graham, and his family in 1836.

Works

The following civil engineering and building works are associated with George Baney:

Politics

Barney was appointed a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 17 July 1843, but resigned in August 1843.

Business

From 1841, he became chairman of the board of the Gasllght Company, and a trustee of the Savings Bank of New South Wales.

Late life

Barney was appointed successively chief commissioner of crown lands on 1 January 1849, and Surveyor General of New South Wales on 11 October 1855. He was again appointed a member of the Legislative Council from 13 October 1851 to 29 February 1856.

He was married to Portia Henrietta Peale. One of their daughters, Maria Jane Scott, was a painter and novelist.

He died at Sydney on 16 April 1862.

Legacy

Memorial to Lieutenant Colonel George Barney, RE, at The Rocks, Sydney

Barney's North Sydney house, Wotonga, was later acquired by the Commonwealth and, after extensions, became Admiralty House, the Sydney residence of the Governor-General of Australia.

There is a monument to George Barney in The Rocks, Sydney (33°51′32″S 151°12′33″E / 33.859013°S 151.209041°E / -33.859013; 151.209041 (Lieutenant Colonel George Barney monument)).

Mount Barney in the Scenic Rim Region of Queensland is named after him.

The suburb of Barney Point in Gladstone, Queensland is named after him.

References

  1. ↑ Hart, Henry George (1845). The New Annual Army List (PDF). London: John Murray. p. 273.
  2. ↑ Hart, Henry George (1846). The New Annual Army List (PDF). London: John Murray. p. 273.
  3. 1 2 3 Hart, Henry George (1840). The New Annual Army List. London: John Murray.
  4. 1 2 "Memorial to Lieutenant Colonel George Barney". Heritage NSW: Heritage and Conservation Register. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Lieutenant-Colonel George Barney (1792-1862)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  6. ↑ Serle, Percival (1949). "Barney, George". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
  7. ↑ Connolly, Thomas William John (1898). Richard Fielding Edwards (ed.). Roll of Officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers from 1660 to 1898. Chatham: The Royal Engineers Institute.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Barney, George (1792-1862)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. 1966. pp. 60–61. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943.
  9. ↑ "Shipping Intelligence". The Australian. 15 December 1835. p. 2. Retrieved 31 May 2021 – via Trove.
  10. ↑ "The Sydney Herald". The Sydney Herald. Vol. 5, no. 432. New South Wales, Australia. 17 December 1835. p. 2. Retrieved 31 May 2021 – via Trove.
  11. ↑ "Fort Denison". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning and Environment. H00985. Retrieved 2 June 2018. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC BY 4.0 licence.
  12. 1 2 3 "Part 3 Members of the Legislative Council" (PDF). NSW Parliamentary Record. Parliament of New South Wales. p. 4. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  13. ↑ "Crown Lands beyond the settled districts: Appointment of Chief Commissioner". New South Wales Government Gazette. No. 146. 26 December 1848. p. 1862. Retrieved 24 April 2019 – via Trove.
  14. ↑ "Advertising". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. 35, no. 5703. New South Wales, Australia. 13 October 1855. p. 5. Retrieved 4 October 2018 – via Trove.
  15. ↑ "Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction". New South Wales Government Gazette. No. 74. New South Wales, Australia. 25 April 1862. p. 807. Retrieved 7 November 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ "Maria Jane Scott". AustLit: Discover Australian Stories. The University of Queensland. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  17. ↑ "Lieutenant Colonel George Barney". Monument Australia. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  18. ↑ "Mount Barney (entry 40972)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
  19. ↑ "Barney Point (entry 46720)". Queensland Place Names. Queensland Government. Retrieved 8 July 2013.

Further reading

Additional sources listed by the Australian Dictionary of Biography: