She sat in her comfortable arm chair, the perfect picture of the endearing aunt. The tea had been made, the table set and we settled in for a good chin wag. But suddenly her face darkened, ‘He knows I would like some of them. Why doesn’t he give them to me?’.
Her grievance was that one of my cousins had paintings which had been given to him by his mother (my aunt’s sister), and my aunt felt she had a right to some, or all, of them. She said that they were scenes of early Sydney and had been painted by a family member with some sort of title! This seemed very unlikely, but I vaguely imagined they were pretty watercolours, painted by some genteel lady.
After my aunt died, I received a phone call from another cousin who had managed to extract the paintings in exchange for a silver tray! The next day she arrived clutching an old, brown, leather briefcase which she lay carefully on the table. She then produced two pairs of white cotton gloves for us to wear as we examined the paintings.
There were about a hundred, of what turned out to be sketches, in that briefcase! About half of them were in two portfolios, titled ‘Going up the Parramatta River and Sydney’. The rest were lying loose, perhaps originally in portfolios, and included scenes from Sydney and the surrounding countryside of Botany Bay and, in a couple of instances, the Liverpool Plains. The illustrations appeared to have been completed from 1843 to about 1847 and were drawn in pencil and then a wash had been applied by the artist. The quality of the works indicated that the creator must have had some artistic training. Unfortunately at some stage most of the paintings had been glued onto poor quality paper which had left rather large glue stains. This made it even more amazing that they had survived for over 160 years.
The name of each scene was recorded underneath the illustration, and, in many cases, amusing comments had also been added. For example, the artist had painted Squires Brewery at Kissing Point.[1] Beside the painting, the artist wrote ‘The first brewery was here established by a Man named Squires – and the following couplet in an adjoining church yard, records that his Beer was none of the Best – “If you wish to rot here, Drink Squire’s Beer”‘.
Enhanced by Todd Doyle. Hakea.co
How had these paintings survived all these years, who had painted them and how had our family acquired them? There were a couple of clues. Although there were no signatures on any of the paintings, one had the initials WAM. In addition, underneath a painting of the old windmill in the Rocks was written the words, ‘Painted from my verandah in Prince’s Street’. Prince St was in the Rocks, but it was demolished when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built. Luckily, I was about to visit Sydney, so was able to do some research in the Mitchell Library. First, I consulted Lows Directory of Sydney from 1841 and checked the names under the letter M. Suddenly I saw an entry for a Wm A Miles, Police Commissioner, 165 Prince St. Perhaps this was Mr WAM!
I then checked an old card catalogue and discovered William Augustus Miles was Sydney’s Police Commissioner from 1841 to 1848. There were a number of entries for him including a record of drawings that he had done of Aboriginal rock art which were on microfilm. [2] Once I had these up on the screen, I noticed that each of these drawings had a handwritten title. I retrieved the paintings from my locker at the library, compared them and gasped to myself ‘I have my man’! These drawings had been done in July 1845, when Miles accompanied George French Argus, a travelling artist, to South Head in Sydney. Here they met Cora Gooseberry, King Bungaree’s widow, and persuaded her to show them Aboriginal paintings of native animals, axes, shields and human figures at North Head. Miles also made other trips with Argus and found more engravings at Middle Harbour and Point Piper.[3]
I discovered William August Miles is listed in the Design & Art Australia Online[4]. The Mitchell Library also has a collection of Miles’s illustrations done in England, during his voyage to NSW and several while he was here. I later used one of these, the entrance to Sydney Harbour, on the cover of my book ‘ACADEMY FOR YOUNG LADIES‘ the story of my great, great grandparents who were matron and keeper at the Parramatta Female Factory.[5]
Why were these paintings held by my family and why had they survived? As far as I knew, William Augustus Miles was no relation, but the rumour was that he was the illegitimate son of William IV of England! In fact, Gough Whitlam, in 1994, when delivering a humorous speech on Australia selecting its own monarchy, used Miles as a possible candidate![6]
I also discovered a book about Miles by David Philips which focuses mainly on his policing career, but the author discovered a collection of family papers which provided more information on his personal life. William had never been very good at managing on his income. When he died in 1851, his wife, Sarah, was left in a dire financial position so Miles’s brothers were approached to help her. One of the brothers, Charles, lived in Glasgow and was a minister in the Church of Scotland. He had been having a dispute with the Scottish Episcopal Church and, in particular, with Reverend Dorsey who was Sarah’s nephew. Charles found it irksome that he had to ask him if he could assist Sarah, which he declined to do. Luckily, Sarah had another nephew, Dr William Dorsey, who was living in Ipswich in the north of what was then NSW. He was her only relative in the colony and helped her with a small allowance for most of her remaining life. William Dorsey is my great, great grandfather![7]
So on Sarah’s death in 1862, the paintings were probably packed up in Sydney, with any other personal effects, and shipped to Queensland where they remained with William Dorsey until his death in 1878. They were then handed down through descendants.
After completing my research, I returned the illustrations to my cousin who very sadly died soon afterwards. Fortunately I had photographed the sketches in the portfolio, ‘Going up the Parramatta River’, some of which I was also able to use in my book after they were greatly enhanced. It was hoped all these sketches would be placed in a library but at this stage, I have been unable to find out what has happened to them.
[1] James Squire opened The Malting Shovel tavern in 1798 but after his death it eventually closed.
[2] Drawings with Dimensions given of Rock Carvings at Middle Head, South Head and Point Piper, Miscellaneous papers relating to Aborigines, ca 1839-1871, Mitchell Library, NSW, A610, pp197-209.
[3] https://rocksdiscoverymuseum.com/stories/william-augustus-miles-commissioner-of-police-royal-bastard-and-archaeologist https://secretvisitors.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/william-augustus-miles/
[4] http://www.daao.org.au/bio/william-augustus-miles
[5] Sketches of Europe and Australia, ca 1834-50 William Augustus Miles, PXA537.
[6] The Canberra Times, Tuesday 13 September 1994, p12 The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1995), p. 12. Retrieved May 6, 2026, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page13361060
[7] William Augustus Miles (1796-1851) : crime, policing and moral entrepreneurship in England and Australia / David Philips, Parkville, Vic. : History Dept. University of Melbourne, 2001 https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1629521
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