Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Picnic at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, c. 1855

Picnic at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, c. 1855

Oil painting

Presented by Sir William Dixson

DG 265


This painting depicts the first Anniversary Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour held on 26 January 1837, the 49th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet. The boat races are the oldest continuously conducted in the world, and are known today as the Australia Day Regatta.

The significance of this painting for experts in the study of flags (vexillologists) is that it includes the NSW Ensign, the unofficial flag for Australia from the mid 19th Century; and that it is being flown on land, rather than on a vessel.


Royal Oak

By Avryl Whitnall, 2015

The words ‘Royal Oak’ appear on the tent bearing the NSW Ensign and other colonial signal flags.

There were at least two premises operating as the ‘Royal Oak’ in Sydney at this time:

  • - A Royal Oak Inn was established in 1837 in Miller’s Point.
  • - A Royal Oak Inn (now the Mean Fiddler Hotel) was built at Rouse Hill in 1829 – one of the earliest licensed premises in the colony.