Curio

State Library of New South Wales
George William Evans

George William Evans

1847
ML 33
Oil painting on board

The English-born surveyor, explorer and artist George William Evans and his family settled in Sydney in 1802. In 1803, he was appointed to the role of acting surveyor-general in New South Wales, where he made the first of his notable expeditions, exploring the Warragamba River and penetrating upstream to the present site of Warragamba Dam.

Evans’ led many successful surveying journeys during his career. In 1812, he conducted a difficult surveying expedition down to the previously unexplored Jervis Bay, before heading inland to Appin. His discoveries on this journey led to the settlement of the Illawarra district,* which offered rich farming land.

Evans’ accomplishments in the south of the colony were praised by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and were probably the reason why Macquarie selected him for his most important task: to confirm and extend the earlier discoveries of Blaxland Wentworth & Lawson’s expedition through the interior of NSW. Evans successfully accomplished the task, reaching the Macquarie River beyond the Bathurst plains, becoming the first European to cross the Great Dividing Range.

This portrait of Evans was painted in 1847 by his father-in-law, the colonial artist Thomas James Lempriere (1796-1852). In 1826 Lempriere’s daughter Lucy married Evans, becoming his second wife.

Footnotes

Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/evans-george-william-2029)

In 1826, an ill George William Evans sailed for England with his second wife Lucy, the daughter of artist Thomas Lempriere. Whilst in England, he supplemented his pension of 200 pounds by teaching art before returning to Australia in 1832.

In 1815, George William Evans explored the Lachlan River on the western slopes of the Great Divide through to Bathurst. Two years later he was required to act as second-in-command to surveyor-general John Oxley in an expedition setting out from Bathurst to determine the course of the river. 

The second wife of George William Evans, Lucy Evans (née Lempriere), was herself something of an artist. Whilst the couple were living in Tasmania in 1848, Lucy advertised her drawing, watercolour and flower painting lessons in various Hobart newspapers.