David Collins (1756 - 1810)

Good country, the grass high thick & luxuriant

Having served as a young officer in the Marines during the American War of Independence, Collins was appointed to be the Judge-Advocate for the military and civil courts in the new colony in New South Wales. Once arrived in Sydney, Collins also worked as secretary to Governor Phillip and then also for Phillip’s replacements, Grose and Paterson before Governor Hunter, Phillip’s successor arrived in 1796.

Collins kept a journal of his voyage on the Sirius and his experiences in the settlement at Sydney. He returned to London in 1797 and the following year his account was published with the title, An Account of the English colony in New South Wales. His account is regarded as a particularly detailed one, due to Collins’ close association with the administration of the colony.

His map of the settlement in Sydney depicts a growing town including remarks on the state of cultivation of the land, out to Cowpasture Plain and Mt Taurus (now Camden) where bulls were observed: descendents of those cattle which had escaped from Sydney Cove after the disembarkation of the First Fleet.

The settlements of Parramatta and Toongabbie are noted with the main concentrations of land under cultivation focused around the Hawkesbury and Parramatta Rivers.

Map from An account of the English colony in New South Wales: with remarks on the dispositions, customs, manners, &c. of the native inhabitants..., 1802, by David Collins

Printed map DL Q79/60 Vol. 1