Luke Keighrey, provided any update on our Rugby League competition. Its a worthy fund raising cuase and a lot of fun. There is still time to join.
Paul Sullivan, reminded members our annual golf club fun raising day is next Saturday 10th April. We are still short 1 volunteer.
Guest Speaker - John Walsh History of Australian Bank Notes
John commenced by giving us an overview of the discovery of Australia commencing with the dominance of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century and then the Dutch who named the western half of Australia as New Holland. Then, following Cook’s landing at Botany Bay in April 1770 and his journey north along the east coast and naming the country Terra Australis. It was a few years later in 1802 after Flinders circumnavigated the continent that it was called Australia.
At the time of the British and American wars about 1776 that England decided to send convicts to Australia with 1500 people arriving in 1788 with Governor Phillip and the First Fleet. They soon found that Botany Bay had little water supply and moved to Port Jackson where they settled at Camp Cove.
John then referred to the life of Mary Reiby (1977 – 1855) who was born in England, who at the age of 13 stole a horse and was sentenced to stealing and sent to Sydney. She was on the 4th Fleet as a convict but was fortunate to meet a junior officer, Thomas Reiby and they fell in love. Her circumstances changed for the better and she became a housemaid to Major Grose and lived in a two storey house with living quarters upstairs and a shop downstairs. Her husband died by 1810 Governor Macquarie took Mary under his wing and was quite an enterprising and influential woman.
To quell the rum trade Macquarie bought 10,000 pounds of Spanish dollars and by creating more coinage by cutting the dollars and making “dump”s he had 40,000 coins. By 1817 Macquarie founded the Bank of NSW and the first Australian notes were produced and the country prospered. D’Arcy Wentworth, the father of William Charles Wentworth, the explorer, was one of the first governors of the bank.
As for Mary Reiby, she was buried in the Devonshire Street cemetery in the area of Central Station and she features on the $20 note.
