Daniel Dering Mathew: A Reassessment of Australia's 'first trained architect'

Abstract

<p>From September 1823 to June 1824 the New South Wales Governor and Colonial Secretary were subjected to a barrage of letters from a timber merchant and farmer, Daniel Dering Mathew. Mathew stated that he had come to the colony in 1812 'for the express purpose of practi[s]ing as a Civil Engineer, Architect, and [G]eneral Mechanic', but had not had the opportunity of making use of his 'professional acquirements'.³ He omitted to explain why a twenty-five-year–old whose family on both sides featured in Burke's <i>Peerage</i> and Burkes' <i>Landed Gentry</i>, and who was wealthy enough to have studied at Cambridge as well as built a laboratory in London, would have travelled as the new head of a family of seven to a colonial outpost to pursue his calling.⁴</p>