Bourke's Music: vision, compassion, and European culture during and after the watershed decade of the 1830s

Abstract

<p>Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales from 1831, is highly regarded as a humanitarian who, with two colleagues and close friends, Roger Therry (Commissioner of the New South Wales Court of Requests from 1829) and John Hubert Plunkett (Solicitor General in 1833, later Attorney General), were at the centre of a forward-looking philosophy that changed many aspects of life in the distant penal colony. But how much is known about Bourke as a private individual? This article argues that Governor Bourke's powerful personal interest in music profoundly influenced contemporary culture in NSW in the 1830s and beyond. He believed music was an essential civilising tool, capable of being transformative. What evidence, then, is left of this powerful musical legacy that Bourke and his family brought to New South Wales?</p>