CIRCULAR QUAY, SYDNEY, NSW. — In 1809, Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Macquarie arrived in Sydney to take up the position of Governor of the New South Wales colony, which he held from 1810 to 1821.
With his military training and vision for organisation and discipline, Macquarie was an ideal candidate to restore order to the colony, following the Rum Rebellion against deposed Governor William Bligh.
Macquarie upheld high standards for the development of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement. He introduced the first building code into the colony and ordered the construction of roads, bridges, wharves, churches and public buildings.
One of Macquarie’s earliest duties was to appoint an official postmaster.
The first postmaster of Sydney was Isaac Nichols, an ex-convict who took up the post in 1809. Australia’s first post office was opened the following year by Governor Macquarie, on June 23, 1810, and was situated on Circular Quay, Sydney.
Mail continued to be delivered by coach and messengers on horseback to outlying areas of New South Wales. Australia’s first delivery postman was a private servant of George Panton, then Sydney Postmaster, in 1828.
