Royal Park is central to some of the ways Launcestonians imagine themselves and it is no accident that it might be so. On December 10 2011 it will be the 200th Anniversary of Lachlan Macquarie reviewing the 73rd Regiment garrisoned at Royal Park. The 73rd at Foot sailed with him from Britain and in 1810 and Ensign Alexander Huey reported in his journal that:
"on 27th [Jan] Major Gordon, Captain Renny and Lieutenant Rose embarked with a detachment of 60 men for Port Dalrymple in Van Deiman’s Land."So, it seems that Macquarie may have had a particular attachment to the men garrisoned in Royal Park and possibly this may have influenced his ration of spirits to the soldiers to drink the King's health and his apparent overlooking of the lack of cleanliness of their barracks. They had after all had arrived in Sydney with him from Britain just a year before.
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FROM MACQUARIES JOURNAL:M 10th. Decr. 1811.
At 11 a.m. I inspected the Detachment of the 73d. Regt. stationed at Launceston and found them in good order ... I afterwards proceeded to inspect the Men's Barracks and Hospital; the former I did not find so clean as they ought to be, and the latter fortunately is empty, there being no sick either Military or Civil to occupy ... I then visited the Public Stores, and Military & Civil Officers Barracks ... The latter were clean & neatly kept, but the former in many respects, require improvement and better arrangement.
I issued some Genl. Orders respecting the Inspection of the Troops, and directed Half a Pint of Spirits to be issued to each Soldier to drink the King's Health ... The Officers Civil & Military dined with us today.
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Photographs courtesy of the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery
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