Blue Mountains History Journal Issue 2

Blue Mountains History Journal 2; 2011
Figure 3. Sydney Harbour 1858 (Blackwood 1858;
Mitchell Library, SLNSW).
“The sun just sinking casts a shadowy light
over Sydney, which is fast becoming
enveloped in a dark bluish cloud. No sound
disturbs one’s reverie save the rolling of
carriage wheels and the bleating of kids
[goats] calling their mothers for their
evening food. All is quiet, the flies float
lazily in the last rays of the sun … Oh! the
hill it is worthy of a painter’s brush!”
(Mitchell 1980, p.224).
Blanche Mitchell was fifteen and living with
her widowed mother, two sisters and a
brother at No.3 Upper William Street South
when the Martindale family arrived, and in
a brief diary entry for Friday 26 February
1858 she records that
“Mrs. Martindale, accompanied by Miss Smith, called.” (Mitchell 1980, p.46).
Her diary entries for the years 1858 to 1861 depict a lively portrait of fashionable Sydney in the mid
-nineteenth century, being full of balls and parties (both official and private), social visits, picnics,
concerts and soirées. As the wife of an important colonial administrator, Mary Martindale would have
been swept quickly into this world, but charity work also played a prominent role and, among other
probable involvements, Mrs. Martindale became a regular visitor to the Destitute Children’s Asylum
(Anonymous 1858a).
Captain Ben Hay Martindale
Captain Martindale began his duties in the city at the Internal Communications Department, 124-128
Phillip Street, in July 1857 and in the three-and-a-bit years he spent in Australia carried out his
considerable responsibilities under difficult circumstances. He was head of the department responsible
for roads, railways and the electric telegraph, but he inherited a neglected and deteriorating road system
and an infant rail network. His relationship with parliamentarians and the press was not a smooth one,
even though he was said to have been “intelligent and conscientious” (Lee 2000, p.127) and “far-sighted
and capable” (McMartin 1989, p.399). Despite paltry budget allocations and unpredictable weather
conditions that hampered and even prevented new work - 1860 was a particularly difficult year with
“a succession of heavy rains” (Anonymous 1860c) - he was regularly blamed for the numerous failings
and inadequacies of the transport systems.
His difficulties were not made easier by his own military temperament and consequent inability to adapt
to the more ‘relaxed’ realities of colonial society and to what one historian has called the “rambunctious
colonial politics” of NSW (Lee 2000, p.127). Self-confident and impatient with those who questioned
his authority, his relationship with the Secretary for Lands & Public Works, John Robertson, was
“combustible” and Henry Parkes compared him to the French dictator Louis Napoleon (Golder 2005,
p.129). His over-reaction on one occasion to the criticism of a subordinate, resulting in the court-martial
and imprisonment of that officer, was indicative of his character. He was subjected to public scorn and
was attacked both in parliament and by the press.
Governmental reorganization of his department in 1859 further challenged the independence of his
authority and increased his frustration (Golder 2005, p.132). As his energy and enthusiasm for the job
diminished, Martindale became convinced that he could not fulfill the responsibilities for which he had
been employed and officially resigned his position in November 1860. It was a decision that has
relegated him to a footnote in the history of NSW communications while his subordinate, John Whitton,
went on to achieve fame as the architect of the NSW rail system. This does not do Martindale justice,
for his administration was not without achievement. He produced four significant reports on the
‘Internal Communications of New South Wales’, described as
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