Garrett Cotter (1802–1886) was an Australian

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

. The

Cotter River The Cotter River, a perennial river of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The Cotter River, together with the Queanbeyan River, is one of two rivers that prov ...

and the

Cotter Dam The Cotter Dam is a concrete gravity and rockfill embankment dam across the Cotter River, located in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Both the dam and river are named after early settler in the area Garrett Cotter. The impounded Cott ...

in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

are named after him. From circa 1827, Garret Cotter inhabited the Cotter Valley. Cotter was born in 1802 in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. He had been a ploughman and was transported in 1822 on the ''Mangles''. He received his

ticket of leave A ticket of leave was a document of parole issued to convicts who had shown they could now be trusted with some freedoms. Originally the ticket was issued in Britain and later adapted by the United States, Canada, and Ireland. Jurisdictions ...

in 1843 and was working at Currawang on Lake George but became involved in a dispute between his employer and his employer's neighbour and was banished to live beyond the limits of location; in this case west of the

Murrumbidgee River The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...

. In 1841 he married Anne Russell. After five years of living in the Cotter Valley, he was conditionally pardoned in 1847 and moved to

Michelago Michelago is a village in the Monaro region of New South Wales, Australia. The village is in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council local government area, south of Canberra on the Monaro Highway. It was founded in the 1820s, on the main route from ...

. He was listed as a squatter of Michelago in 1872. He and Anne had nine children. Garrett died in 1886 and Anne in 1897. Both are buried at Michelago.''Exploring the ACT and Southeast New South Wales'', J. Kay McDonald, Kangaroo Press, Sydney, 1985, p49

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotter, Garret Settlers of Australia 1802 births 1886 deaths

Garret A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally, small, dismal, and cramped, with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a bu ...