Sir George Macleay (180924 June 1891) was an Australian explorer and politician.

Biography

Macleay was born in London, the third son of

Alexander Macleay Alexander Macleay (also spelt McLeay) MLC FLS FRS (24 June 1767 – 18 July 1848) was a leading member of the Linnean Society, a fellow of the Royal Society and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Life Macleay was born on Ro ...

and educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

. He came to Australia in 1826. In November 1829 he accompanied

Charles Sturt Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and la ...

on his second expedition to the mouth of the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest r ...

and back. Early in April 1830, after difficulties on the expedition and the whole party was practically exhausted, Sturt recorded that ''"amidst these distresses Macleay preserved his good humour and did his utmost to lighten the toil and to cheer the men"''. Macleay and Sturt remained good friends and corresponded regularly until Sturt's death in 1869. Macleay then lived on and farmed the Brownlow estate, near Camden, and also established a property at Fish River, between

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters pate ...

and Yass from 1831 to 1859. In 1854 Macleay was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. The other is the Legislative Assembly. Both sit at Parliament House in th ...

for the Pastoral District of Murrumbidgee. In 1856 the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

Legislative Council was abolished and replaced with an elected Legislative Assembly and an appointed Legislative Council and Macleay was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Murrumbidgee. He was a conservative. He declined a ministry position in Henry Parker's brief premiership in 1857. In 1859 Macleay returned to England, where he was elected a fellow of the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

in 1860. He spent the remainder of his life in the south of France apart from returning briefly to Sydney in 1873 to finalise his affairs there. He also travelled in his steam yacht to the

Greek islands Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by a ...

, Turkey and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Macleay was also a keen zoologist, he donated fossil specimens he collected from 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 ...

to the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...

. He was also a museum trustee and contributed to

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...

's book on the fossils of Australia. On his 1873 visit, he collected a

Queensland lungfish The Australian lungfish (''Neoceratodus forsteri''), also known as the Queensland lungfish, Burnett salmon and barramunda, is the only surviving member of the family Neoceratodontidae. It is one of only six extant lungfish species in the world. ...

or ''Ceratodus forsteri'' (now called ''Neoceratodus forsteri'') and took it back to London for T. H. Huxley to dissect and describe in an 1876 paper which identified the supplier as "my friend Sir George Macleay ... on a recent visit to Australia". Charles Sturt named the Rufus River in south-western New South Wales in Macleay's honour, as he had red hair, and

Point McLeay Raukkan is an Australian Aboriginal community situated on the south-eastern shore of Lake Alexandrina in the locality of Narrung, southeast of the centre of South Australia's capital, Adelaide. Raukkan is "regarded as the home and heartland o ...

was (mis-)named for him by T. B. Strangways and Hutchinson in 1837. Macleay was appointed a Companion of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(CMG) in 1869 and knighted KCMG in 1875. He died at

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

, France, on 24 June 1891.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macleay, George 1809 births 1891 deaths Explorers of Australia Explorers of South Australia Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Australian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Australian politicians awarded knighthoods Australian zoologists Australian people of Scottish descent People educated at Westminster School, London Trustees of museums 19th-century Australian politicians Macleay family