James Wallis
James Wallis
James Wallis (1785-1858) was a career army officer who played an important part in establishing the original largely convict settlement at Wallis Plains from which the town of Maitland developed. He had arrived in New South Wales in 1814 as a captain in the 46th Regiment of Foot and quickly impressed Governor Lachlan Macquarie by leading a detachment of grenadiers in the Appin massacre in April 1816. This incident was said to be an act of reprisal for the killing of white settlers, but the instruction that Macquarie issued to his military commanders might easily be regarded today as a declaration of war. He authorised shooting at the Aboriginal people and stringing up their bodies on trees if they offered ‘the slightest resistance’. The avowed aim was to strike fear into other Aborigines so they would give up those who had killed settlers.
A number of Dharawal people were killed by Wallis’ night-time raid near Appin. Some were shot and others were driven over a high cliff by the dogs Wallis’ men had with them. The massacre eventually tarnished Macquarie’s reputation and probably, by association, that of Wallis too. The two men were, of course, much influenced by their sense of superiority over Aboriginal people and the belief that harsh means possibly involving many deaths would be justified to force them to submit to the government’s authority.
Macquarie praised Wallis for his efforts at Appin and in June 1818 appointed him to the post of Commandant and Magistrate of the penal station at Newcastle, at the time the only place outside the Sydney Basin that could be called a town. The station held more than 300 convicts out of a total population of more than 500.
Wallis, the settlement at Wallis Plains and the designation of placenames
Later in 1818, Wallis journeyed with Macquarie up the Hunter River to inspect the little farming settlement at Paterson’s Plains which the Governor had ordered to be established six years earlier. Impressed by what the convicts and other settlers had achieved there, Macquarie directed that the Paterson’s Plains experiment between today’s Paterson and Woodville be repeated a few miles away.
On their trip up the river from Newcastle, the two men amused themselves by bestowing names on landscape features and districts. Macquarie named a reach of the Hunter River Wallis Reach, the area to the west of the Paterson River the Wallis District, and a tributary of the river Wallis Creek. Wallis responded by suggesting the naming of a district after Macquarie, a reach of the river after Macquarie’s wife Elizabeth, and a lagoon after their son Lachlan. Lake Lachlan, in today’s Louth Park, was later much reduced in size when drained to create farmland.
The two men obviously got on well. The name Wallis Plains was given to the area which Macquarie wanted ‘well-behaved’ convicts from Newcastle to settle and farm. The first of these convicts, chosen by Wallis in executing the Governor’s order, took up their holdings soon after. Wallis chose well: the community the settlers built over the next few years was successful and they produced surpluses for sale or barter in Sydney and Newcastle. There were entrepreneurs amongst them and a few became wealthy at Wallis Plains. They validated Macquarie’s view (as Patersons Plains had done earlier) that convicts could become good farming settlers, off the government’s hands as far as their subsistence was concerned and making their own way in life.
Eventually, after Macquarie and Wallis had moved on, the areas they settled and farmed became known as West Maitland and East Maitland.
More than 200 years on, the name Wallis Creek remains and a residential subdivision of the same name has recently been created in Gillieston Heights: this indicates that Wallis has not been forgotten in the Maitland area. There is also a Wallis St in East Maitland and a Wallis Lake near Forster, to the north of the Hunter Valley, is probably named after James as well. The names Wallis Plains, Wallis Reach and Wallis District have not survived as is also the case with Lake Lachlan.
Achievements
Wallis became known during his two and a half years in Newcastle for the infrastructural projects he initiated or brought to fruition. These projects included the original brick and stone Christ Church, a convict hospital, a gaol, various barrack buildings, a timber yard, a boat house and the breakwater that linked Coal Island (later Nobbys) to the mainland. In such works Wallis was a follower of Macquarie, the builder of many public works in Sydney. Wallis also established the first school in Newcastle.
The man was a talented artist, and many of his engravings and drawings have survived including his famous ‘Black Swans’. These works are widely regarded as being of historical significance. Wallis also supervised the building from local timbers of the ‘Macquarie Chest’ which he appears to have gifted to Macquarie. Macquarie took it to Scotland with him at the end of his time in NSW.
Plate 7 Black Swans from Captain James Wallis - Historical Account, 1821
When his own term in the colony ended in 1819, Wallis was fulsomely congratulated and thanked by Macquarie for his service. To the Governor, Wallis must have been the ideal army officer, unquestioning of orders and highly efficient in carrying them out. He had been energetic and effective in all the roles he had fulfilled including the establishment of the settlement of Wallis Plains. He departed with his regiment for a posting in India before eventually returning to Britain.
References
Appin Massacre, Monument Australia.
Blunden, TW ‘Wallis, James (1785-1858)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 2, 1967.
Karskens, Grace, ‘The Appin Massacre’, Dictionary of Sydney, 2015.
Keys, Chas ‘Wallis’ impact on settlement’, Our Past, Maitland Mercury, 9 September 2022.
McBride, Laura and Mariko Smith, The Appin Massacre, The Australian Museum, April 2024.
