George Barney

Lieutenant Colonel George Barney was a military engineer of the Corps of Royal Engineers and became Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of North Australia.

Early life

George Barney was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, the son of Joseph Barney, drawing master at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, England, and Jane, née Chandler. He entered the army at 16 as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers. He served in the Peninsular War and in the West Indies. He had several years experience of civil engineering in Jamaica. He was promoted to captain in 1825.

From 1835 a number of Royal Engineer officers with a detachment of the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners were sent out to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, Australia. Captain George Barney, Commanding Royal Engineer of New South Wales, arrived at Sydney on the British Sovereign with his wife and three children on 15 December 1835. He was followed in by Lieutenant Henry Williamson Lugard, RE, on the Hive and Tamar on 16 December, and their Clerk of Works, George Graham, and his family in 1836.
Barney was appointed a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 17 July 1843, but resigned in August 1843.

Barney was appointed successively chief commissioner of crown lands on 1 January 1849, and Surveyor General of New South Wales on 11 October 1855. He was again appointed a member of the Legislative Council from 13 October 1851 to 29 February 1856.
He was married to Portia Henrietta Peale. One of their daughters, Maria Jane Scott, was a painter and novelist.
He died at Sydney on 16 April 1862.

Barney's North Sydney house, Wotonga, was later acquired by the Commonwealth and, after extensions, became Admiralty House, the Sydney residence of the Governor-General of Australia.
There is a monument to George Barney in The Rocks, Sydney.
Mount Barney in the Scenic Rim Region of Queensland is named after him.
The suburb of Barney Point in Gladstone, Queensland is named after him.