Barney, George

BARNEY, George (1792–1862), Colonial engineer, was born in Wolverhampton, England, the son of Joseph Barney, an artist and drawing master at the Royal Military Academy, and Jane Chandler. George Barney entered the Academy in Woolwich as a cadet in October 1805 and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in July 1808. He served in the Peninsular War and in the West Indies before he was posted to Sydney with a detachment of Royal Engineers, taking charge of convict and military buildings in New South Wales in January 1836. As Colonial Engineer, Barney designed fortifications, gaols, barracks and improvements to navigation, including Victoria Barracks, Sydney (1841- ). In 1839 he reported to Governor Gipps on disposal of the buildings of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement before free settlement. Though succeeded in his command of the Royal Engineers in New South Wales by Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon in 1843, Barney retained his appointment as Colonial Engineer until he returned to a position at Woolwich in 1844. After selling his commission in April 1845, Barney returned to the colonies as superintendent of the short-lived convict colony of North Australia. Having chosen Port Curtis as its site late in 1846, Barney established the colony at Gladstone in January 1847. Three months later and without any real progress, the colony was abandoned by a new government. Back in Sydney, Barney served as Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands and succeeded Sir Thomas Mitchell as Surveyor-General in 1855. In Sydney Barney’s residence 1856-1860 was Wotonga at Kirribilla. With a second storey as Admiralty House, it serves as the Sydney residence of Australia’s Governors-Generals. Barney died in Sydney in April 1862.