Duncan, William Augustine

DUNCAN, William Augustine (1811–1885), journalist, public servant and amateur architect, was born at Towie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, son of the Peter and May Duncan. He was educated for the Church of Scotland, but after converting to Catholicism, trained at the Scots Benedictine College, Ratisbon and the new college at Blairs, Kincardineshire. After offending authorities, he gave up intentions of entering the priesthood and after spending five years as a publisher and book-seller in Aberdeen, worked as a teacher and journalist before migrating to New South Wales in 1838. In Sydney Duncan was editor of a Roman Catholic journal, the Australasian Chronicle and from 1843 his own, Duncan’s Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature, until in 1846 he was appointed (first) sub-collector of customs at Moreton Bay. After arriving in Brisbane, Duncan acquired land on high ground between the town and the recently settled Fortitude Valley where from 1849 he constructed his residence, Dara, a substantial dwelling, built of stone from a quarry upstream of Kangaroo Point and with demolition material from a cottage and outbuildings in William St remaining from the convict settlement. Dara was finished with cement render in ‘a pure Grecian style’. Also significant was Dara’s flat roof (later described as ‘Eastern), which was most unusual and seldom replicated locally for dwellings until the mid-twentieth century. Given Duncan’s concurrent involvement with the Colonial Architect MW LEWIS for erection of Brisbane’s first (and Colonial Greek) Customs House, Lewis may have been the architect. Dara later served as residence of the Roman Catholic archbishop until demolished in 1890 for SIMKIN & IBLER’S very grand residence which was demolished for the ill-fated Holy Name Cathedral. In Brisbane Duncan also served as a JP, Water Police Magistrate, Guardian of Minors and local Immigration Commissioner. After Duncan returned to Sydney in 1860, he was Collector-of-Customs for NSW until 1881 and a member of the National Board of Education and later the Council of Education. As a linguist, he translated from the Spanish an account of the discovery of Australia and was author of pamphlets on education and an unpublished early history of NSW. For his services to NSW he was awarded a CMG in 1881. Duncan and his wife Mary Yates, both died in Sydney.