The Far Horizon by Gretta Curran Browne

devoid of a post office? Even the smallest town in Scotland has its own post office.’
    ‘A post office?’ George smiled. ‘Lachlan, this is not Tobermory or Edinburgh, this is a convict colony!’
    ‘Yes, and one that still depends on its every need being shipped out from England, like a baby dependent on the milk from its mother's breasts. It's time that Sydney grew up, George, and started seeing to its own needs.’
    *
    Of all the inhabitants, George Jarvis was the only one who was not at all surprised when Lachlan immediately put into operation his plans to give Sydney the appearance of a regular town.
    A transported architect named Francis Greenway was found, interviewed, and immediately signed up to work with the Governor and help him to bring some sort of architectural order to the crooked town of Sydney.
    Patiently, George Jarvis wrote down all the orders that were then sent out to be printed and distributed for the information of all.
    Any house that encroached onto the street was to be moved back at the government's expense.
    Each house was to be numbered at the cost of sixpence to the owner.
    Neat fencing four feet high must front and guard all dwellings.
    Footpaths for the convenience of pedestrians were to be laid on every street.
    Any person found casting rubbish into the roadway would be fined.
    Any pigs found wandering through the streets without a drover would be taken and slaughtered.
    Any drover who brought his cattle or sheep into town then let them roam the streets while he nipped into a grog-shop would be fined. If such fine was not paid, he would be jailed.
    By the time three months had passed a post-office had been established. The printing or use of promissory notes was prohibited, thereby stamping out the settlement's long habit of forgery.
    Every aspect of the town was to be regulated, as was the lives of the inhabitants. Although no puritan, the new governor attempted to bring religion back to the colony. A respect for the Sabbath must be restored. Sunday was declared a day of rest. No person, either free or convict, would be allowed to perform any labour on a Sunday.
    The convicts, understandably, cheered – although not quite so loudly when they learned they were to be paraded to spend one hour of that free day in church attending the morning service.
    Brothels using young girls – brothels of any kind – were no longer to be tolerated, and all proprietors of such houses would be prosecuted.
    Lachlan next gave his attention to their dress. Convicts undergoing special punishment were assigned to the chain-gangs and wore regulation suits of yellow broadcloth and straw hats, but the majority, those assigned to the factories or farms, wore their own clothing. Many of the female convicts who did not possess their own clothes, and most did not, also wore government-distributed frocks of convict yellow, unless the mistress of the house they had been assigned to as servants provided them with other clothing to wear.
    And since Lachlan Macquarie firmly believed that a bad appearance rarely accompanied a good life, he entreated all to pay particular attention to the neatness of their dress and personal cleanliness.
    Within a week he was delighted to see a conspicuous number of female convict servants in the streets of Sydney, looking as clean and tidy as their mistresses – in some cases cleaner – with a shiny show of freshly scrubbed complexions.
    *
    Elizabeth and George were both beginning to worry that Lachlan was taking on too many projects and working too hard for his own good. Every hour of his day was allocated solely to the service of the colony and its people.
    After two hours private work in his office after breakfast, at ten o’clock every morning he received the reports of various civic officers, followed at eleven o’clock by military reports from his officers. Between twelve noon and two o’clock he was available to any gentlemen of the colony who wished to speak to him.