Family deserves city's thanks

He did very well in his new home and his descendants were   able to donate land for the establishment of the Cataract Gorge Reserve, which today is the city's greatest natural asset.

From a brewing, innkeeping and farming family in Cheshire, England, William Barnes was 33 and  single and carried letters of introduction to Governor William Sorell when he arrived in Hobart on the immigrant ship Triton.

He was planning to take advantage of the colonial government's offer of land grants for settlers who brought capital to invest in the colony.

On the basis of his potential investment, Barnes was granted 400 hectares   on the South Esk River near Cleveland, and then a town allotment in Paterson Street, Launceston. 

He acquired 12 hectares on the northern bank of the South Esk where it joined the Tamar River (Cataract Gorge) and later exchanged his Cleveland grant for more land in what was to become Trevallyn.

Barnes quickly recognised an opportunity in the growing town of about 1000 people and established Launceston's first brewery in Paterson Street near today's Park Street, which he called the Dalrymple Brewery.

In letters home to his brother and sister asking  them to send out hops and brewery equipment, he said a fortune could be made in brewing in the town.

Convict labour was used to establish his enterprises and he was described as an astute businessman.

By 1828 he had been joined by other family members and was well established in Launceston, where he had become a leading citizen and was a justice of the peace.

 In 1830 Barnes married teacher Anne Jane Sharland, of Hamilton. Their only child, also William Barnes, was born in 1832.

By 1935 the Dalrymple Brewery was being leased out and Barnes concentrated on his expanding landholdings.

He would eventually own 2300 hectares   to the north of the South Esk River.  He also acquired land at Kelso that  he called Plaisance. He was a trustee of the Launceston Bank for Savings from its establishment and held other directorships.

In 1844 Barnes took his family back to England for a lengthy visit and commissioned portraits of his family. He died at Kelso in 1848, aged 57.

William Barnes jnr married in 1861, and of his four children  only two daughters survived.

He represented George Town in the House of Assembly from 1866 to 1869 and  was a member of the Launceston General Hospital board for 18 years.

His wife, Isabella, was also involved in  community organisations.

Just before the death of William Barnes jnr in 1898, the family moved into a new home called  Nyllavert  (Trevallyn spelt backwards) in Tamar Street between York and Brisbane Streets that  later became the Launceston Club. 

The Cataract Gorge Reserve is the family's enduring legacy to the people of Launceston.

Initially William Barnes jnr gave the City and Suburbs Improvement Association a 200-year lease ``at a peppercorn rent'' for the land necessary to make a path to the First Basin on the northern side of the South Esk River.

The association bought four acres at the Basin for the park but after William's death Mrs Barnes gave the council an additional six hectares and ownership of the land that had been leased.

The council erected a fountain in the grounds to mark Mrs Barnes's generosity.

Last month  Ruth Burrows, a fifth-generation member of the Barnes family, donated  to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery the three oil portraits of William Barnes,   wife Anne and son William Barnes jnr that had been painted during their trip to England.

The portraits  had been in the Barnes family for nearly 170 years.

At the unveiling of the portraits, Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said the Barnes family was an important part of the city's history and the portraits  were an exciting addition for the museum.

The paintings now hang in the museum's Royal Park gallery in Wellington Street.