Henry Hellyer - Life

Life

Henry Hellyer was born in Hampshire, England. He was the third child out of eleven born to John Hellyer, a mercer, who was descended from Hellyers living in the area back to about 1620. Nothing is known about his early life or where he was trained as an architect and surveyor, but it seems that the family were able to afford to educate their children well. His older brother William Varlo Hellyer was a lawyer in London and Secretary of the Royal Institution in 1841, and a copy of a letter written by Henry in 1830 to William Varlo's Hellyer's wife, Mary Vuliamy was deposited by a Canadian descendant of William and Mary in the Hellyer Regional Library in Burnie, Tasmania. Henry himself had no direct descendants.

When the Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL Co) was formed in 1825 he was one of the first officers to sign on, as a surveyor (later Chief Surveyor) and Chief Architect. His achievements in Tasmania are well documented, and the Court of Directors of the VDL Co in London noted his resignation (March 1832) as follows: "Mr Hellyer, whose valuable services have been so great and whose name is so well known both to the Colonial Government and at home, by his unwearied exertions for the company, by his personal privation and risk in exploring the country, and by the admirable maps and plans which have been exhibited, has been recently appointed to an important situation under the Surveyor-General of the Colony".

There are no portraits of Henry Hellyer. However,for the sequicentenary of the town of Burnie in 1977, a portrait was created by local artist Casey McGrath from descriptions, and used as the basis for 200 silver medallions and 4,000 anodised aluminium ones that were given to school children in the area. A special issue of the local newspaper provided a detailed account of his life.