Background
Robert Venour Dulhunty was born in the coastal township of Paignton, Devon, England, in 1803. (His unusual middle name means "hunter".) The boy's mother came from West Country English stock but his father's lineage was Irish in origin. The original Gaelic form of the name was O'Dulchaointigh and Dr Dulhunty's forebears belonged to a sept of the O'Carroll clan situated in the province of Munster, Ireland.
A Royal Navy surgeon, Dr Dulhunty had happened to visit the port of Sydney — the capital of the British colony of New South Wales (NSW) — during the course of his maritime career, earmarking it as a suitable place in which to live with Mrs Dulhunty when he eventually retired from the sea. In 1826, he carried out his plan, settling down in Sydney and acquiring a parcel of rural land at Burwood, which was situated 12 kilometres west of the port's mercantile and governmental core. Two years later, he was appointed to the salaried position of Superintendent of Police by the Governor of NSW. The governor had been impressed by the cool-headed bravery that Dr Dulhunty displayed when bushrangers attacked his residence, Burwood House. Dr Dulhunty's health declined unexpectedly in the wake of his police appointment, however, and he died at Burwood House in 1828.
Robert Dulhunty, as previously mentioned, had also elected to settle permanently in NSW. In fact, he came to Sydney a couple of years before his father. Brimming with ambition, he became a successful sheep farmer and land baron. In 1837, he married into Sydney's colonial establishment (see below). He and his wife, Eliza Julia Dulhunty (née Gibbes), would have a total of six sons and three daughters, with the last three children being born in Dubbo. They were:
- Blanche Jane – birth date, 3 June 1838
- Marcus – 18 May 1840
- John – 1841
- Robert George – 1843
- Lawrence Joshua – 1844
- Alice – 1846
- Florence – 1848
- Hubert – 1849
- Alfred Murray – 1851
Another child, Emily, died as an infant in 1839 and lies buried at St Thomas' Churchyard, Mulgoa.
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