Robert Dulhunty - Government Appointments and Later Life

Government Appointments and Later Life

Dulhunty was appointed a Commissioner of Crown Lands by the colony's governor on 16 May 1837 and, on 5 December of that same year, he was made the police magistrate for the Penrith District. He also took out a licence for ‘Dubbo Station’ in 1837. On 10 December 1840, Dulhunty accepted an appointment to serve on the Committee of the Australian Immigration Association. During the early 1840s, Dulhunty — along with E. Blaxland and R.C. Lethbridge — served the Penrith District as a local councillor, with Dulhunty's brother-in-law, William John Gibbes, acting in his spare time as the district's equivalent of a town or shire clerk. Gibbes was now managing the Regentville estate for his father-in-law, Sir John Jamison, who was in poor health. Gibbes and Dulhunty became close friends during this time. They shared a love of books, good food and horse-riding, and they both accepted positions as honorary stewards at Sir John's private racecourse. When Sir John died in 1844, Dulhunty and Mrs Dulhunty attended his funeral in Penrith.

By 1839, 28 free men and 18 government-assigned male convicts had gone to work for Dulhunty on Dubbo station. Dulhunty"s reputation among the working men of the region was that of a fine bushman, a firm but fair-minded boss and an extremely able landed proprietor. Unlike some other squatters of this era, he rarely had his convict labourers flogged by their overseers when they transgressed.

Dulhunty reached the zenith of his wealth in 1839-1840, when he is listed as the owner of half-a-dozen big grazing properties throughout NSW. Unfortunately, however, a severe economic depression struck the colony in the early 1840s, costing him a significant amount of money and forcing him to shed numerous assets. This crisis lasted for several years. He survived it but many of his coevals in NSW did not, as wool prices fell, banks failed, investment schemes collapsed and bankruptcies soared.

Just before the depression hit, Dulhunty had erected a large, brick and timber homestead at Dubbo Station. Claremont, however, would remain his headquarters until 1847, in which year he decided to move permanently to Dubbo with his wife and children. This relocation proved to be an arduous logistical exercise for the Dulhuntys, who had to transport dray-loads of furniture and other belongings across rough mountain roads and along rutted bush tracks in sometimes hostile weather conditions.

In 1849, a village was laid out at Dubbo and gazetted as a residential and commercial settlement. Henceforth, Dulhunty's landed estate, situated nearby, would become known as "Old Dubbo". The following year, convict transportation to NSW ceased, while the discovery of gold in NSW and Victoria during the early 1850s would transform the hitherto agricultural-based economies of these two neighbouring colonies and help attract free immigrants to Australia in unprecedented numbers.

Robert Venour Dulhunty died on Friday, 30 December 1853, after suffering for three days from an illness that is not identified on his death certificate. His brick-lined grave lies in the Dubbo Pioneers' Cemetery, which is situated on former Dulhunty land amidst a patchwork of paddocks and enclaves of bush. He was aged only 51 at the time of his passing.

His widow Eliza fought a resolute but ultimately losing battle to hold together the Dulhunty's sprawling rural kingdom in the face of droughts, floods, outbreaks of livestock diseases, harsh bank foreclosures and various other setbacks — and all the while being saddled with the additional responsibility of raising a large tribe of children to maturity. Those who knew her said she never lost her vibrant sense of humour, cultivated manners or deep interest in music and literature, no matter how serious the latest problem besetting her.

Mrs Dulhunty never remarried. During the 1870s, she lived with one of her sons, Robert George Dulhunty, on a small rural property near Wellington, New South Wales. Later, when she grew frail with age and was handicapped by deteriorating eyesight, she moved to the town of Bathurst. Here she was looked after by another of her sons — John, a commission agent.

Mrs Dulhunty died at Bathurst Hospital on 13 February 1892, having outlived her husband "Bob" by almost 40 years. The "Bulletin" magazine, which was read widely by people in rural areas, published a brief but sympathetic obituary when informed of her death. She is buried in Old Bathurst Cemetery. Her headstone is still extant and photographs of her exist. Regrettably, no image of Robert Venour Dulhunty has been traced.