John Dickson was a young engineer who migrated to the colony of NSW in 1813. He arrived on the Earl Spencer and brought with him the first steam engine in NSW. Gov. Macquarie immediatley recognised his potential and made him a land grant of sixteen acres. It is on record however, that by 1818, Dickson owned 17,000 acres on which he was running 3,000 cattle, 2,000 sheep and 65 horses. He also owned a milled and a brewery.
In June 1815, the Sydney Gazette reported that Mr John Dickson had been zealosly occupied in setting up a queer monster, all wheels and gears and soot, which he had shipped from Maid Lane in Shakesear's Southwark. The site the Governor had granted him was 'a most convenient and eligible situation in the Town of Sydney, having a run of fresh water thro it, for him to erect his mills, steam engine and machinery on'.
Mr Dickson had brought a considerable capital with him and was of 'enterprising spirit and perservering industry'. On his 15 acre grant, bounded on the north by Liverpool Street and on the east by George St, he was able, on 29 May, 1815, to receive the Governor (Macquarie) with a whistle and a puff of fleecy vapour when the latter came to inaugurate the mills, which were now ready for 'gringing grain and sawing timber on a large scale'.
Biography
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