Robert Russell (1808-1900) - Darling Harbour, Cockle Bay, Sydney 1835

Darling Harbour, Cockle Bay, Sydney 1835; Robert Russell 1808-1900


Robert Russell (1808-1900), surveyor, architect and artist, was born on 13 February 1808 near Kennington Common, London. He arrived in Sydney in the Sir John Rae Reid on 24 September 1833 with letters of introduction to (Sir) Thomas Mitchell. He was appointed to the Survey Department as acting assistant to the town surveyor on 22 October, much of his work being concerned with crown land grants.  On 10th September 1836 Russell was appointed surveyor to the infant settlement at Port Phillip and he arrived in the area on 5th October 1836; Robert Hoddle superseded him in 1837; the only documentable work remaining of his is St James's Old Cathedral, built basically under his supervision in 1839-42; he married Mary Ann Collis Smith in 1839; Russell's last home was a cottage at 283 Burnley Street, Richmond, where he died on 10 April 1900; he was buried in the Melbourne general cemetery. 

Source: Darling Harbour, Cockle Bay, Sydney 1835; Robert Russell 1808-1900; Courtesy State Library of Victoria

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