A message from Mr Palmer

My workplace is decorated with tiny mock-ups of the building and quotes from famous people. At lunch time this week I couldn't help but notice that one of them was from Mr Palmer himself. After a bit of research, it turns out it's not the fictitious US president - what a surprise.

Thomas Palmer was born in England during the 18th century. After a few years serving as a clergyman he became dissatisfied with the doctrines of the Church of England. He quickly moved to Scotland where he started publishing pamphlets on parliamentary reform and universal suffrage - he was eventually convicted of writing documents to "produce a spirit of discontent in the minds of the people against the present happy constitution and government".

At the beginning of the 18th century, England used to send the convicts it didn't care for to America. But America's war on independence brought the transportation to a halt around 1780 and the prison soon started to overflow again. A new solution appeared in 1986 when the colony of New South Wales was proclaimed by King George III.

In 1794, Thomas Palmer was one of the first convicts sentenced to be transported to Australia. He was followed by many others, and together they built the nation.


To a philosophic mind it is a land of wonder and delight.
To him it is a new creation:
The beasts, the fish, the birds, the reptiles
The plants, the trees, the flowers are all new.
So beautiful and grotesque that no naturalist
Would believe the most faithful drawing.

      Thomas Palmer, 1794