[glenc (Glen)]

4. BACK IN AUSTRALIA 1831 – 1848
James and Jane Dunlop left London on June 14, 1831 on The Mary and arrived back in Sydney five months later on November 11, 1831 after an eventful journey “including a fire, a row among the female convicts, and an attempted duel between the doctor and the mate.” (149 female convicts, Mr and Mrs Dunlop, 9 free women and 51 children (2 born at sea) landed. Two female convicts and 6 infants died on board). Governor Darling had departed the colony, Colonel Lindsay was acting governor when they arrived and Governor Bourke was about to become governor.

Dunlop’s house was to have been built next to the observatory, but when they arrived construction had not even started. The contract for the house was signed on May 17, 1832 and the building was finished in December 1832, one year after Dunlop arrived. It was 36 feet 3 inches by 27 feet (11m x 8.2m) with four rooms and cost the government in London £470. 97 (1.6 x Dunlop’s annual salary). In the absence of an astronomer at Parramatta, white ants and the elements were destroying Brisbane’s observatory and its precious books.

Dunlop resumed work at Parramatta, observing and recording new projects including the preparation of a working catalogue of 300 principal stars and the discovery of several new nebulae with a 7” aperture telescope at 70 times magnification (names unknown). He continued sending observations to the Royal Astronomical Society in England and his observations of Mars were published in March 1835. Dunlop also observed lunar occultations and the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. He received a medal from the King of Denmark for finding the magnitude 4 comet C/1883 S1 in Virgo which he saw from September 30 to Oct 16 1833, (the medal took twelve years to reach him) and also a medal from the Royal Institute of France in 1835. He observed comet C/1834 E1 Gambert from March 21 to April 14, 1834.

John Service wrote that “Sir John Herschel was at the Cape 1834-38, and went there evidently with the intention of glorifying himself as the Observer in the Southern Hemisphere.” Herschel was unable to find some of Dunlop's double stars and he is quoted as saying Dunlop “saw Double Stars from subjective reasons.” Herschel only found a third of Dunlop’s clusters and nebulae. Dunlop included many faint double stars in this catalogue because he could not resolve them with his homemade 9” reflector.

Herschel's comments may have led to an incident on a Parramatta River steamer. The Rev W B Clarke, an eminent geologist, and James Dunlop were not the best of friends. Dunlop was known to ridicule Clarke's articles on “Winds and Earthquakes” published in the Sydney Herald. One day when the two were travelling on a Parramatta Steamer, Clarke offended Dunlop by asking him if he saw the stars double. The argument became heated with Dunlop threatening to throw Clarke overboard and the Captain had to intervene.

Dunlop’s observations were recorded in books dating from January 1832 to June 1840. He made about 4000 star observations in 1832 and 1833. In late 1835 Dunlop observed the return of Halley's Comet at magnitude 1 (perihelion November 16, 1835). Another of Dunlop’s activities was to keep rainfall records from January 1832 to September 1838. He also recorded the unusual occurrence of snow one inch deep at Parramatta on Tuesday June 28, 1836.

In addition Dunlop pursued other interests, including assisting several explorers. In November 1831 and again in 1834 and 1835, Dunlop assisted Sir Thomas Mitchell with his preparations for exploratory expeditions and loaned him a chronometer. In 1839 Lieutenant Wilkes visited Dunlop after a trip to the south polar seas. By then Dunlop was “nearly blind with sore eyes” and this limited his astronomical observations. In July 1841 Dunlop carried out experiments with Sir James C Ross using rockets to establish an accurate latitude and longitude for Garden Island. Ross travelled to Parramatta with the governor by the usual transport of the day; a barge to Parramatta and a carriage back to Sydney.

By 1835 Dunlop's health was failing. He was still in poor health after an attack of dysentery when his wife wrote to her sister on July 20, 1837. His health problems were compounded by tetanus, as a result of being bitten on the thumb by a native cat. On October 23, 1839 Governor Gipps wrote to Brisbane in Scotland that “Dunlop the Astronomer is very ill, and will not I fear last long.” The comment was however somewhat premature as Dunlop lived nine more years. For his health's sake, Dunlop travelled in 1841 and 1845 to a property he owned at Bathurst, 195 kilometres west of Parramatta. One dark night early in 1843, Dunlop broke his leg when he fell over a log in the Parramatta Domain.

On August 18, 1847 Dunlop wrote a letter of resignation. The Sydney Morning Herald announced his resignation on November 9, 1847. A testimonial was to have been held in his honour but it was postponed and never occurred because the governor's wife, “Lady Mary Fitzroy was thrown from her carriage in the grounds of Government House and killed.”

Dunlop retired to Boora Boora, NSW on Brisbane Water, between Gosford and Kincumber, in October 1847. A house still stands on the original foundations of Dunlop's house and is (in 2005) occupied by John Dunlop Heuston, a descendant of John Dunlop, the brother of James. The hill nearby is named Dunlop Hill.
(Dunlop’s house was here. https://maps.app.goo.gl/CrT1DA6Z7etRS4m57)

Late in August 1848 Dunlop and a friend strayed from the track and were lost, while walking home from Gosford one night. The winter night in the bush and “the cold and exposure told severely on Mr Dunlop's already shattered constitution.” He died on September 23, 1848 of Urinary Calculus (Kidney Stones) aged 54. He is buried at St Paul's Anglican Church, Kincumber, with his wife Jane, who died 11 years later. A stone at the entrance to St Paul’s Church also reminds people of his work. (Dunlops’ grave is here. https://maps.app.goo.gl/cAE64hG7EzKE4Xsa8)

After his death, Dunlop was described by his contemporaries in many different ways, some contradictory. He was slender and not tall (5 feet 8 inches or 5 feet 10 inches, 175 cm), had a swarthy pale complexion, was dark haired, had a rather long nose and piercing dark eyes. He wore a blue coat with brass buttons on it, smoked and snuffed, and had a broad Scottish accent. Some said he was eccentric, peculiar, strange, and was not good at explaining things, while others said he was intelligent and much respected. It was said he hated all ceremony but was hospitable and generous, loved poetry, and had a good sense of humour.

Dunlop's life contributed greatly to southern astronomy even though he “laboured with little encouragement from the colonial authorities.”


Thir Notandums, Being the Literary Recreations of Laird Canticarl of Mongrynen:
To Which is Appended a Biographical Sketch of James Dunlop (Edinb, 1890) is here.
https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B9IODmdwP81WRmJfdTlUaTlXb0U/edit