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Extracted from Australian Men of Mark 1885
ONE of the successful among the native-born of New South Wales, which takes us back to the period in our history before the introduction of free institutions, is that of Mr. Jeanneret, a well-known resident of the picturesque suburb of Hunter's Hill, with the development and progress of which he has always been closely identified. As a public spirited and enterprising citizen, and Alderman both of his own suburb and of the City Council, and later as a member of the Legislative Assembly, he is in many worthy respects an acknowledged representative man.
Charles Edward Jeanneret was born in Sydney in 1834, during the term of rule of Governor Sir Richard Bourke, K.C.B. His father, of whom our subject is the only surviving son, was Dr. Henry Jeanneret, an old and respectable colonist of New South Wales, and subsequently Civil Commandant of Flinders Land, a dependency of Tasmania. Here the son spent most of his boyhood and youth, and acquired that love of the sea and acquaintance with the principles of navigation and practical seamanship, which led him to undertake a voyage to Europe at the age of eighteen. On returning to Australia the attractions of the diggings proved stronger than his nautical proclivities, however, and he followed the Bendigo gold rush to where the city of Sandhurst now is, and remained there for three years. Subsequently he returned to Sydney, and, after a period of service in the Bank of New South Wales, he entered into a general agency partnership with a Mr. Henry Porter. He married about the same time, and settled at Hunter's Hill.
It may be here remarked that this beautiful suburb was first inhabited by Mr. Muir, one of the historic "Scotch Martyrs", transported to this colony for his efforts to obtain certain popular parliamentary reforms
which have long since passed into law. Mr. Muir was a gentleman of education and
position, and a barrister, but a packed jury and an intolerant Government secured his conviction in the face both of justice and of law. His case aroused world-wide sympathy. General Washington sent a ship to rescue
him. He escaped, but the ship was wrecked. After a weary land journey of many thousand miles he again took ship, but the vessel was attacked by a British cruiser. and in the conflict Mr. Muir was dangerously wounded. A bible in his possession bore his name on the fly-leaf, and one of the British officers recognised the wounded man as an old friend. Muir subsequently escaped to Paris, where the Directory gave him a friendly greeting. On rising to respond at a banquet given by five hundred French gentlemen in his honour, he was overcome, fell back, and expired. A public funeral was accorded his remains, as those of a martyr to the cause of popular liberty, by the French Government. Mr. Muir first named Hunter's Hill. |
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On Mr. Jeanneret's settling there it presented a very dissimilar appearance to that of to-day. By prudent land investments Mr. Jeanneret prospered apace, and became a shareholder and manager of a local steam company. For some years a keen competition went on between that and a rival enterprise, but eventually the two coalesced, and later on both were sold, with fleet and goodwill, to Mr. Jeanneret. This occurred in 1876, and at that time there were but five steamers to meet the river trade. This number Mr. Jeanneret has since increased to upwards of twenty. Farming, mining, meat-preserving, and other industries occupied the residue of his time, and the traces of his building enterprise are visible all along the Lane Cove and the Parramatta Rivers. Another of his works, and by no means the least enterprising or progressive, is the tramway from the head of the Parramatta River to the Park, the Rose Hill Racecourse, and the town of Parramatta.
In municipal matters his activity has been quite marked. The incorporation of Hunter's Hill is directly due to his energetic advocacy and personal exertions.
Since1871, when that event took place, Mr. Jeanneret has been an Alderman and for some years Mayor of that borough. In recent years he has been elected to the City Council, where he has distinguished himself by the exercise of those personal gifts and qualities which mark the whole of his active career. In 1875 he contested the electorate of Central Cumberland with Messrs. Lackey, Wearne, and A. H. McCulloch. The two former of these three were elected on that occasion to represent the electorate in Parliament. At the general elections in the early part of 1887 Mr. Jeanneret contested another electorate, and was elected to the seat in Parliament, which he still holds as we write this notice of his restlessly progressive career. He is also a magistrate of the territory, and during the time when his services were in active requisition at the Water Police Court his decisions were marked by a strict and intelligent justice and a sound common sense not always found in the records of the work of the unpaid magistracy of the colony. Mr. Jeanneret has at present in view the establishment of a new line of tram communication connecting the fertile Ryde district, Hunter's Hill, and Sydney together with steam punts across the Paramatta River.
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