Dollond telescope from convict ship master George Bunn
Subject or historical figure
Captain George Bunn
(1790 - 1834)
Date1820s
Object number00056184
NameTelescope
Mediumbrass leather
DimensionsOverall: 527 × 70 × 70 mm
ClassificationsTools and equipment
Credit LineAustralian National Maritime Museum Collection Gift from Anita Birkin (nee Bunn) and Edward Bunn
DescriptionBrass telescope with a brown leather cover and a wooden body.
HistoryThis Dollond of London leather and brass, refracting day or night, marine telescope was owned and used in the 1820s by Captain George Bunn, a convict transport captain, prominent shipping agent and whaling entrepreneur in early colonial Sydney.
Between 1821-24 Bunn made three convict voyages to the colonies as captain of the COUNTESS OF HARCOURT carrying 172,171, 172 men respectively, with only one life lost en route. On the return voyage in 1824-25 Bunn carried troops, soldiers and their families on the COUNTESS OF HARCOURT in company with HMS TAMAR and the colonial brig LADY NELSON to establish the settlement of Port Cockburn Fort Dundas on Melville island in an effort to open up trade routes to the north.
Bunn migrated to New South Wales in 1826 and established offices and warehouses in Sydney's Rocks area near Circular Quay for London agents Buckle, Bagster & Buchanan. He immersed himself in the local business world, became a local magistrate and in 1828 a director of the Bank of Australia. He expanded his business to western Darling Harbour, Sydney and was active in the Sydney regatta committee. It was during the regatta in January 1834 that news of Captain Bunn's death was received and races suspended, 'the amusements instantly ceased, and all the ships in the harbour lowered their ensigns half-mast-high'. Sydney Monitor, 10 January 1832.
Bunn died at Newstead, his home in Pyrmont where today BunnStreet bears his name. Four years later his wife Anna Maria, nee Murray, was the anonymous author of the first novel published on mainland Australia entitled 'The Guardian: a tale' (by an Australian).
SignificanceThis telescope is associated with the navigation and safe passage of convict transports to the Australian colonies in the 1820s, and Captain George Bunn. Bunn later migrated to NSW and became a merchant shipping identity in the port of Sydney. Bunn and his telescope are associated with the development of maritime industries, with banking and commerce and with the Museum’s local Pyrmont area as a maritime sit
