Links to Rev Dr John Dunmore Lang & Robert Lowe

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Background to Rev Dr John Dunmore Lang

1999 was his Bicentenary year 

Dr. Lang was an imperfect character, but he did more for the education, settlement, freedom and enlightment progress of Australia than any other man who has lived here

He was born in Scotland in 1799.

In 1820, he went on a walking tour through Ireland and saw the terrible poverty of the people. This left a keen impression on him, and underscored his association of Catholicism with ignorance and poverty.

1822 Graduated Master of Arts at age twenty-two.His brother, George, had found employment in New South Wales Soon afterwards he wrote to John, who was studying for the ministry, telling him that there was no Presbyterian minister in the colony and. Lang sailed from Leith in October 1822 to New South Wales. John Lang's first task was to found a church. A Presbyterian congregation was formed and within two weeks In the fifty four years that followed he became famous as the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Australia

But in January 1825, at the age of twenty four, George Lang died suddenly. His family discovered that his funeral in the official cemetery at Sydney would be permitted only under the rites of the Anglican Church. They therefore arranged for his burial alongside the half build Presbyterian Church and the incident confirmed John Lang in his determination to secure equality under the law and complete independence from state control for all religions and denominations.

In July 1826, the Scots Church in Sydney was opened but the work of the Rev. Dr. John Lang had only just begun. He was a born fighter, and, having been refused a licence to solemnize marriages, put an advertisement in the Sydney Gazette stating that he would solemnize marriages by banns, and challenged anyone to show that such marriages were against the law. The authorities came to their senses and Lang was given his licence. Lang continued to be its minister until his death more than 50 years later.

He saw a great future ahead for this vast new sparsely populated country but believed that if Australia was to prosper it could no longer be used to dispose of uneducated and unskilled convicts. Lang promoted immigration of Protestants from England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Germany, France, and elsewhere  He began to campaign for a complete reversal of official policy and throughout his life did everything in his power to encourage free middle class immigration. He chartered ships to bring out suitable settlers, experienced farmers and skilled craftsmen. schoolmasters and ministers; often paying their fares at his own expense. In pursuance of this work he made many trips to Britain

Dr. Lang, who lived in Sydney, had a deep concern for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the aborigines. During a visit to Europe in 1836-37 he made an approach to the British Government to subsidise mission work among the native population of New South Wales. The Government provided 150 for equipment and transport for each of three fully-trained missionaries, who were to proceed to. Australia. It further undertook to subsidise pound for pound any free-will offerings for the purposes of the proposed Mission, received from the members of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales. Having made arrangements for financial assistance, he appealed to Pastor Johannes Gossner of Berlin to help him secure the necessary missionaries, for he had previously appealed to his own countrymen without success. Pastor Gossner believed that the most effective mission work could be done by establishing a colony of earnest Christians, farmers and artisans, and settle it among heathen people, who would then be led to follow the example set by the members of the colony. Pastor Gossner gathered a party, of 11 Families of German Lutherans including August Olbrecht, single shoemaker  They moved to Nundah near Brisbane in Queensland as the  first free settlers, two years ahead of the official start of the Moreton Bay Colony.

The Government subsidies were withdrawn from the work and this really marked the beginning of the end. The mission station was closed  in1844

1844 Lang also supported Robert Lowe’s National system of education, and Lang moved its adoption, but Governor Gipps refused it approval, and the denominational system continued.

In 1878 Dr John Lang died. During his lifetime he had made many bitter enemies yet the whole colony united in mourning him. All business closed in Sydney on the day of his funeral and it was estimated that more than 70,000 people lined the streets to see the procession which stretched for more than a mile and included all the notables of the colony."

Background to Robert Lowe

Robert Lowe was born at Bingham in Nottinghamshire, on 4 December 1811. He was an albino, and his sight was very weak. However he graduated in 1833 with a first class in classics and a second class in mathematics, a remarkable feat for a man so hampered by his sight. and on 29 March 1836 was married to Georgiana, daughter of George Orred, and became a very successful private tutor. His studies, however, had injured his already weak eyes, and he was advised by specialists that they would not last longer than seven years. Realizing the difficulties of obtaining an important position in London in so short a period, Lowe decided to emigrate to Sydney and practise as a conveyancer. He sailed on S June 1842 and arrived at Sydney exactly four months later. In November 1843 he began again to practise his profession. In the same month he was appointed to a vacancy in the legislative council, and at once made his mark as an orator.  How independent he could be was shown when Dr Lang as a representative of Port Phillip moved a motion for the separation of that district from New South Wales, for Lowe was his only supporter apart from the other representatives of the Port Phillip district

In January 1850 Lowe and his wife sailed for England, and although he often spoke of revisiting Australia he never did so

Catherine came to Australia with other Scottish emigrants in 1848 under the immigration scheme promoted by Reverend Dunmore Lang. She was engaged by Mrs. Lowe, to be a personal maid and taken out to Bronte "far in the bush."

Augustus Olbrecht came to Australia in 1838 to the Nundah Mission under the auspices of Reverend Dunmore Lang.

Elizabeth McCaskie Noble had remained in San Francisco after John and Catherine returned to Australia. Her daughter Annie  wrote 1889-1891 to her cousin Agnes Moodie McCaskie in Australia.

Pictures of the Olbrecht family were sent back from San Francisco to Australia - showing their close connection to the McCaskie family

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