Otago Harbour and Peninsula, with Vauxhall and Andersons Bay
W.F.E. Liardet
Circa 1865
Watercolour
Donated by A.F. Robertson, 1925

Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet, a descendant of the famous English diarist John Evelyn, was born in London in 1799. He joined the navy and later transferred to the army but in 1826 was retired on half-pay. In 1839, aged 40 and with a large family, Liardet sailed for Australia. There the family chose to settle in Hobson’s Bay. He began operating a mail delivery service from the ships in the bay, opened a hotel and soon also ran a passenger coach service to Melbourne. In the 1860s some of his children went to New Zealand and Wilbraham and his wife joined them. In 1869 he returned to England to (unsuccessfully) lay claim to the land occupied by the disused Royal Dockyard, once owned by John Evelyn. Back in Melbourne by 1874, he began work on a history of Melbourne, illustrated with his own watercolour paintings. In 1878 Liardet died in Wellington, leaving the history of Melbourne unfinished.