The sketch of tents by Julia Gawler, features 5 smaller tents surrounding a large central tent. Tents were the typical dwelling at this time. The Gawler family lived like this until more permanent dwellings were arranged.

This object comes from a collection of papers of Lt.Col George Gawler, Governor of S.A. (1838-1840), and members of his family, comprising school records, papers of appointment, correspondence, photographs, newspaper cuttings, certificates, pencil and watercolour drawings and other papers. Click here for catalogue record.

Julia married George Hall, Governor of Pankhurst Prison, in England in 1847.

Maria Cox (1796-1870) married George Gawler in September 1820, and arrived in South Australia in 1838 with him and their children Henry and Julia on the Pestonjee Bomajee. She was active in local religious, educational and philanthropic activities throughout her husband's tenure as Governor. Gawler, and his wife were pious evangelical Christians. Both disapproved of dancing and card playing, and held daily morning prayers which all the servants were expected to attend. Mrs. Gawler distributed religious tracts amongst the inhabitants of Adelaide. The couple had four other children, Ed Cox (b. 1840), John Cox (b. 1841), Jane and Katy.

George Gawler was South Australia's second Governor and his appointment followed a long service in the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment, in which he obtained a commission as Ensign in 1810, rising to Major in 1831 before his departure from the Regiment on promotion to an unattached Lieutenant Colonelcy in 1834.

Gawler's administration as Governor embraced a most difficult period in the colony's development and his recourse to extraordinary expenditure in an attempt to resolve these difficulties, led to the censure of his actions and ultimate recall in May 1841. While many of the colonists approved of Gawler's actions, and attested to their confidence in his administration in a number of memorials and a testimonial prior to his departure from the colony, the weight of official opinion in England was against him, and only many years later was his administration impartially assessed and many of his measures vindicated. Following his departure from South Australia in June 1841, Gawler returned with his family to England where he remained until his death in 1869. He was made a colonel in the British Army in 1846, only to resign from his commission in 1850.

Ayliffe, Thomas Hamilton, d.1852

Fisher, Sir James Hurtle, 1790-1875

Gawler, George, 1795-1869

Gawler Family

Hindmarsh, Sir John, 1785-1860

Torrens, Robert, 1780-1864

Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 1796-1862

Borrow, K.T. Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler KH Governor and Commander-in-Chief of South Australia 1838-1841, Adelaide: Pioneers' Association of South Australia, 1955

Colonel George Gawler: a sketch, [South Australia: s.n., 1869]

Symes, G. W.A brief account of the military life and times of George Gawler [Adelaide] : Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian branch, [1955]

A brief account of the military life & times of George Gawler Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch, vol. 56 (1955), p. 1-10