For many years a colourful mural, 'Parramatta Road' by renowned Australian artist Tom Thompson, was on display in the foyer of the old Administrative Building in Civic Place, Parramatta.
The mural was commissioned in 1957 to celebrate the opening of the Council Chambers building in May 1958, and depicts various colonial views and significant local historical figures standing on the old Colonial road to Parramatta. It is very large, measuring 632 cm (w) x 183 cm (h), painted in tempera straight onto an internal plaster wall.
A few years before this painting was commissioned the Australian artist, Lloyd Rees, commented in a letter to Thompson that he found his work;
… most interesting…particularly in regard to the balanced use of figure and landscape. This is something that has rarely been done in Australia and I do sincerely hope you will be able to develop it. The Flemish and Venetian schools did such wonderful work in this idiom and I found echoes of these grand influences in your picture. I hope, beyond all else, that you will be able to retain the Australian viewpoint which gave such a refreshing touch to the work in question.
In his significance statement the Curator John Murphy commented on how the style of the mural represents a more traditional way of painting historical events but that the hierarchy of categories established for nineteenth century fine-art and ‘history’ painting were of the highest level. When assessing the mural, Murphy stated that “…Thompson invokes the nobility, scale and civic responsibility of ‘history’ painting, adapting its qualities to his Australian colonial theme.
The legend below makes it clear how Thompson was trying to identify the key figures, symbols and events from Parramatta’s colonial history. From Left to Right:
- Early merino sheep.
- Agricultural workers and rum drinkers.
- A consignment of cloth from the first factory.
- The early market place building.
- Mrs Elizabeth Macarthur.
- Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta.
- Governor Lachlan Macquarie with Mrs Elizabeth Macquarie.
- St John’s Steeples.
- Government House, Parramatta.
- The Reverend Samuel Marsden.
- John Macarthur.
- Sentry in early New South Wales Corps uniform.
- A composite of military personnel New South Wales Corps and 3rd Foot.
- Parramatta River where Arthur Phillip apparently landed.
- Convict road gang under guard.
- Parramatta Coat of Arms.
- Gothic Revival toll gates installed by Governor Macquarie.
- Paying the toll.
- A distant view of Sydney Cove.
The following excerpt is taken directly from the significance statement written by John Murphy;
In Parramatta Road, Thompson demonstrates technical mastery in transforming aspects of the area’s colonial history into mythic status through the work’s scale and aesthetic sensibility. His frieze of figures creates a processional quality with portions of the mural punctuated into separate sections by eucalypt saplings or posts. Thompson’s figurative technique employs strong, solid colours and simplified, naive representations that evoke aspects of colonial art and traditional folk illustrations to legends. The mural combines actual historical characters and buildings associated with Parramatta, with generic types and groups, such as convicts and members of the New South Wales Corps; agricultural workers and drunken revellers. It condenses and selects aspects of colonial history to compose a descriptive fable of the colony’s progress, which is noteworthy for its omissions as much as its inclusions.
Parramatta Road, itself, symbolises the colony’s progress. The road had fallen into a degraded state by the time of Lachlan Macquarie’s governorship, and he sought to address its repair early in his term as governor. He determined a turnpike road constructed of stone with gravel surface and bound by a ditch on either side to ensure the road’s dryness. It opened at the beginning of 1811 with toll gates at the then intersection of Sydney’s George and Elizabeth Streets, marking the beginning of Parramatta Road, and another toll gate near A’Becketts Creek bridge, Parramatta. Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie are seen at the centre of Thompson’s mural, gracefully mounted in their carriage as they may have appeared on their inaugural journey along the ‘smooth, swift road’.
The painting’s subject may be read as a narrative on the theme of industry and progress. Approaching it from left to right, the theme is introduced with the distinction between two groups of individuals: the sober, industrious agricultural workers and a dissipated gaggle of figures drinking rum. The grotesque expressions of the drinkers contrast with the dignity of the workers displaying their produce. In the foreground of this section, a shepherd is positioned prominently on the edge of the painting with his sheep, rendered with a degree of luminosity that suggests their associations with Christian virtues and spirituality (John 1:29). A windmill’s silhouette also signifies industry; similarly, a consignment of cloth from the Female Factory is depicted being delivered along the adjacent road – another product of industry and commerce. The cloth derives from Parramatta’s Female Factory, both a prison and a workhouse that produced linen, wool and linsey-woolsey; the cloth became the colony’s first manufactured export.
The central section of the mural features specific historical characters and buildings. It forms a triangular composition of figures, favoured by painters of the Renaissance. The portrayal of Elizabeth Macarthur is followed by Elizabeth and Lachlan Macquarie in their carriage, while Samuel Marsden and John Macarthur confer in the foreground. The painting’s arrangement of the figures indicates their psychological disposition. Elizabeth Macarthur is portrayed in working clothes and separated from her husband as during his frequent absences she managed their properties and contributed to the success of their enterprises. Elizabeth Farm appears behind her in the background of the mural. Established by Macarthur in 1793, it was named after his wife and the homestead remains as one of Australia’s earliest surviving farmhouses.
John Macarthur is depicted in the company of his rival and sometime adversary, the Reverend Samuel Marsden, and the two shared fractious characteristics. They are distanced from the Macquaries in the mural, and both Macarthur and Marsden challenged the authority of the colony’s governors. Indeed, Marsden directly opposed Macquarie’s practice of allowing ex-convicts to resume their previous ranks, refusing to join the turnpike board of trustees for Parramatta Road as the board included two emancipists.
Elizabeth Macquarie and Lachlan Macquarie are shown elevated above Marsden and Macarthur. The harmonious partnership of the Macquaries and their superior overview of the colony are reflected in this arrangement. The twin steeples of St Johns’ church echo the Macquarie’s close, interdependent coupling and allude to Elizabeth Macquarie’s involvement in the colony’s architecture, specifically these distinctive additions to the church’s design. To the side of the church is Government House, Parramatta, the preferred residence of the Macquaries. The house’s colonial Georgian architecture expresses the qualities of order, balance, harmony that the governorship hoped to transfer to the colony. The siting of the house also indicates the function of surveillance in the penal colony and architecture’s role in reminding the inhabitants of the governor’s ever-present authority.
Nearby to John Macarthur is a group of men from the New South Wales Corps, also known as the Rum Corps owing to their trade in rum as a form of currency. Their monopoly of the trade and aspects of Macarthur’s assumed power were diminished by Macquarie’s stabilising of the currency through his introduction of the Holey dollar. Macquarie’s Turnpike Gate and Lodge are shown in the right-hand corner of the mural with a pair of mounted figures paying the toll with their coins, so reinforcing the ordered, civil conduct that Macquarie’s governorship underpinned. Beside the toll house is a chain gang of convicts, likewise paying their due to the colony through their labour – a price that would be repaid by Macquarie’s acceptance of emancipists in colonial society. In fact, the architectural details of the toll gate allude to designs by the emancipist architect, Francis Greenway, who had been transported to the colony for forgery. Thompson’s painting details the delicate, crenellated turrets of Greenway’s Gothic Revival toll gates, and invokes the refinement and ambition of Macquarie’s building programme that was realised by Greenway.
The mural concludes in its far right-hand corner with a tall ship at anchor in Sydney Cove. Thompson’s painting affords a telescoped view of Parramatta Road that condenses its Georgian history. It narrates the passage of the colony’s progress into a prosperous, orderly colony, capable of constructing sophisticated roads and buildings, and establishing agriculture and manufacturing industries suitable for export. The presence of the mural within the Parramatta’s Council Chambers suggests that the role of steering the district’s progress is now undertaken by the Council, not only maintaining the progress of its physical and practical responsibilities, but also contributing to its culture and the understanding of the area’s history.
Thompson skilfully incorporates Parramatta’s coat of arms into one of the turrets of the toll gate. The coat of arms represents a member of the Burramatta clan of the Dharug people spearing an eel. The eel was both an important food source and a symbolic totem of the clan: the term ‘burra’ means eel, and ‘matta’ equates with place. The inclusion of this image reminds us of the absence of the Burramatta from the painting ̶ their reduction to a small, symbolic device. The mural naturally reflects the period’s understanding of progress as an outcome of European, material culture, a view that would be challenged in the next decades of the 20th century through postmodern artworks and post-colonial histories. The mural’s expression of mid-20th century Australian history is itself a component of the work, and one that will continue to be analysed and interpreted by future generations.
Tom Thompson was born in Narrabri NSW in 1923. He learnt to paint as a child and before embarking on tertiary art study, served in World War Two as a tank gunner in Bougainville. While studying at East Sydney Technical College (1947-1950), he was awarded the Diploma and College Medal. After finishing his studies, Thompson went to England where he worked for the National Gallery in London. After a period overseas, he taught at the South Australian School of Art from 1952 to 1955, followed by a teaching role at the National Art School. He resigned in 1976 as the Head of the School of Art and Design.
After resigning from the National Art School, Thompson concentrated on painting in his studio at Braidwood, NSW and spent a period of time at the University of Newcastle as Artist-in-Residence. His work has been exhibited widely including the Tate Gallery of Australian Art in 1963, and various Australian art shows. In 1981 and 1984, retrospective exhibitions were held at the Artarmon Art Gallery showcasing Thompson’s work between 1950 and 1981. His work is held in the National Gallery of Australia, State galleries in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand.
Interestingly, Thompson is well known for two other murals – including a tempera mural of three panels that showcases Australian industry, sciences and the arts that has hung in Australia House, London since it was commissioned in the 1960s. The other mural is located Kingsford Smith International Airport and was created for the 1997 opening of the International Terminal. It is approximately 11m wide by 5m high. It is constructed in five panels of varying size and portrays well-known aviators and Australian aircrafts. Jocelyn Maughn and Robin Norling, who were taught by Thompson at the National Art School, say that there have been a great many artists over the past century, and Thompson is one of them. Norling states that ‘they (the greats) have a timelessness, they have a brilliance, they have a devotion to detail and yet a devotion to the grandeur of the whole composition.”
Thompson's mural undertaken for Parramatta City Council is painted in strong, colourful tones using a primarily orange and blue colour palette. The figures depicted are represented in a folk art/naive style to represent the various activities that took place at the time.
Tom Thompson is perceived by some to be a hidden gem of Australia art. He doesn’t seem to have courted the art world and in an interview with the ABC (Barlow, 2009) Thompson states, when discussing his mural at Parramatta City Council, “I have been able to work better, quietly. I have been offered opportunities by some of the best sponsors in art in Sydney…no names, no pack drill and very honest people and I said I am too slow. I could not provide all the work that you would require.” Barlow sums up the interview by saying that “[Thompson's] murals are miraculous, yet he is an artist that many Australians will be hard pressed to recall.”
The Tom Thompson 'Parramatta Road' mural is currently on display on Level 4 of PHIVE, Parramatta Square.
By Alison Lykissas, Cultural Collections Officer, Parramatta Heritage Center, Parramatta Council, 2014 (updated 2023)
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