Elizabeth Farm

This guide to Elizabeth Farm in Sydney opens in 1801, when colonial officer John Macarthur fired a pistol at his own commanding officer in a duel, then sailed for London to face court martial, leaving behind a farm founded in 1793 and a wife, Elizabeth, with no idea when he would return. It follows Macarthur's reputation as the father of Australia's wool industry, set against the years he spent away from the colony, first over the duel and later after the Rum Rebellion. Meanwhile Elizabeth ran the household accounts, the convict labourers and the breeding of merino rams herself.