George Boyle White: surveyor, colonial citizen, diarist

A dedicated diarist, White compiled a detailed account of colonial life
in the Hunter Valley away from its hub in Sydney. In the privacy of
his diary, where ‘an opinion could be given without incurring censure’,
commentaries on other colonials could be harsh, while casting himself
as imposed upon by family and friends. A nervous public speaker he
could, when aroused, write an abrasive letter or stir public controversy.
He was fond of reading the classics, filled notebooks with quotations
and quoted them in his diaries. Feeling isolated in the antipodes he
followed closely news of world events. Perhaps he can best be thought
of as a thwarted intellectual living in a colonial backwater.
Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1858, he chaired an inquiry with
significant outcomes for land settlement. He was, said a contemporary,
not only a historian, and an eyewitness, but “a prominent actor in the
parts he recorded”.