(Surveyor) James Larmer

James Larmer (c1808 – 1886)

James Larmer arrived in Sydney in October 1829 to take up an appointment as a survey draftsman. From 1830 to early 1835 he was active surveying land in and around Sydney, in the Hunter Valley and in the Central West of NSW. He then became second-in-command on Thomas Mitchell’s second expedition that attempted to follow the Darling River to where it joined the Murray River.

In 1837, Larmer reserved the village site for Ulladulla and laid out the town plan for Bungendore. He also surveyed the town of Broulee (based on Broulee Island) but observed that Browlee, which may be called East and West Browlee, being divided in two parts by a narrow neck of sand subject to be overflowed by very high tides, appears not to possess any favourable features for the formation of a town. The harbour is too open and the space for laying out streets is limited...the place seems too unimportant for any considerable expenditure on the erection of public buildings and without them a town would never be formed. In 1838 he laid out the town of Queanbeyan, and in 1839 produced the town plans for Braidwood.

In 1840, he surveyed the route of The Wool Road that connected Braidwood to Jervis Bay. He also laid out plans for townships along this road. Some of these towns never emerged and others were built in ways that Larmer had not planned. The site of one of his towns, Larbert, was inundated by a Shoalhaven River flood in July 1853. Larmer obviously had not realised this might occur – he previously (in 1843) had purchased three lots in this Larbert township-to-be!

In 1841, Larmer reserved the site for a village at Currowan (upstream of Nelligen on the Clyde River), although the final plan for the village became a task that was undertaken by Edmund Kennedy in 1844.

An economic depression in the early 1840s led to the government cutting costs. Many surveyors’ salaries were reduced by a third, and this resulted in Larmer then taking on private work.

In 1852–1853, Larmer surveyed the route for a road from Braidwood to Broulee, via Araluen. However, the road was not completed until the late 1860s. Meanwhile, an alternative major road to the coast (the modern-day Kings Highway) opened in 1858.

From around 1840 Larmer lived at Braidwood, where he became a prominent citizen and landowner. Around 1859 he retired as a surveyor.

Larmer, however, is also remembered for having recorded many Aboriginal words from the various parts of New South Wales that he had visited whilst a surveyor.

He died in June 1886, age 77. He is buried in Braidwood cemetery.