draughtsman and surveyor, was born in London on 24 June 1826, eldest son of David George Goyder, surgeon and Swedenborgian minister, and Sarah, née Etherington. Articled to a railway engineer, George studied surveying in Glasgow. He migrated to Sydney in 1848 and spent three years working for a firm of auctioneers. He was undoubtedly the Mr Goyder who applied for the position of drawing master at the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts in August 1849. A sub-committee considered Goyder 'the most eligible’ of the applicants (who included Jacob Janssen and Henry Robinson Smith ), but a general ballot a fortnight later elected W.L. Hutton .
With few prospects in Sydney, Goyder moved to Melbourne but was soon permanently ensconced in Adelaide, working as a draughtsman in the civil service. He married Frances Mary Smith at North Adelaide on 10 December 1851. A notable and energetic working life with the South Australian Department of Lands followed, culminating in his appointment as Surveyor-General on 19 January 1861. He retired on 30 June 1894, having explored and surveyed much of the inhospitable north, including the Northern Territory where he recommended Palmerston (now Darwin) as the capital. Goyder’s notorious rainfall line of 1866, dividing fertile from drought-stricken land, was used until 1874 and its abandonment subsequently regretted.
Goyder’s first wife died in England from an overdose of a sleeping draught and on 20 November 1871 he married her sister, Ellen Priscilla Smith. There were nine surviving children from the first marriage and a son and twin daughters from the second. Goyder died on 2 November 1898 at his home, Warrakilla, near Aldgate. No surviving art is known and he is not recorded as having sketched on his various South Australian expeditions, surviving visual records being by others such as William Webster Hoare .
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
