Robert Campbell

Robert Campbell (1769–1846) was an Australian merchant and politician who was a member of the first New South Wales Legislative Council. Campbell, a suburb of Canberra was named in his honour, as well as Campbell Island in the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands.

Early life

Campbell was born in Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland on 28 April 1769, the son of John Campbell.

In the early years, Campbell & Co.'s business dealings involved importing goods and spirits from Calcutta for sale in Sydney, but not all voyages were successful. For example, in 1802, the Campbell & Co. brig Fly, captained by John Black, and "laden with piece and other valuable goods" was lost at sea on its return voyage from Kolkata to Sydney. Despite losses such as this, Campbell & Co. was heavily involved in the Australian trade, having £50,000 worth of goods in its Sydney warehouses in 1804. As part of its import business, the firm also fulfilled government contracts for supplies from India, mainly livestock for the Sydney and Derwent settlements, which Governor Philip Gidley King calculated had brought Campbell's firm £16,000 from the government alone between 1800 and 1804.

With food supplies of the colony under threat following the Hawkesbury floods in 1806, Campbell's ship, the , was chartered by Governor King, and on 14 April 1806, proceeded to Calcutta to return with 400 tons of rice or wheat. Unfortunately, the ship was wrecked on a reef off the coast of New Guinea, but no lives wore lost. In compensation he was granted £3,000, of land and 710 sheep. While it was no part of his intention Campbell was thus instrumental in bringing the territory which is now Dunedin into the European sphere.

In 1825, Campbell was appointed to the Legislative Council. after his ancestral Duntrune Castle, Argyll and Bute, Scotland.

Campbell had seven children, John, Robert, Sophia, Charles, Sarah, George and Frederick.