author
R.N. Richard Sadleir
1794–1889
An Irish-born naval officer turned Australian schoolmaster and public writer, he brought decades of travel and colonial experience to his books and pamphlets. He is best known today for The Aborigines of Australia and for a long, varied life that also included politics and education in New South Wales.
1 Audiobook
The Aborigines of Australia
by R.N. Richard Sadleir
About the author
Born in Cork in 1794, Richard Sadleir was educated in Ireland and went to sea with the Royal Navy while still young. After years of travel and naval service, he migrated to New South Wales in the 1820s, where he became a settler and later served for many years as master of the Male Orphan School at Liverpool.
Sadleir wrote as well as taught. Sources describe him as a naval officer, schoolmaster, pamphleteer, and politician, and his published work reflects that wide experience. For audiobook listeners, he is most closely associated with The Aborigines of Australia, a nineteenth-century work shaped by his observations of colonial Australia.
He also took part in public life in New South Wales and lived to the age of 94, dying in 1889. His career moved across service, education, writing, and politics, giving his work the voice of someone who had seen many corners of the British and Australian worlds.