William Westgarth

Born in Edinburgh in 1815, William Westgarth became a Scottish-born merchant, financier, politician, historian, and statistician whose career was closely tied to the growth of colonial Australia. He arrived in Melbourne in 1840, entered business as an import merchant, and became known as an energetic observer of the new colony’s economy and public life.

Westgarth also played a part in politics, serving in the New South Wales Legislative Council and later the Victorian Legislative Council. Alongside business and public service, he wrote widely about Australia, producing descriptive, historical, and statistical works that helped explain the colony to readers in Britain and beyond.

He is especially remembered for recording early Melbourne and Victoria in a way that was both practical and personal. That mix of firsthand recollection and careful detail has made his writing valuable not just as history, but as a lively window into a rapidly changing society.