John George Nathaniel Gibbes

Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes (30 March 1787 – 5 July 1873) was a British army officer who emigrated to Australia in 1834, becoming a Crown-appointed member of the New South Wales Legislative Council and the Collector of Customs for the Colony of New South Wales for a record term of 25 years.

In his capacity as head of the New South Wales Department of Customs, Colonel Gibbes was the colonial government's principal accumulator of domestic-sourced revenue − prior to the huge economic stimulus provided by the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s − through the collection of import duties and other taxes liable on ship-borne cargoes. Thus, he played a significant role in the transformation of the City of Sydney (now Australia's biggest State capital) from a convict-based settlement into a prosperous, free enterprise-based port replete with essential government infrastructure. Gibbes was born and schooled in London. He saw active service as a military officer during Great Britain's wars against Napoleon which occupied most of the early years of the 19th century.

Then, in 1814, while on convalescence leave from the armed forces, Gibbes married Elizabeth Davis, the daughter of a clergyman, at the 17th-century Church of St Andrew, Holborn, in London. Their marriage would give rise to a total of eight children, namely: George (who married Mary Ann Fuller), Eliza (subsequently Mrs Robert Dulhunty), William (who married Harriet Eliza Jamison), Mary (subsequently Mrs Terence Aubrey Murray), Frances (subsequently Mrs Alfred Ludlam), Edmund (who married Frances Simmons), Matilda (subsequently Mrs Augustus Berney), and Augustus (who married Annie Bartram).

Following his arrival in Sydney on 19 April 1834, he occupied a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1834 until his retirement from politics in 1855. Moreover, he was the Collector of Customs for New South Wales for an unsurpassed period spanning one quarter of a century, being the incumbent from 1834 to 1859. Indeed, it was Colonel Gibbes' who persuaded the Governor of NSW, Sir George Gipps, to begin construction of the Customs House, Sydney on Circular Quay in 1844 in response to port's growing volume of maritime trade. This major building project also doubled as an unemployment relief measure for stonemasons and laborers during an economic depression which was afflicting the colony at the time. (The Customs House at Circular Quay replaced inadequate departmental accommodation for Gibbes and his team of officers in The Rocks area of Sydney.)

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