page_title: Mark John Currie
section_title: Land development
hierarchical_section_title: Mark John Currie / Career / Land development
caption_attribution_description: Crawley Bay in the Swan River in the 1890s. The estate bordering the bay had been first owned by Captain Currie and then by Henry Sutherland, but in 1910 it was acquired by the state and in 1922 it was vested in the University of Western Australia.
context_page_description: Captain Mark John Currie RN played a significant role in the exploration of Australia and the foundation of the Swan River Colony, later named Western Australia.
  He explored areas in New South Wales, after which he returned to a post in England. In 1829 he married and left three weeks later for Australia on the 443-ton Parmelia with his wife and servants, arriving at the coast of what was to become the Swan River settlement on 31 May 1829. Chief among the other passengers were Lieutenant Governor Captain James Stirling, Colonial Secretary Peter Brown, Surveyor-General Lieutenant John Septimus Roe, botanist James Drummond and their families.
  The diaries and paintings by his wife, Jane Eliza Currie, provide a glimpse into the hard life of the first settlers. Her painting Panorama of the Swan River Settlement shows Fremantle in 1831. From it one can begin to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge faced by the colonists.
context_section_description: Currie was allotted a 32-acre (130,000 m²) grant of land 3 miles (4.8 km) south-west of the present centre of Perth, alongside a wide point in the Swan River known then as Eliza Bay and Point Currie. The Curries left Garden Island on 2 November to set up their tent on their allotment.
  After Currie left the colony he sold this grant to Henry Sutherland, the Assistant Surveyor, who later changed the name to Crawley Bay after his mother's maiden name.
  Later still it became Matilda Bay, to honour Matilda Roe, the wife of the Surveyor General.
  In 1910 the site was acquired by the state and today is the campus of the University of Western Australia.
  Point Currie, also known as Pelican Point and J H Abraham's Reserve, is today the home of the Royal Perth Yacht Club, the Mounts Bay Sailing Club and the 1st Pelican Point Sea Scouts.
  A later settlement was alongside the Swan, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of east of the centre of Perth.  Here, early in 1831, he built a brick homestead, near the present day Water Street, which he named Redcliff, after the steep red clay banks of the river. Today the area is part of the suburb Redcliffe.  A further grant was located about 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of Beverley at the junction of the Avon River and Dale River, adjoining a grant made to Stirling.  Currie's and Stirling's grants were combined in 1849 to form the Avondale Estate, which was acquired by the state in 1910 and is now the site of the Avondale Agricultural Research Station.
  Jane Brook, a suburb of the town of Swan about 14 miles (23 km) north-east of Perth, takes its name from the brook, a tributary of the Swan River.  Stirling named this Jane Brook, in Jane Currie's honour.
caption: Crawley Bay in the 1890s. Originally part of Currie's land grant, it was later sold to Henry Sutherland and in 1910 acquired by the state. In 1922 it was vested in the University of Western Australia.
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