watercolourist and engineer, arrived at Norfolk Island with Lieutenant Henry Williamson Lugard in August 1838 as foreman of works in the Royal Engineer Department. He was still there in 1844. Most of his time was spent supervising additions to buildings at Kingston and Longridge; in 1841- 42 he prepared plans for Alexander Maconochie’s somewhat eccentric penal buildings, including novel chapel unit penitentiaries, prisoners’ barracks, a threshing mill and barns.
During his stay Seller painted a very informative naive watercolour view of the main settlement at Kingston (National Library of Australia), the best surviving illustration of the way surveillance and control was expressed in the layout and architecture of a penal settlement. Government House (proportionately enlarged) is placed on top of a heightened knoll overlooking Quality Row (the military quarters) and both overlook the convict accommodation beside the sea. The painting was probably done in late 1838 or early 1839 since it shows Joseph Anderson’s controversial gardens at the foot of the Government House knoll which were not continued after the new commandant, Thomas Bunbury , arrived in April 1839. The island’s large pentagonal prison, planned but not yet built, misleadingly appears in shrunken, diagrammatic form.
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- Writers:
- Kerr, James Semple
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
