Australian Dictionary of Biography

John Petchy (d.1850), merchant, was born at Romford, Essex, England, where, as a labourer, in March 1810 he was found guilty of receiving stolen goods and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. He arrived in Van Diemen's Land in the Indefatigable on 9 May 1812. His subsequent conduct was evidently good, for from 1816 to 1823 he was keeper in the Hobart Town gaol; though sentenced to be dismissed for neglect of duty in 1819, he remained. While in this position of trust he was granted 400 acres (162 ha) at Hollow Tree on the South Arm peninsula. Though he had frequent disputes with neighbours, the holding apparently prospered; by 1825 he had cultivated 150 acres (61 ha) and had 1000 sheep, 20 cattle, a substantial house, barn, outbuildings, another 1000 acres (405 ha) under lease and ten convict servants.

In June 1824 Petchy sailed for London with a quantity of wattle bark extract in which he hoped to interest the English tanning trade. For this discovery he was awarded a medal by the Society of Arts, Commerce and Manufactures, though later he claimed to have lost £2000 in trying to establish a permanent trade. After his return to Hobart in May 1825 he embarked on a variety of commercial ventures which rapidly made him one of the colony's most prosperous merchants. In the Hobart district he owned a brewery, tavern, store and woodyard, though his most successful enterprise was a licensed victualling and cartage business at Kangaroo Point.

Petchy was best known for his seafaring activities. He owned and operated three of the eight Derwent River ferries plying between Sullivan's Cove and Kangaroo Point; his square rigged barque Sir George Arthur, 389 tons, launched at Kangaroo Point in 1838, was then the largest ship built in the colony. From 1832 to 1839 he was a prominent bay whaler and had three shore stations at Recherche Bay hunting the southern right whale. It was perhaps fitting that Petchy lost his life at sea: in December 1850 he was drowned with six others, when the sailing boat in which they were competing in the Hobart regatta capsized in a squall. Petchy left a widow Elizabeth, née Callaghan, whom he married probably in 1823 when she was assigned to him as a convict servant. However, his estate passed to his daughter by a former marriage, Sarah Ann Russell.

Despite his lowly origins Petchy proved himself a resourceful if not always a scrupulous individual. His colonial life amply illustrates the opportunities which befell many an emancipist, and he himself is typical of the vigorous entrepreneurs who laid the firm economic foundations of Australia's southernmost colony.