The first white man likely to have walked the Liverpool Plains and Nandewar Range areas, near Narrabri, was an escaped convict named George Clarke, alias ‘George the Barber’.
George was born in Bewdley, England, and was apprenticed to a barber in his youth. This tame profession was no match for George’s temperament, and he was arrested for the crime of armed robbery while still in his teens. The initial sentence of death was, probably because of his youth, commuted to transportation.
After arriving in Sydney Town on the convict ship Royal Charlotte, he was assigned as a labourer to a free settler and adventurer called Benjamin Singleton, who had settled on Patrick’s Plains in the Upper Hunter.
George, not being keen on clearing scrub and ploughing fields, ran off into the bush. Heading north-westwards, into unsettled lands, George made friendly contact with the local Kamilaroi people, who gave him possum skin clothing to wear, food to eat, and honoured him with ritual scarring on his chest and upper arms. George established a camp near Boggabri, on a waterside spot now known as Barber’s Lagoon. He built rough but serviceable stockyards, constructed a hut from bark, and made a life with two Kamilaroi women. From that secure base he was able to raid back into settled country, stealing cattle and horses.
It was not an easy life, there beyond the reach of civilisation. At least once he surrendered to his old boss, Singleton, who was now district constable of the town that bore his name. As soon as it suited him, however, George ran off again. He was diligently hunted, but his knowledge of the ranges, and bushcraft learned from the Kamilaroi, made him difficult to pin.
After a sojourn in Bathurst gaol, Clarke escaped again, by digging under the walls. He was recaptured in 1831 and his stories of the vast western plains, cut through by mighty rivers, sparked official interest, leading to several expeditions that opened the area up to settlement. In spite of this, George was transported to Norfolk Island, then Van Diemen’s Land, where he was hanged in 1835.
A memorial stands on the banks of the waterhole that bears his name.
© Greg Barron 2026
Photo courtesy explorenarrabriregion.com.au
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