Yes please! I came across the ‘information’ a long time ago and do not know if it has been rendered obsolete.

It is generally agreed that the Friend of Australia, who wrote this book (see p. 263), was William Light. I hope so!

It is a while since my reading of the account by historians so my memory is a little hazy on how it all plays out!

Do you have a quote from Light himself?

Yes, it is interesting to contemplate a democratic China, even if it is democratic in a limited sense!

There is a pretty good account of the city’s foundation in William Light’s Journal. Perish the thought, but could local historians have a Stalinist approach to history (ie wanting to believe that everything is indigenous)?
There is a real worry about democracy as a system of government, for the reason you give. Churchill thought it the worst system of government, except for all the others. He also made a great mistake over the defense of Singapore (because all the guns were pointing seaward) and would surely be interested to learn that (1) it is an exceptionally well-run country (2) it is not a complete (‘western’) democracy and may be the model towards which China is heading.

The fact that early in Australia’s history as a democracy with the universal voting it was able to ‘think big’ says much for the possibilities. It is true that Kings, Emperors and Popes are more naturally nation builders, more naturally visionary, and perhaps this is because they do not face elections every three or so years…but they did have to contend with wars, regicide, anti-Pope’s and other challenges to their power. It is probably the reason why Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ was so popular!

Oh yes. There is a wonderful account of continental travel in the Memoirs of a Highland lady: the autobiography of Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, afterwards Mrs. Smith of Baltiboys, 1797-1830. They travelled with several coaches and a large number of retainers. And Margery Kempe was able to reach Jersulam in the 14th century http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/web/27kempe.htm. But this type of trip was not common until towards the second half of the nineteenth century and, even then, was only for those with wealth and courage in equal proportions. Steam power made all the difference!
The Australian city which interests me most from the point of view of its long-term visionary plan is Adelaide, and the work of William Light. Unfortunately, planning in this way requires the type of power which comes more naturally to kings, emperors and popes than to democratic societies. There are lots of people with visions but few people with power and vision.

What struck me in particular in the early photograph of Hyde Park in Sydney was the relatively small scale development (buildings) of Sydney surrounding the park, with the scalar layout of a park which imagined a future in which the city would be much more substantial (as indeed it is today). There is also some Georgian literature on the early layout of the city which says something similar about the imaginings of the city fathers as the laid the foundations of streets, squares and public buildings.

Saying this Hyde Park in Sydney is a pocket park compared to Hyde Park in London!

It is not often that this contrast (of the present and the future vision), and the notion of building for the future is experienced today, although it was there in the vision and laying out of Canberra and has bequeathed a spatial generosity which is in danger of being lost to densification trends. The grand vista and the grand vision seem not to be aspects of today’s understanding of cities.

‘Grand’ is different to the impetus to the ‘Monumental’.

Please could you say more about ‘vision of the future’ theory/trend. I have not visited Hyde Park in Sydney but believe it is what I would classify as a Victorian Park (which, incidentally, is not what Hyde Park in London is). Standing further back, I would classify Victorian Parks as having been made under the influence of Romanticism. They let people who could not see the world make imaginative journeys to exciting and interesting places, removed from them in space and time.