The last sanctioned duel in Sydney came in 1851 between Sir Thomas Mitchell, explorer and surveyor-general, and Sir Stuart Donaldson, future first premier of NSW. Honour was worth dying for in those days and a Donaldson gripe about Mitchell’s surveying plans was all it took for Mitchell to demand the restoration of his good name by the taking up of pistols.
The two men met at dawn of 27 September on the Guriwal Trail in the Lachlan Swamps now gentrified as Centennial Park. Their “seconds” carefully selected pistols of equal potency. As the morning mist lifted, the duellists took 20 paces, then swivelled and pulled their triggers three times. Every bullet missed, although Mitchell’s last shot knocked off Donaldson’s hat.
