It's our Scottish heritage!
Shortbread baker and retailer, Nerida Barnsley, loves to pore over maps of the suburbs and streets of Campbelltown:
“My father was an RAAF navigator, so maps were always to the fore in our family home – but my interest has more to do with my Scottish heritage” she explains.
Nerida is the proprietor of Australia’s best-known Scottish shop in the Highlands village of Sutton Forest. Her distinctive ‘wee’ shop is an historic landmark south of Bowral and is called A Little Piece of Scotland.
“My interest in Campbelltown begins not with its namesake close to the Mull of Kintyre in the southwest of Scotland, but with my kinsman Lachlan Macquarie” says Nerida.
“I can trace my Scottish forebears through Hebridean links to the colonial governor whose second wife – Elizabeth Campbell – was the inspiration for the name of this vibrant city.
“I've often wondered what the old governor and his lady would think if they were to stroll down Queen Street today!
“Elizabeth’s father was Sir John Campbell of Airds in the Highlands of Scotland.
“Once the Scottish theme got a start in colonial NSW, there was no stopping the nostalgic Scots.
“Campbelltown is brimful of Scottish allusions – glens are narrow valleys, often mist-filled, while burns are streams of clear, swift-running water.
“Blair Athol is a highland town famous for its castle, and the seat of the Murray clan: even today, the Laird has Britain’s only private army.
“A Highland warrior’s claymore is a broadsword, wielded with both hands, and is as tall as a man.
“St Andrews is a university town and famous for its golf course. And, of course, St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. Since 1976 all streets in our St Andrews have been given Scottish names, now numbering over 100.
“Annan is both the name of a river and a town associated with the Bruce family.
“Minto is a town in what is called the Borders country, close to England.
“Appin, in the county of Argyll, is forever remembered as the site of the murder of the King’s Factor, reputedly by Alan Breck Stewart, whose story is told by Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel Kidnapped.
“Ironically, the only thing that might temper the governor’s pride in today’s city of Campbelltown is the prominence of the name Macarthur. The ‘Father of Australia’, as Lachlan Macquarie is known, may be miffed to find that his old colonial antagonist and fellow Scot, John Macarthur, gets such prominent billing in the place names of history. They make uneasy close neighbours, even today!”
Nerida’s flair for Scottish place-names earned her an invitation from Wingecarribee Shire Council to choose names for new streets in the East Bowral estate Highland Glen:
“That’s where my love of the poetry of Robert Burns helped” she reminisces. “I couldn’t help but name a street or two in his honour – although I didn’t count on the trouble some folk have with pronouncing Scottish words.
“Dumfries, where Burns died in 1796, is Dum-freece but somehow it’s become a side dish to a hamburger! At least the maker has a Scottish name too” she laughs.
Nerida has recently had to set aside her map browsing, to attend to her Christmas puddings, cakes and Highland shortbread.
“Its shortbread season” she sighs “but my customers pay me the wonderful compliment of saying that my shortbread is ‘The World’s Best’ – and it’s a traditional Christmas and Hogmanay (New Year) treat, both here and in Scotland.
“This is the busiest time of the year for me in my home kitchen, but I think of Lachlan and Elizabeth and wonder what they would have had for Christmas dinner. Even in colonial days, I think shortbread made from the earliest Australian grain would have been proudly on the menu”.