George Dominick

'Tyrannical and Inhuman Conduct'

Captain Joseph Giles, of the barque Anne Gales was summoned before the magistrates to answer the complaints of George Dominick, a foreigner, who was a carpenter to the ship. It appeared from the complaint's statement that since the arrival of the vessel in harbour he had been disrated to rank of common seaman, his pay having been previously five pounds per month and had been denied by the captain for ten days anything but bread and water, on account of refusing to do any but carpenter's work. The defendant's statement was that the man was not a fit carpenter and during the voyage had spoiled several spars, though it had been admitted that he never refused to do anything that was required. It appeared from the statement of the mate, that the complainant had been working on board the ship for fourteen days previous to the vessel's leaving London Docks and consequently they must have been well aware of the man's capabilities. We were glad to see that the magistrates acted so kindly towards a poor foreigner and that they took care to rebuke Captain Giles who evidently wanted to state his case privately,. The magistrates decided that the complainant must be reinstated as a carpenter and receive full wages till termination of the voyage in London.

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The above is taken from an article printed in The Australian (available at the Mitchell Library) and shows that George Dominick (snr) came to Sydney from London in 1840 engaged as a ship's carpenter. even though his naturalisation papers show his arrival in 1844, it is more likely to be 1840 as the newspaper printed the court case and it quite clearly the correct date.

He may have travelled back & forth as a ship's carpenter between 1840 & 1844 and perhaps did not bother to be precise about which ship or which year he actually arrived.

The name was spelled Dominiche on his marriage certificate 7th April 1842 (another firm date pointing to his arrival and settling in 1840). NOTE: An experienced researcher on Dalmatia has put forward the suggestion that "Dominick is probably Dominiković, ... Dominiković surname is from the area I am from, and we have number of them in our tree (including my husband's direct ancestors)". [*This has since been disproved, thanks to the work of Curator Jadra S., and others.]

George was born in Dalmatia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) about 1805 (no birth certificate available). He had been living in Australia (NSW) about 40 years when he died on 13th October 1888 in Coolac NSW.

He was a farmer at the time of his death (above information is shown on his death certificate) He was a member of the Catholic Church.

Evidently, he was also a vigneron (vine-grower) at one time as this occupation is shown on son Richard's death certificate (ie father's occupation/profession)

On the certificate of Baptism of son Richard, George Dominick's given name is shown incorrectly as Richard. It is without doubt the same George as his wife is named as Mary Coffey.

There were four sons and three daughters of the marriage.

[*There is much more to the Australia story of George and Mary Dominick; including early residence in The Rocks area of Sydney and having a furniture repair business in the vicinity of Surry Hills, Sydney. The street in which it existed has now disappeared]

Patrick Dominick (*updated 12 June 2019)