Regional Australia and Local Government Minister Simon Crean will visit Port Macquarie Historical Museum today to announce the acquisition of the historic sundial c1837-1839 made by colonial engraver Raphael Clint and once owned by Daniel Cohen, a Port Macquarie convict.

The sundial will be placed on permanent display at the Port Macquarie Historical Museum.

The National Cultural Heritage Account, which helps Australian cultural organisations acquire Australian protected objects, provided $10,000 towards the sundial.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council made a $5000 contribution toward the purchase, supported by $2000 from the Port Macquarie Historical Society.

The sundial is classified a rare surviving metal object associated with penal settlement and a fine representative object showing how time was measured in colonial Australia and Port Macquarie in particular.

Port Macquarie was established as a place for secondary offenders by NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1821.

The sundial belonged to convict Daniel Cohen, a jeweller by trade who was tried and convicted at Lancaster in 1830 for receiving stolen goods.

Council’s community and cultural development director Lesley Atkinson said that over the past decade the National Cultural Heritage Account had made very few contributions to purchases for regional collections.

Port Macquarie Historical Society vice-president Debbie Sommers said the purchase of the sundial for permanent exhibition would assist in better interpretation of Port Macquarie’s history as a British penal settlement and the part Port Macquarie has played within the overall theme of white settlement of Australia.