 In 1825 the Rev.John Dunmore Lang appealed for a minister for the church at Portland Head on the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales; McGarvie was chosen and arrived in Sydney in the "Greenock" on 22 May 1826 after a six-month voyage from Leith.Met on arrival by Reverend Lang, McGarvie went straight to Portland Head as the first Presbyterian minister of the Ebenezer Church, remaining until 1830.