In 1840 the University of Glasgow awarded McGarvie an honorary Doctor of Divinity for his lifetime achievement.
[1] McGarvie responded to an appeal in 1825 to become the first Presbyterian minister of the Ebenezer Church at Portland Head on Sydney's Hawkesbury River.
[2] Selected by Rev John Dunmore Lang to take up the appointment he arrived in Sydney on 22 May 1826 aboard the Greenock after a six month voyage from Leith.
His personal papers during this time contain word lists of the local Aboriginal people along the Dyarubbin (Hawkesbury River).
Home to the Darug people the lists are entitled: "Native names of places on the Hawkesbury".