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| employees_stores [2026/04/12 12:32] – [Melcombe (later Maroon)/Head of Logan (later Rathdowney)] judith | employees_stores [2026/08/10 21:26] (current) – [Employees at Hawkwood Station 1854-1858] judith |
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| The ledgers follow the social conventions re ethnicity and gender. Neither Indigenous workers nor the wife of an employed couple are named. When a couple was employed, the wage mentioned was for their combined labour. Interestingly, couples had a disadvantage in the labour market as their combined wage tended to be low compared to individual employees. Translated names clearly caused problems especially when it was likely those involved were not literate in English, and TLM-P probably only literate in English and French. If a fellow squatter was mentioned, he was referred to as 'Esq' (esquire).\\ | The ledgers follow the social conventions re ethnicity and gender. Neither Indigenous workers nor the wife of an employed couple are named. When a couple was employed, the wage mentioned was for their combined labour. Interestingly, couples had a disadvantage in the labour market as their combined wage tended to be low compared to individual employees. Translated names clearly caused problems especially when it was likely those involved were not literate in English, and TLM-P probably only literate in English and French. If a fellow squatter was mentioned, he was referred to as 'Esq' (esquire).\\ |
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| The ledgers also showed the dependency of those who were able to select land on or near //Maroon//. Ezra Harvey was one such who appears heavily reliant on //Maroon//'s stores as the following pages show:{{:ezra_harvey_20231019_133928.jpg?350|}} {{:ezra_harvey_ledger_p.jpg?350|}} {{:ezra_harvey_20250422_113029.jpg?300|}}((display, Rathdowney Visitor Information Centre and Historical Museum, April 2025))\\ | The ledgers also showed the dependency of those who were able to select land on or near //Maroon//. Ezra Harvey was one such who appears heavily reliant on //Maroon//'s stores as the following pages show:{{:ezra_harvey_20231019_133928.jpg?300|}} {{:ezra_harvey_ledger_p.jpg?350|}} {{:ezra_harvey_20250422_113029.jpg?300|}}((display, Rathdowney Visitor Information Centre and Historical Museum, April 2025))\\ |
| Ezra married Mary Ann Langdon in England in 1857 on her 21st birthday. They emigrated to Morton Bay,arriving 16 February 1858. Ezra worked on Maroon when it was owned by James Collins. One of their children, Jain Harvey, was reputedly the first white child born on Maroon. In 1870, Eliza was one of the first selectors of blocks carved from //Maroon// with he, Mary Ann and their children living in a slab hut with an earthen floor. Between 1858-78, they had 11 children, three of whom died in childhood. Mary Ann died on 10 February 1884 from heat exhaustion after she and Ezra had ridden from Maroon to Tamrookum Creek to visit her brother george Langdon and his family who were newly arrived emigrants.(( Information from display at The Rathdowney Visitor Information Centre and Historical Museum, April 2025; Harvey Family re-union. From England to Australia (Booklet) 1984, courtesy Ross Drynan.)) | Ezra married Mary Ann Langdon in England in 1857 on her 21st birthday. They emigrated to Morton Bay,arriving 16 February 1858. Ezra worked on //Maroon// when it was owned by James Collins. One of their children, Jain Harvey, was reputedly the first white child born at //Maroon//. In 1870, Ezra was one of the first selectors of blocks carved from //Maroon// where he, Mary Ann and their children lived in a slab hut with an earthen floor. Between 1858-78, they had 11 children, three of whom died in childhood. Mary Ann died on 10 February 1884 from heat exhaustion after she and Ezra had ridden from Maroon to Tamrookum Creek to visit her brother George Langdon and his family who were newly arrived emigrants.((Information from display at The Rathdowney Visitor Information Centre and Historical Museum, April 2025; Harvey Family re-union. From England to Australia (Booklet) 1984, courtesy Ross Drynan.)) |
| ===== First Nations workers ===== | ===== First Nations workers ===== |
| The ledger books that have survived from TLM-P's various properties indicate that First Nations people were normally not employed on a regular basis but rather paid on an occasional and casual basis, perhaps fitting in with their traditional obligations as much as TLM-P's needs. TLM-P recalled that at //Hawkwood//, for example, he employed First Nations people as shepherds including as least one women who he called 'Biddy'(p.45). Typically, they are rarely named (and certainly not given their First Nations name) and any payments are very low. //Hawkwood//'s ledger simply refers to 'Black Boys'. In //Maroon//'s ledger for 1867-68, for example, an entry under Tom de M. M-P, simply notes that in May 1860 he paid 'Blackboy' 5 shillings.((MLMSS 3117/box 8)) Similarly there is a reference in 1879 of one of the employed stockman paying 'Hughie Black Boy’ 17 shillings.((MLMSS 3117 Box 10, Item 2, pp.6-7)) Note that these payments were made in cash, the only viable option for an irregularly paid First Nations worker.\\ | The ledger books that have survived from TLM-P's various properties indicate that First Nations people were normally not employed on a regular basis but rather paid on an occasional and casual basis, perhaps fitting in with their traditional obligations as much as TLM-P's needs. TLM-P recalled that at //Hawkwood//, for example, he employed First Nations people as shepherds including as least one women who he called 'Biddy'(p.45). Typically, they are rarely named (and certainly not given their First Nations name) and any payments are very low. //Hawkwood//'s ledger simply refers to 'Black Boys'. In //Maroon//'s ledger for 1867-68, for example, an entry under Tom de M. M-P, simply notes that in May 1860 he paid 'Blackboy' 5 shillings.((MLMSS 3117/box 8)) Similarly there is a reference in 1879 of one of the employed stockman paying 'Hughie Black Boy’ 17 shillings.((MLMSS 3117 Box 10, Item 2, pp.6-7)) Note that these payments were made in cash, the only viable option for an irregularly paid First Nations worker.\\ |
| Other employees were listed as 'coolies', now a highly pejorative word. Then it was also pejorative but commonly used by Europeans to indicate Asian indentured labourers:\\ | Other employees were listed as 'coolies', now a highly pejorative word. Then it was also pejorative but commonly used by Europeans to indicate Asian indentured labourers:\\ |
| * **Poki** listed as '(Coolie) Shepherd' and employed on 16 October 1854 at 30/- per week. Poki is an (Hindu) Indian name. His last entry for buying stores was 17 January 1854. He was paid by the overseer Henry Davis. His employment prospects declined so that when he was re-employed in 1856, it was as a shepherd at 25/- a week.((MLMSS 3117/Box 6, item 5 Ledger)) Angela Woollacott incorrectly claims he was listed as 'Poki Coolieman' with the latter word was used as a surname rather than a description.((Angela Woollacott, 'Manly authority, employing non-white labour, and frontier violence 1830s-1860s',//Journal of Australian Colonial History//, 2013, p.39)). Other non-British nationalities had their ethnicity similarly described, and the brackets (which she does not mention) makes it improbable it was used as a surname. | * **Poki** listed as '(Coolie) Shepherd' and employed on 16 October 1854 at 30/- per week. Poki is an (Hindu) Indian name. His last entry for buying stores was 17 January 1854. He was paid by the overseer Henry Davis. His employment prospects declined so that when he was re-employed in 1856, it was as a shepherd at 25/- a week.((MLMSS 3117/Box 6, item 5 Ledger)) Angela Woollacott incorrectly claims he was listed as 'Poki Coolieman' with the latter word was used as a surname rather than a description.((Angela Woollacott, 'Manly authority, employing non-white labour, and frontier violence 1830s-1860s',//Journal of Australian Colonial History//, 2013, p.39)). Other non-British nationalities had their ethnicity similarly described, and the brackets (which she does not mention) makes it improbable it was used as a surname. |
| * **Dhookee/Dho Ree** was listed as 'Dhookee (Coolieman)' and employed as a shepherd at £35 pa from August 1856. If Dhookee is the correct rendition, then he was possibly from Mauritius, as that is where the surname is most common. The Hawkwood ledger entry ((MLMSS3117/box 7X)) ends with a note that Dhookee 'lost 300 sheep going to Cocoa[?] which I did not know for 8 days and only found about 6 of the whole after searching for a fortnight. Dhookee became quite deranged and I had to send him to Gayndah from whence he was forwarded to Sydney.' It is uncertain why he was first sent to [[wp>Gayndah]], but TLM-P had some connection there as his accounts show purchases from John Conolly, storekeeper there in 1855 and also with Walter Postmaster.((Hawkwood station ledger, MLMSS3117/7X0)). It was then 'established practice' to transfer mentally ill people first to jail in Sydney then to the 'lunatic asylum'. Accordingly, Dhookee was sent to Darlinghurst Jail, examined by Dr George West on 18 December 1856 and declared insane, then taken to Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum (later called Gladesville Hospital). He just missed staying in Queensland as the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum opened in 1865 (in 1880 its name changed to the Goodna Asylum for the Insane).(([[https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/444583/qld-mh-history.pdf]]))\\ Helen Patterson, co-author with Maureen Copley of //Gladesville Hospital Cemetery, The Forgotten Cemetery - the Forgotten People// (Ryde District Historical Society, 2023) made the connection between Dhookee and Dho Ree, also known as Rea Dhoo. Dho Ree was admitted to the Asylum in January 1857 and died on 27 June 1858 when he was 50 years old.((The NSW State Archives' Colonial Secretary: Index to Letters Received, 1826-96, the Joan Reese Index)) His 'General Form of Commitment' states that Edward Fielding Palmer JP and others claimed that on 16 October 1856, Dho Ree was at Hawkwood and 'did assault one **Do Ri** with intent to murder him' and that he was a 'dangerous Lunatic and unsafe to be at large'.\\ | * **Dhookee/Dho Ree** was listed as 'Dhookee (Coolieman)' and employed as a shepherd at £35 pa from August 1856. If Dhookee is the correct rendition, then he was possibly from Mauritius, as that is where the surname is most common. The Hawkwood ledger entry ((MLMSS3117/box 7X)) ends with a note that Dhookee 'lost 300 sheep going to Cocoa[?] which I did not know for 8 days and only found about 6 of the whole after searching for a fortnight. Dhookee became quite deranged and I had to send him to Gayndah from whence he was forwarded to Sydney.' It is uncertain why he was first sent to [[wp>Gayndah]], but TLM-P had some connection there as his accounts show purchases from John Conolly, storekeeper there in 1855 and also with Walter Postmaster.((Hawkwood station ledger, MLMSS3117/7X0)). It was then 'established practice' to transfer mentally ill people first to jail in Sydney then to the 'lunatic asylum'. Accordingly, Dhookee was sent to Darlinghurst Jail, examined by Dr George West on 18 December 1856 and declared insane, then taken to Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum (later called Gladesville Hospital). He just missed staying in Queensland as the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum opened in 1865 (in 1880 its name changed to the Goodna Asylum for the Insane).(([[https://www.health.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0028/444583/qld-mh-history.pdf]]))\\ Helen Patterson, co-author with Maureen Copley of //Gladesville Hospital Cemetery, The Forgotten Cemetery - the Forgotten People// (Ryde District Historical Society, 2023) made the connection between Dhookee and Dho Ree, also known as Rea Dhoo. Dho Ree was admitted to the Asylum in January 1857 and died on 27 June 1858 when he was 50 years old.((The NSW State Archives' Colonial Secretary: Index to Letters Received, 1826-96, the Joan Reese Index)) His 'General Form of Commitment' states that Edward Fielding Palmer JP and others claimed that on 16 October 1856, Dho Ree was at Hawkwood and 'did assault one **Do Ri** with intent to murder him' and that he was a 'dangerous Lunatic and unsafe to be at large'. One of the many sad aspects to Dhookee/Dho Ree's story is that he was unlikely to have had an interpreter to assist communication - Duncan Richardson notes that in his research c.1840s-80s, he did not come across any mention of interpreters for Chinese people being declared insane, even when they could speak no English.((Duncan Richardson, //Dangerous to Know//, webinar for the Queensland Family History Society, 15 July 2026)) \\ |
| * **Bundoo**;Bundoo is an Indian surname.\\ | * **Bundoo**;Bundoo is an Indian surname.\\ |
| * **Bathon**(?) employed at £35 pa.\\ | * **Bathon**(?) employed at £35 pa.\\ |
| 13 **John Wolmsley[check sp]**\\ | 13 **John Wolmsley[check sp]**\\ |
| 14+ number of shearers (p.40)\\ | 14+ number of shearers (p.40)\\ |
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| ==== Employees at Bromelton Station 1852-1854 ==== | ==== Employees at Bromelton Station 1852-1854 ==== |
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| ==== Employees at Hawkwood Station 1854-1858 ==== | ==== Employees at Hawkwood Station 1854-1858 ==== |
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| {{:1857_hawkwood_.jpg?300|}} A page from the ledger kept by TLM-P in 1857 showing he had 13,342 sheep. A. Brown is the overseer and it also lists, somewhat indistinctly now, eight employees.((MLMSS 3117/Box 7X)) | {{:1857_hawkwood_.jpg?300|}} A page from the ledger kept by TLM-P in 1857 showing he had 13,342 sheep. A. Brown is the overseer and it also lists, somewhat indistinctly now, eight employees.((MLMSS 3117/Box 7X)) |
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| 72 **Maēr** (German), shepherd or hutkeeper at £25 or £30 pa.\\ | 72 **Maēr** (German), shepherd or hutkeeper at £25 or £30 pa.\\ |
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| In his private journal for 1858-60((MLMSS 3117/Box 7X)), TLM-P noted another employee:\\ | In his private journal for 1858-60((MLMSS 3117/Box 7X)), TLM-P noted another employee:**Jemima Fraser** hired on 17 September 1858 as a nurse at £25 pa with a months' notice required. A nurse was needed as he and Matilda at that stage had six surviving children the eldest of whom was 10 years old. As well, Matilda would give birth the following month. \\ |
| 1 **Jemima Fraser** hired on 17 September 1858 as a nurse at £25 pa with a months' notice required. A nurse was needed as he and Matilda at that stage had six surviving children the eldest of whom was 10 years old. As well, Matilda would give birth the following month. \\ | |
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| In TLM-P's reminiscences to Rosa, he mentions that he employed three Aboriginal men and one woman (from the coast, not from the local area, one named Billy Hayes and another just referred to as Freddy) at //Hawkwood// as well as Ernest Davies, Sydney Ling a German doctor, and 'one or two others'. He wrote that 'We had a sheep station about 2 miles up 'Oakey Creek' where only a single Chinese shepherd was in charge of a large flock, indicating how difficult life could be the Chinese indentured labourers. //Hawkwood//'s ledger simply refers to 'Black Boys' giving no names.((pp.146-47))\\ | In TLM-P's reminiscences to Rosa, he mentions that he employed three Aboriginal men and one woman (from the coast, not from the local area, one named Billy Hayes and another just referred to as Freddy) at //Hawkwood// as well as Ernest Davies, Sydney Ling a German doctor, and 'one or two others'. He wrote that 'We had a sheep station about 2 miles up 'Oakey Creek' where only a single Chinese shepherd was in charge of a large flock, indicating how difficult life could be the Chinese indentured labourers. //Hawkwood//'s ledger simply refers to 'Black Boys' giving no names.((pp.146-47))\\ |