| Both sides previous revision Previous revision Next revision | Previous revision |
| gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2024/07/22 17:31] – judith | gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2025/07/28 15:43] (current) – old revision restored (2024/07/22 17:32) judith |
|---|
| TLM-P was too late for free land grants, but he benefited from the increasing privatisation of the land in what is now Queensland. As one British observer wrote, in the early 1840s Australians turned to the Moreton Bay area, 'from which all are now hoping to extract the golden fleece, that tempted them to these distant shores.'((John Hood, //Australia and the East//, London: John Murray, 1843, p.198.)) The area was opened to free settlement after the Moreton Bay penal settlement closed in 1842, three years after TLM-P arrived in Australia. Initially the government sold yearly depasturing licences which allowed squatters to graze stock on Crown lands beyond the limits of location. After the 1847 Land Act made it possible to buy land,((the Colony of NSW, then including Queensland, was divided into Settled, Intermediate and Unsettled categories, with leases available for 1, 8 and 14 years respectively.[[http://heritagegenealogy.com.au/a-timeline-of-land-ownership/]])) settlers could purchase land freehold.(([[https://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/389422/landtenureqld.pdf]]: "Freehold land is the most complete form available for land alienation from the State. It is purchased from the State. Ownership by the titleholder is not absolute however, as the State is empowered to withhold certain rights, such as the right to any minerals or petroleum. In addition, use of the land may be controlled by legislation ... Non-freehold land is land under the control of the State of Queensland but which may be subject to a lease, licence or permit, reserved for a community purpose, dedicated as a road or subject to no tenure at all.""))\\ | TLM-P was too late for free land grants, but he benefited from the increasing privatisation of the land in what is now Queensland. As one British observer wrote, in the early 1840s Australians turned to the Moreton Bay area, 'from which all are now hoping to extract the golden fleece, that tempted them to these distant shores.'((John Hood, //Australia and the East//, London: John Murray, 1843, p.198.)) The area was opened to free settlement after the Moreton Bay penal settlement closed in 1842, three years after TLM-P arrived in Australia. Initially the government sold yearly depasturing licences which allowed squatters to graze stock on Crown lands beyond the limits of location. After the 1847 Land Act made it possible to buy land,((the Colony of NSW, then including Queensland, was divided into Settled, Intermediate and Unsettled categories, with leases available for 1, 8 and 14 years respectively.[[http://heritagegenealogy.com.au/a-timeline-of-land-ownership/]])) settlers could purchase land freehold.(([[https://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/389422/landtenureqld.pdf]]: "Freehold land is the most complete form available for land alienation from the State. It is purchased from the State. Ownership by the titleholder is not absolute however, as the State is empowered to withhold certain rights, such as the right to any minerals or petroleum. In addition, use of the land may be controlled by legislation ... Non-freehold land is land under the control of the State of Queensland but which may be subject to a lease, licence or permit, reserved for a community purpose, dedicated as a road or subject to no tenure at all.""))\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| In 1860, a year after Queensland became a separate colony, four Lands Acts were passed relating to the settlement and alienation of Crown lands. These leases were for 14 years and enthusiastically taken up.((Ross Fitzgerald, //From the Dreaming to 1915: A History of Queensland//, Vol.1, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982, p.125)) One provision was for 'squatting licences ... a sort of trial of the squatter prior to granting him a lease over his run. If he failed to stock the land for which he had obtained a licence within nine months, he became ineligible to claim a lease and the land was forfeit.' For more on the complexities of colonial land ownership, and the huge benefits reaped by squatters acquiring Crown/indigenous land, see Beverley Kingston, 'The Origins of Queensland's "Comprehensive" Land Policy', //Queensland Heritage//, 1:2, 1965.((accessed online September 2018.)) The properties mentioned below are not the only ones in which TLM-P had an interest, as he appeared to assist his sons and sons-in-law establish themselves by helping them buy property. In this, he was very like his contemporary in Sydney, his father-in-law, Edward Darvall and presumably many other colonial patriarchs.((J. Godden, //The matriarch of Rockend: Emily Mary Barton, more than Banjo Paterson's grandmother//, Ryde History Series, Ryde District Historical Society, 2021.))\\ | In 1860, a year after Queensland became a separate colony, four Lands Acts were passed relating to the settlement and alienation of Crown lands. These leases were for 14 years and enthusiastically taken up.((Ross Fitzgerald, //From the Dreaming to 1915: A History of Queensland//, Vol.1, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982, p.125)) One provision was for 'squatting licences ... a sort of trial of the squatter prior to granting him a lease over his run. If he failed to stock the land for which he had obtained a licence within nine months, he became ineligible to claim a lease and the land was forfeit.' For more on the complexities of colonial land ownership, and the huge benefits reaped by squatters acquiring Crown/indigenous land, see Beverley Kingston, 'The Origins of Queensland's "Comprehensive" Land Policy', //Queensland Heritage//, 1:2, 1965.((accessed online September 2018.)) The properties mentioned below are not the only ones in which TLM-P had an interest, as he appeared to assist his sons and sons-in-law establish themselves by helping them buy property. In this, he was very like his contemporary in Sydney, his (second) father-in-law Edward Darvall, and presumably many other colonial patriarchs.((J. Godden, //The matriarch of Rockend: Emily Mary Barton, more than Banjo Paterson's grandmother//, Ryde History Series, Ryde District Historical Society, 2021.))\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| TLM-P's early career in Australia illustrates what his friend the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt deplored: (in others' words) 'the transitory and opportunistic character of the colonial population, (in Leichhardt's words) 'most of whom came to make their fortunes and nothing else', a restless opportunism that did little to benefit colonial society.((G. Ginn, 'Leichhardt’s colonial panorama: social observation in his Australian diaries', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 7(2):561 - 574. Brisbane)) | TLM-P's early career in Australia illustrates what his friend the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt deplored: (in others' words) 'the transitory and opportunistic character of the colonial population, (in Leichhardt's words) 'most of whom came to make their fortunes and nothing else', a restless opportunism that did little to benefit colonial society.((G. Ginn, 'Leichhardt’s colonial panorama: social observation in his Australian diaries', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 7(2):561 - 574. Brisbane)) |
| For TLM-P and his growing family, living conditions at //Hawkwood// were primitive. Rosa Praed's reminiscences always need to be read with caution, and she left //Hawkwood// when she was 7 years old, but described their home as a hut made of wooden slabs with gaps between them, windows without glass and mostly earthen floors. She recalled that, in this primitive dwelling, TLM-P hung his collection of paintings which were later donated to the [[brisbane_art_gallery|Queensland Art Gallery]].((Kerry Heckenberg, 'A taste for art in colonial Queensland: The Queensland Art Gallery Foundational Bequest of Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior', //Queensland Review//, 25:1, June 2018, pp.119-136; Rosa Praed, //Australian Life, Black and White//, 1885, pp.31-32; Rosa Praed, //My Australian Girlhood//, pp.60-61.)) The four years they stayed at //Hawkwood// were marked by 'great anxiety and hard work'.((//Australia's Representative Men//, ed. T.W.H. Leavitt, Improved Edition, Melbourne: Wells and Leavitt, c.1889, entry for T.L. Murray-Prior. The book used is the one TLM-P owned, signed by him and dated 14th June 1889. It is likely that TLM-P provided the information.) //Hawkwood//'s 1856-57 ledger shows that builders were employed to improve conditions for the workers - C Daly and A Rucker were employed to put shingles on the kitchen (roof) and to build 3 shepherd huts with 10 x 6 feet rooms with each having a chimney, door and window.((MLMSS3117/ box 7X))\\ | For TLM-P and his growing family, living conditions at //Hawkwood// were primitive. Rosa Praed's reminiscences always need to be read with caution, and she left //Hawkwood// when she was 7 years old, but described their home as a hut made of wooden slabs with gaps between them, windows without glass and mostly earthen floors. She recalled that, in this primitive dwelling, TLM-P hung his collection of paintings which were later donated to the [[brisbane_art_gallery|Queensland Art Gallery]].((Kerry Heckenberg, 'A taste for art in colonial Queensland: The Queensland Art Gallery Foundational Bequest of Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior', //Queensland Review//, 25:1, June 2018, pp.119-136; Rosa Praed, //Australian Life, Black and White//, 1885, pp.31-32; Rosa Praed, //My Australian Girlhood//, pp.60-61.)) The four years they stayed at //Hawkwood// were marked by 'great anxiety and hard work'.((//Australia's Representative Men//, ed. T.W.H. Leavitt, Improved Edition, Melbourne: Wells and Leavitt, c.1889, entry for T.L. Murray-Prior. The book used is the one TLM-P owned, signed by him and dated 14th June 1889. It is likely that TLM-P provided the information.) //Hawkwood//'s 1856-57 ledger shows that builders were employed to improve conditions for the workers - C Daly and A Rucker were employed to put shingles on the kitchen (roof) and to build 3 shepherd huts with 10 x 6 feet rooms with each having a chimney, door and window.((MLMSS3117/ box 7X))\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| //Hawkwood// was relatively isolated and the 1850s was a time of bitter war between the Europeans and the Aboriginal people who had lived there for some 50,000 years. A flashpoint occurred in 1857, in what is now known as the [[wp>Hornet_Bank_massacre|Hornet Bank massacre]]. The definitive research into this massacre is a thesis and subsequent book by Gordon Reid.((The thesis is available at {{https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/110512}}; the book is Gordon Reid, //A Nest of Hornets: The Massacre of the Fraser Family at Hornet Bank Station, Central Queensland, 1857, and Related Events//, Oxford University Press, 1982. Among the numerous other studies of this massacre, see A. Laurie, 'Hornet Bank Massacre October 27, 1857', //Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal//, 5:5, 1957; Zoe Smith, '"Unspeakable atrocities': The 1857 Hornet Bank massacre, interracial rape and white femininity on the Australian colonial frontier', //Lilith: A Feminist History Journal//, 29, 2023, pp.117-37.)) A succinct summary is at [[https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=622|Colonial massacres - Hornet Bank aftermath]]. Eleven members of the Fraser family and staff who lived on //Hornet Bank// station, about 200k by road from //Hawkwood//, were murdered. Mrs Fraser and two of her daughters were also raped. The murders were by Yiman (variously Jiman or Iman) language group as well as some men who had belonged to the notorious [[wp>Australian_native_police|Native Police]]. The massacre was reputedly in retaliation not just for the seizure of Aboriginal land, but also for the rape of Yiman women by the young men of the Fraser family - which took place despite the pleas, and written lobbying to authorities, of their widowed mother. More information about this massacre is in the family section of this website. A significant source about the massacre was TLM-P's own detailing of it - an unusual event that came about because his daughter Rosa Praed asked him about it so that she could use the information in one of her novels (she used in her //Australian Life: Black and White//). TLM-P dictated his recollections to his second wife Nora who wrote it down for Rosa. See his Memoirs((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.))\\ | //Hawkwood// was relatively isolated and the 1850s was a time of bitter war between the Europeans and the Aboriginal people who had lived there for some 50,000 years. A flashpoint occurred in 1857, in what is now known as the [[wp>Hornet_Bank_massacre|Hornet Bank massacre]]. The definitive research into this massacre is a thesis and subsequent book by Gordon Reid.((The thesis is available at {{https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/110512}}; the book is Gordon Reid, //A Nest of Hornets: The Massacre of the Fraser Family at Hornet Bank Station, Central Queensland, 1857, and Related Events//, Oxford University Press, 1982. Reid has also published an article about the massacre at [[https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_205360/s00855804_1980_81_11_2_62.pdf?Expires=1753767228&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ&Signature=I76rkIncQBll3H5fiVnRM4fFWuyqFXcEv61KNjYKNpaZlegCAyy8T-yP~rUTrUZBPSkH3OPI4Rrtq-GDYtDSnaOVT94qnq4cjtpgWglREzPSCGWxbDRjW5iAypkL2FJs7-B1MfpkQCDpbVNo2qZYsjasRwJ1VyGgmkDtLN2n-JU~YTHrJbUfbX9b4-SCQ7UskkrBBTVFjWKgrPefnTF3wjPRk9TlC365VZwC1wtq34yTPls-WnUMRhWHLzV2KpnO5TrhhVwghSlx7l-lDDg~OCONG0pVwegn2p7taUtIRlnIJLnIaWFHyxBV-oD8O2BIvpOi~pUTix281NT3NEIvSw|From Hornet Bank to Cullin-La-Ringo]]on Among the numerous other studies of this massacre, see A. Laurie, 'Hornet Bank Massacre October 27, 1857', //Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal//, 5:5, 1957; Zoe Smith, '"Unspeakable atrocities': The 1857 Hornet Bank massacre, interracial rape and white femininity on the Australian colonial frontier', //Lilith: A Feminist History Journal//, 29, 2023, pp.117-37.)) A succinct summary is at [[https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=622|Colonial massacres - Hornet Bank aftermath]]. Eleven members of the Fraser family and staff who lived on //Hornet Bank// station, about 200k by road from //Hawkwood//, were murdered. Mrs Fraser and two of her daughters were also raped. The murders were by Yiman (variously Jiman or Iman) language group as well as some men who had belonged to the notorious [[wp>Australian_native_police|Native Police]]. The massacre was reputedly in retaliation not just for the seizure of Aboriginal land, but also for the rape of Yiman women by the young men of the Fraser family - which took place despite the pleas, and written lobbying to authorities, of their widowed mother. More information about this massacre is in the family section of this website. A significant source about the massacre was TLM-P's own detailing of it - an unusual event that came about because his daughter Rosa Praed asked him about it so that she could use the information in one of her novels (she used in her //Australian Life: Black and White//). TLM-P dictated his recollections to his second wife Nora who wrote it down for Rosa. See his Memoirs((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.))\\ |
| \\ | \\ |
| TLM-P sold //Hawkwood// in the year after the Hornet Bank massacre. The property had not been a financial or any other success. It appears the final straw was another outbreak of scab among his sheep. The family was apparently popular with his neighbours as they are said to have gifted him some 900 sheep to help replenish his flock.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, Masters thesis, pp.214-15. It is possible that this is a confusion with the initial scab outbreak, or vice versa - or that scab was endemic.)) The station ledger includes a page listing 10 'working bullocks' and 39 horses in addition to 10 horses which were sold with the property. For TLM-P's next venture, he tried to leave behind the problems of livestock.\\ | TLM-P sold //Hawkwood// in the year after the Hornet Bank massacre. The property had not been a financial or any other success. It appears the final straw was another outbreak of scab among his sheep. The family was apparently popular with his neighbours as they are said to have gifted him some 900 sheep to help replenish his flock.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, Masters thesis, pp.214-15. It is possible that this is a confusion with the initial scab outbreak, or vice versa - or that scab was endemic.)) The station ledger includes a page listing 10 'working bullocks' and 39 horses in addition to 10 horses which were sold with the property. For TLM-P's next venture, he tried to leave behind the problems of livestock.\\ |