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| When TLM-P wrote his [[roxburgh_castle_memoir|memoir]] about his voyage to Australia, he commented that he was too ill to work outside, 'almost the first time after sixty years of robust health'. That 60 years of good health, his enjoyment of hard physical activity((a trait he shared with many other successful squatters, see Barry Stone, //The Squatters: The Story of Australia's Pastoral Pioneers//, Allen & Unwin, 2019)) and general sociability, were major influences on his life in Australia. He needed all these attributes because he arrived at a bad time for the colony. The years 1838-40 were ones of severe drought; it contributed to an economic depression which was at its worst during 1842-43. TLM-P's fellow passenger, the Rev. W. Clarke, provides us with a glimpse of the difficulties when he wrote in August 1841:'The whole colony is in a state of distress ... There is scarcely one man in a thousand who can pay his way, even public men [government employees] are unpaid ... We are all nearly ruined together.' The rural districts, as Elena Grainger writes, had 'the reek of boiling-down works pervading the air as graziers melted down the fat from the meat from their sheep rather than give them away for wool or mutton, or, worse, allow the tortured ewes to nudge their still-born lambs until they too died of thirst.' ((Elena Grainger, //The remarkable Reverend Clarke: the life and times of the father of Australian geology//, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982, pp.84-85)) On the plus side, there was an acute shortage of healthy young men like TLM-P, especially from 1840 after the colonists successfully ended convict transportation to NSW, despite the protests of those squatters wanting cheap labour.\\ | When TLM-P wrote his [[roxburgh_castle_memoir|memoir]] about his voyage to Australia, he commented that he was too ill to work outside, 'almost the first time after sixty years of robust health'. That 60 years of good health, his enjoyment of hard physical activity((a trait he shared with many other successful squatters, see Barry Stone, //The Squatters: The Story of Australia's Pastoral Pioneers//, Allen & Unwin, 2019)) and general sociability, were major influences on his life in Australia. He needed all these attributes because he arrived at a bad time for the colony. The years 1838-40 were ones of severe drought; it contributed to an economic depression which was at its worst during 1842-43. TLM-P's fellow passenger, the Rev. W. Clarke, provides us with a glimpse of the difficulties when he wrote in August 1841:'The whole colony is in a state of distress ... There is scarcely one man in a thousand who can pay his way, even public men [government employees] are unpaid ... We are all nearly ruined together.' The rural districts, as Elena Grainger writes, had 'the reek of boiling-down works pervading the air as graziers melted down the fat from the meat from their sheep rather than give them away for wool or mutton, or, worse, allow the tortured ewes to nudge their still-born lambs until they too died of thirst.' ((Elena Grainger, //The remarkable Reverend Clarke: the life and times of the father of Australian geology//, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1982, pp.84-85)) On the plus side, there was an acute shortage of healthy young men like TLM-P, especially from 1840 after the colonists successfully ended convict transportation to NSW, despite the protests of those squatters wanting cheap labour.\\ |
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| | 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))\\ |
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| | ===== Sale of Land ===== |
| 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.""))\\ |
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| 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.))\\ | In 1860, a year after Queensland became a separate colony, Lands Acts were passed relating to the settlement and alienation of Crown lands. 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.' \\ |
| | Queensland Archives outlines important changes to the sale of land in the 1860s-70s:\\ |
| | 1. "The sale of Crown land after auction was allowed under Section 8 of the Alienation of Crown Lands Act 1860. Any lots offered at auction that were not bid for, or where a buyer had paid a deposit and subsequently forfeited it by not continuing with the sale, were made available for sale by private contract. The land was sold at the upset price or in the case where a deposit had been forfeited, at the upset price less the deposit. The land had to be paid for with ready money which included land orders. The Crown land became freehold when the land was sold.' and\\ |
| | 2. "The Crown Lands Alienation Act 1868 restricted sales of Crown land to lots of land located in the country. It also enabled volunteers in the defence force to acquire ten acres of town lands or 50 acres of country lands by way of a free grant..."\\ |
| | 3. "The Crown Lands Alienation Act 1876 included suburban and/or town land as well as country and provided for the value of improvements to be added to the price."\\ |
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| | 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.)) \\ |
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| 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)) | |
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| ==== Dalwood, 1839-c.1840 ==== | ==== Dalwood, 1839-c.1840 ==== |
| The first thing TLM-P needed was to gain colonial experience, a form of internship to learn the ways of the colony. He did so on //Dalwood// station, near Maitland in the [[wp>Hunter_Region|Hunter Valley]], north of Sydney.((//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.)) Dalwood House (pictured) {{http://www.dalwood.org.au/assets/images/dalwood-house.jpg?300}} is now a National Trust Property, located within the Wyndham Estate Winery.(({{https://www.dalwood.org.au/dalwood-house.html}}. As at 2016, it was not open to the public.)) In 1839 //Dalwood// was the home of George and Margaret Wyndham and, luckily, some of his family letters have survived.\\ | The first thing TLM-P needed was to gain colonial experience, a form of internship to learn the ways of the colony. He did so on //Dalwood// station, near Maitland in the [[wp>Hunter_Region|Hunter Valley]], north of Sydney.((//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.)) Dalwood House (pictured) {{http://www.dalwood.org.au/assets/images/dalwood-house.jpg?300}} is now a National Trust Property, located within the Wyndham Estate Winery.(({{https://www.dalwood.org.au/dalwood-house.html}}. As at 2016, it was not open to the public.)) In 1839 //Dalwood// was the home of George and Margaret Wyndham and, luckily, some of his family letters have survived.\\ |
| Armed with his book on English law, TLM-P went into partnership to lease his second property on 24 September 1845. His partner, Hugh Henry Robertson Aikman, had occupied Broomelton since July 1842 when he was granted what is believed to be the first license to depasture (i.e. graze cattle on) Crown Lands on the banks of the Logan River.((Depasturing licences, SRNSW, https://indexes.records.nsw.gov.au/searchhits_nocopy.aspx?table=Depasturing%20Licenses&id=67&frm=1&query=Surname:%; H. J. Gibbney, 'Murray-Prior, Thomas Lodge (1819–1892)', //Australian Dictionary of Biography//, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murray-prior-thomas-lodge-4282/text6927, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 14 August 2018.)) TLM-P solved the problem of inadequate capital by borrowing from his step-sisters: £600 in several instalments.((Patricia Clarke, 'The Murray-Priors at Bromelton 1844-1853' in Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.18; In 2017 values, £600 is around £69,348 or AUD$110,956; [[http://www.in2013dollars.com/1845-GBP-in-2017?amount=600]])) David Marr in his brilliant //Killing for Country. A Family Story//, points out that it was common to borrow money from the extended family for this purpose - and hugely increased the pressure on the borrower to succeed. Massacring the owners of the land was one result, another was to overstock it and otherwise exploit the soil too ruthlessly.\\ | Armed with his book on English law, TLM-P went into partnership to lease his second property on 24 September 1845. His partner, Hugh Henry Robertson Aikman, had occupied Broomelton since July 1842 when he was granted what is believed to be the first license to depasture (i.e. graze cattle on) Crown Lands on the banks of the Logan River.((Depasturing licences, SRNSW, https://indexes.records.nsw.gov.au/searchhits_nocopy.aspx?table=Depasturing%20Licenses&id=67&frm=1&query=Surname:%; H. J. Gibbney, 'Murray-Prior, Thomas Lodge (1819–1892)', //Australian Dictionary of Biography//, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murray-prior-thomas-lodge-4282/text6927, published first in hardcopy 1974, accessed online 14 August 2018.)) TLM-P solved the problem of inadequate capital by borrowing from his step-sisters: £600 in several instalments.((Patricia Clarke, 'The Murray-Priors at Bromelton 1844-1853' in Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.18; In 2017 values, £600 is around £69,348 or AUD$110,956; [[http://www.in2013dollars.com/1845-GBP-in-2017?amount=600]])) David Marr in his brilliant //Killing for Country. A Family Story//, points out that it was common to borrow money from the extended family for this purpose - and hugely increased the pressure on the borrower to succeed. Massacring the owners of the land was one result, another was to overstock it and otherwise exploit the soil too ruthlessly.\\ |
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| //Bromelton// was on the Logan River, 35 miles from Brisbane, near the current town of [[wp>Beaudesert,_Queensland|Beaudesert]]. It was 'watered by the Logan River, part of Teviot Brook, Allen's Creek, and Crow's Creek.' ((Isobel Hannah, 'The Royal Descent of the First Postmaster-General of Queensland', //Queensland Geographical Journal//, vol. LV, 1953-54, p.11.)) It was large, 60 square miles (almost 15,540 hectares).((Patricia Clarke, 'The Murray-Priors at Bromelton 1844-1853' in Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.18. Her information about Bromelton's size is for 30 September 1848 and comes from the NSW Government Gazette)) Its name had been originally spelt Broomelton, after an Aikman estate in Scotland; the M-Ps (mis)spelt it Bromelton. Its indigenous name was the same as its nearby lagoon, Bungroopin (now rendered Bungropin) meaning 'the place of parrots'.((Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.8. Rosa Praed, in her novel //The Romance of a Station// has her heroine grow up on 'dear old Bungroopim' station.)) The lagoon was in front of the homestead and large and deep. In his history, Fox claims it was 85 feet deep (nearly 26 metres) with its Indigenous owners well aware it could be dangerous as they considered it bottomless and the haunt of a bunyip.((Matthew Fox, //The history of Queensland: its people and industries: an historical and commercial review descriptive and biographical facts, figures and illustrations: an epitome of progress//, Brisbane: States Publishing Company, 1919, vol. 1, p.313.))\\ | //Bromelton// was on the Logan River, 35 miles from Brisbane, near the current town of [[wp>Beaudesert,_Queensland|Beaudesert]]. It was 'watered by the Logan River, part of Teviot Brook, Allen's Creek, and Crow's Creek.' ((Isobel Hannah, 'The Royal Descent of the First Postmaster-General of Queensland', //Queensland Geographical Journal//, vol. LV, 1953-54, p.11.)) It was large, 60 square miles (almost 15,540 hectares).((Patricia Clarke, 'The Murray-Priors at Bromelton 1844-1853' in Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.18. Her information about Bromelton's size is for 30 September 1848 and comes from the NSW Government Gazette)) Its name had been originally spelt Broomelton, after an Aikman estate in Scotland; the M-Ps (mis)spelt it Bromelton. Its indigenous name was the same as its nearby lagoon, Bungroopin (now rendered Bungropin) meaning 'the place of parrots'.((Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.8. Rosa Praed, in her novel //The Romance of a Station// has her heroine grow up on 'dear old Bungroopim' station.)) The lagoon was in front of the homestead and large and deep. In his history, Fox claims it was 85 feet deep (nearly 26 metres) with its Indigenous owners well aware it could be dangerous as they considered it bottomless and the haunt of a bunyip.((Matthew Fox, //The history of Queensland: its people and industries: an historical and commercial review descriptive and biographical facts, figures and illustrations: an epitome of progress//, Brisbane: States Publishing Company, 1919, vol. 1, p.313.)) various members of the family claimed to have seen the large water creature with the result that the 'Bromelton Bunyip' is still making the news. See, for example, the following from the //Fassifern Guardian//, 5 March 2025, p.27 courtesy Deb Stenzel: {{:fassifern_guardian_bromelton_bunyip0250305_160730.jpg?300|}} \\ |
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| In 1846, TLM-P was sufficiently established to marry 18-year old [[matilda_m-p|Matilda Harpur]], although he was concerned he did not have enough money to support a wife and children. He wrote to Matilda that his major worry was saving £200((this sum was worth around $26,392 in 2017 values.)), the amount he considered necessary for married life.((Patricia Clarke, 'The Murray-Priors at Bromelton 1844-1853' in Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.19.)) Matilda was idealistically keen to prove her mettle as a pioneer wife. A letter of hers quoted by Colin Roderick((//In Mortal Bondage//, p.9)) has her chiding him for selling his bullocks so that he could employ builders to erect a suitable house for his young bride: '//Let me beg of you to make no such sacrifice again, but to discharge those builders, and when I come, let me be your assistant in improving your hut, for indeed I should like to have in my power to prove that I could be happy with you anywhere//.' In any case, it appears that Matilda's and TLM-P's first home was a 'slab hut'.(([H. Krause], //The Story of Maroon. A Souvenir Review of its History and Development 1827-1961//, Maroon Centenary Celebrations Committee, 1961, p.11.)) The description comes from Rosa Praed in her //Australian Life, Black and White//, but it should be kept in mind that what constitutes a 'slab hut' could vary widely; that Rosa was foremost an imaginative novelist; and that she left Bromelton when she was 2 years old. While she drew on other family members' memories, decades had passed by that time, making it all the more likely that Bromelton homestead was remembered in comparison to the more substantial homes they later occupied. There is little doubt, however, that it was a hard life for a young bride, with the nearest station (//Tamrookum//) reputedly two days riding away. ((Allan Morrison, 'Some Queensland Postmasters-general', Brisbane: Post Office Historical Society, 1953, p.4)) It is not known whether TLM-P discharged his builders, but he did employ two (Samuel Crewe and Patrick Sullivan) during May-August 1848.((Ledger for Bugrooperia station, Logan River, Queensland, May 1848-1849, 13pp, MLMSS 3117/Box 6/Item 5))\\ | In 1846, TLM-P was sufficiently established to marry 18-year old [[matilda_m-p|Matilda Harpur]], although he was concerned he did not have enough money to support a wife and children. He wrote to Matilda that his major worry was saving £200((this sum was worth around $26,392 in 2017 values.)), the amount he considered necessary for married life.((Patricia Clarke, 'The Murray-Priors at Bromelton 1844-1853' in Patricia Savage (compiled), //They came to Bromelton: a brief outline of the life and times of the early pioneers who came to Bromelton - from the pages of history, personal diaries, old letters and family recollections//, Patricia Savage, 2004, p.19.)) Matilda was idealistically keen to prove her mettle as a pioneer wife. A letter of hers quoted by Colin Roderick((//In Mortal Bondage//, p.9)) has her chiding him for selling his bullocks so that he could employ builders to erect a suitable house for his young bride: '//Let me beg of you to make no such sacrifice again, but to discharge those builders, and when I come, let me be your assistant in improving your hut, for indeed I should like to have in my power to prove that I could be happy with you anywhere//.' In any case, it appears that Matilda's and TLM-P's first home was a 'slab hut'.(([H. Krause], //The Story of Maroon. A Souvenir Review of its History and Development 1827-1961//, Maroon Centenary Celebrations Committee, 1961, p.11.)) The description comes from Rosa Praed in her //Australian Life, Black and White//, but it should be kept in mind that what constitutes a 'slab hut' could vary widely; that Rosa was foremost an imaginative novelist; and that she left Bromelton when she was 2 years old. While she drew on other family members' memories, decades had passed by that time, making it all the more likely that Bromelton homestead was remembered in comparison to the more substantial homes they later occupied. There is little doubt, however, that it was a hard life for a young bride, with the nearest station (//Tamrookum//) reputedly two days riding away. ((Allan Morrison, 'Some Queensland Postmasters-general', Brisbane: Post Office Historical Society, 1953, p.4)) It is not known whether TLM-P discharged his builders, but he did employ two (Samuel Crewe and Patrick Sullivan) during May-August 1848.((Ledger for Bugrooperia station, Logan River, Queensland, May 1848-1849, 13pp, MLMSS 3117/Box 6/Item 5))\\ |