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| gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2026/04/03 12:12] – [Hawkwood 1854-58] judith | gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2026/04/03 12:19] (current) – [Hawkwood 1854-58] judith |
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| In 1859 //Bromelton// was acquired by Campbell McDonald whose family also owned //Dugandan//, a neighbouring property to TLM-P's later property, //Maroon//.(([[https://www.fassifernguardian.com/the-men-who-named-dugandan-wyaralong?amp=1]])) The world of the squatters in colonial Queensland was a very small one. The squatter community can also be seen in a c.1857 (and so far, despite Trove, unidentified) newspaper clipping in the //Bromelton// and //Hawkwood// stations ledger((MLMSS3117/box7X)) which listed TLM-P as one of the many squatters appointed a 'Commissioner of Peace'.((MLMSS3117/Box 7X))\\ He was a Commissioner for Ipswich with the role was very much about ensuring peaceful acquiescence of the status quo.\\ | In 1859 //Bromelton// was acquired by Campbell McDonald whose family also owned //Dugandan//, a neighbouring property to TLM-P's later property, //Maroon//.(([[https://www.fassifernguardian.com/the-men-who-named-dugandan-wyaralong?amp=1]])) The world of the squatters in colonial Queensland was a very small one. The squatter community can also be seen in a c.1857 (and so far, despite Trove, unidentified) newspaper clipping in the //Bromelton// and //Hawkwood// stations ledger((MLMSS3117/box7X)) which listed TLM-P as one of the many squatters appointed a 'Commissioner of Peace'.((MLMSS3117/Box 7X))\\ He was a Commissioner for Ipswich with the role was very much about ensuring peaceful acquiescence of the status quo.\\ |
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| === A Memoir of Bromelton and Hawkwood === | === Memoirs of Bromelton and Hawkwood === |
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| More about TLM-P and his properties can be found in reminiscence of Ernest Davies(('Some Reminiscences of Early Queensland', //Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland//, 6:1, 1959, pp.29-50.)), who acquired his colonial experience as a jackeroo for TLM-P. His brother Henry had migrated a 'couple of years' earlier than Ernest and was the manager of TLM-P's new property, Hawkwood. There is no information how the Davies brothers and TLM-P met, but one connection was Belgium. Ernest Davies was born at Ostend in Belgium in 1836, which may have resulted in mutual acquaintances. Around 1855, he migrated to Australia and met TLM-P in Sydney shortly afterwards. He recalled that, aside from Bromelton, TLM-P owned a property called //Woogaroo// 'halfway up the river between Brisbane and Ipswich' (Woogaroo was later renamed Goodna, now an outer eastern suburb of Ipswich) as well as 'considerable ... land on the Brisbane River' in an area called the Pocket (later Prior's Pocket). Davies describes how, at Bromelton, TLM-P had been 'for some years been building up a fine herd of [[wp>Shorthorn|short-horned Durham cattle]] and importing thorough-bred bulls from England.' He kept this stud herd safe near his town home on the Brisbane River. Confirmation of TLM-P's reputation as a cattle breeder comes from an advertisement in 1860, advertising cattle originally from his 'celebrated' herd.((//The Sydney Morning Herald//, 3 February 1860, p.7.)) By the time TLM-P employed Davies, he had sold the Bromelton lease with a provision being that the buyers would deliver 'certain drafts of cattle year by year for a stated period in payment for the station and stock'. Ernest Davies' first task was to assist in the delivery of 'some 300 or 400'((reminiscences are notoriously unreliable when it comes to precise detail, so we should not be too surprised that, a few pages later, the number has jumped to 'about 400 or 500 head')) stock from Bromelton to TLM-P's new station 'Hawkwood', where his brother Henry was 'in charge'. Ernest Davies worked for some years for TLM-P, noting that 'eventually for a year of so [he] took charge of Hawkwood when Mr. Prior was away.'\\ | More about TLM-P and his properties can be found in reminiscence of Ernest Davies(('Some Reminiscences of Early Queensland', //Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland//, 6:1, 1959, pp.29-50.)), who acquired his colonial experience as a jackeroo for TLM-P. His brother Henry had migrated a 'couple of years' earlier than Ernest and was the manager of TLM-P's new property, Hawkwood. There is no information how the Davies brothers and TLM-P met, but one connection was Belgium. Ernest Davies was born at Ostend in Belgium in 1836, which may have resulted in mutual acquaintances. Around 1855, he migrated to Australia and met TLM-P in Sydney shortly afterwards. He recalled that, aside from Bromelton, TLM-P owned a property called //Woogaroo// 'halfway up the river between Brisbane and Ipswich' (Woogaroo was later renamed Goodna, now an outer eastern suburb of Ipswich) as well as 'considerable ... land on the Brisbane River' in an area called the Pocket (later Prior's Pocket). Davies describes how, at Bromelton, TLM-P had been 'for some years been building up a fine herd of [[wp>Shorthorn|short-horned Durham cattle]] and importing thorough-bred bulls from England.' He kept this stud herd safe near his town home on the Brisbane River. Confirmation of TLM-P's reputation as a cattle breeder comes from an advertisement in 1860, advertising cattle originally from his 'celebrated' herd.((//The Sydney Morning Herald//, 3 February 1860, p.7.)) By the time TLM-P employed Davies, he had sold the Bromelton lease with a provision being that the buyers would deliver 'certain drafts of cattle year by year for a stated period in payment for the station and stock'. Ernest Davies' first task was to assist in the delivery of 'some 300 or 400'((reminiscences are notoriously unreliable when it comes to precise detail, so we should not be too surprised that, a few pages later, the number has jumped to 'about 400 or 500 head')) stock from Bromelton to TLM-P's new station 'Hawkwood', where his brother Henry was 'in charge'. Ernest Davies worked for some years for TLM-P, noting that 'eventually for a year of so [he] took charge of Hawkwood when Mr. Prior was away.'\\ |
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| Davies described Bromelton as having a 'very nice garden' next to a large, deep lagoon of at least 2.5 hectares. It was the age where much of the native fauna was new, and TLM-P and Matilda's sister Elizabeth both were convinced that they had seen the water creature the Aborigines believed inhabited the lagoon: a [[wp>Bunyip|bunyip]]. TLM-P was so convinced that he wrote to the //Moreton Bay Courier// reporting the sighting of 'an aquatic monster'. It was a claim that meet with ridicule - at least amongst white Australians, not so indigenous ones. Later accounts suggest that what they (and others) fleetingly saw was likely to have been a crocodile.((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, pp.3,25.))\\ | Davies described Bromelton as having a 'very nice garden' next to a large, deep lagoon of at least 2.5 hectares. It was the age where much of the native fauna was new, and TLM-P and Matilda's sister Elizabeth both were convinced that they had seen the water creature the Aborigines believed inhabited the lagoon: a [[wp>Bunyip|bunyip]]. TLM-P was so convinced that he wrote to the //Moreton Bay Courier// reporting the sighting of 'an aquatic monster'. It was a claim that meet with ridicule - at least amongst white Australians, not so indigenous ones. Later accounts suggest that what they (and others) fleetingly saw was likely to have been a crocodile.((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, pp.3,25.))\\ |
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| | For TLM-P's memories of Bromelton and Hawkwood stations see [[first_nations_australians|First Nations Australians]] |
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| ==== Hawkwood 1854-58 ==== | ==== Hawkwood 1854-58 ==== |
| In his reminiscences for Rosa about Hawkwood, TLM-P stated that there was 18 months of war: 'Those 18 months of warfare were an anxious time for us. Business took me then a great deal from the station. When I came home I used to canter pretty sharply to the top of the ridge from which the place was visible with my heart in my mouth, for there was always the fear that all hands might have been massacred.' In the aftermath of the Hornet Bank murders, he ensured he had plenty of gun-powder and noted that 'I was better off [than my neighbours] at Hawkwood having 3 coast blacks & a gin [Aboriginal woman - as they were from the coast they had no necessary allegiance or even common language with the local Yiman tribe], Ernest Davis, Sydney Lind a German Dr & one of two other & plenty of arms & ammunition.' He described how a sheep-buyer called Horton convinced him and a neighbour Alfred Thomas that the Indigenous men were planning other murders and rapes. They formed a vigilante party which met at Hawkwood and which they named the Browns. The party comprised of Horton, 5 property owners, 2 overseers, 'a black boy from the Auburn' and 'Billy Hayes & Freddy [who were] my two blackboys (Brisbane boys upon whom we could depend' (p.32) One of the station owners, John MacArthur was nominated 'Captain', another indication of the quasi-military nature of the operation. The workers on the station, presumably aware of their own vulnerability, supported the action: 'It was shearing time but the shearers 'promised to shear s well, or better than if I were there, & they would not let anything go wrong on the station, & they kept their word.'(p.33) He claimed that Billy Hayes urged that they kill all Indigenous people they encountered but TLM_P insisted that he would leave if he saw a woman or child 'wittingly hurt'. They found them at a station and opened fire, some escaping and others being captured. One Indigenous warrior 'Ivery'(unclear - Terry?) he described as both a 'noted murderer' and 'a very fine man & a plucky fellow' single-handedly issued a challenge to McArthur despite him only having traditional weapons and McArthur a pistol. TLM-P again indicated the complexities of the situation as the warrior was protected by [[wp>William_Henry_Yaldwyn]] who owned Taroom Station, much to the neighbours' indignation. In the end, Police threatened to shoot Yaldwyn if he did not stop being used as a shield.(pp.35-36) TLM-P concluded 'The war was kept up for eighteen months during which there were continually either one or more parties out - & gradually a good many of the the ring-leaders were accounted for' - using 'most treacherous' means.(pp.37-38) Part of the latter conflict came about when the whites were convinced they had identified Indigenous 'murderers', in one case TLM-P objecting to a Mr Pigott employing Indigenous men building sheep-yards at a near-by property as he was convinced one of the labourers ('Auburn Boney') had been involved in killing white men on Hawkwood.(p.39) By this time Indigenous people needed a pass if they wanted to leave their camp (p.40). TlM-P described how 'the Browns' and the Native Police combined to capture those they thought were ringleaders - 'This put an end to the war'.(p.41)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.))\\ | In his reminiscences for Rosa about Hawkwood, TLM-P stated that there was 18 months of war: 'Those 18 months of warfare were an anxious time for us. Business took me then a great deal from the station. When I came home I used to canter pretty sharply to the top of the ridge from which the place was visible with my heart in my mouth, for there was always the fear that all hands might have been massacred.' In the aftermath of the Hornet Bank murders, he ensured he had plenty of gun-powder and noted that 'I was better off [than my neighbours] at Hawkwood having 3 coast blacks & a gin [Aboriginal woman - as they were from the coast they had no necessary allegiance or even common language with the local Yiman tribe], Ernest Davis, Sydney Lind a German Dr & one of two other & plenty of arms & ammunition.' He described how a sheep-buyer called Horton convinced him and a neighbour Alfred Thomas that the Indigenous men were planning other murders and rapes. They formed a vigilante party which met at Hawkwood and which they named the Browns. The party comprised of Horton, 5 property owners, 2 overseers, 'a black boy from the Auburn' and 'Billy Hayes & Freddy [who were] my two blackboys (Brisbane boys upon whom we could depend' (p.32) One of the station owners, John MacArthur was nominated 'Captain', another indication of the quasi-military nature of the operation. The workers on the station, presumably aware of their own vulnerability, supported the action: 'It was shearing time but the shearers 'promised to shear s well, or better than if I were there, & they would not let anything go wrong on the station, & they kept their word.'(p.33) He claimed that Billy Hayes urged that they kill all Indigenous people they encountered but TLM_P insisted that he would leave if he saw a woman or child 'wittingly hurt'. They found them at a station and opened fire, some escaping and others being captured. One Indigenous warrior 'Ivery'(unclear - Terry?) he described as both a 'noted murderer' and 'a very fine man & a plucky fellow' single-handedly issued a challenge to McArthur despite him only having traditional weapons and McArthur a pistol. TLM-P again indicated the complexities of the situation as the warrior was protected by [[wp>William_Henry_Yaldwyn]] who owned Taroom Station, much to the neighbours' indignation. In the end, Police threatened to shoot Yaldwyn if he did not stop being used as a shield.(pp.35-36) TLM-P concluded 'The war was kept up for eighteen months during which there were continually either one or more parties out - & gradually a good many of the the ring-leaders were accounted for' - using 'most treacherous' means.(pp.37-38) Part of the latter conflict came about when the whites were convinced they had identified Indigenous 'murderers', in one case TLM-P objecting to a Mr Pigott employing Indigenous men building sheep-yards at a near-by property as he was convinced one of the labourers ('Auburn Boney') had been involved in killing white men on Hawkwood.(p.39) By this time Indigenous people needed a pass if they wanted to leave their camp (p.40). TlM-P described how 'the Browns' and the Native Police combined to capture those they thought were ringleaders - 'This put an end to the war'.(p.41)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.))\\ |
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| An incident that illustrates the anxiety TLM-P felt for his family (as experienced by all sides of the conflict) during this time occurred when TLM-P and Matilda's eldest son Tom was about 7 years old (c.1855. TLM-P was unarmed when he heard Tom shouting. After rushing to get rifle and ammunition:'I saw my boy, who had just put the rams into the yard, in conversation with a blackfellow, who was gesticulating vigorously. Every time he moved his arm, I felt that the waddy might be intended for my boy ...[but] I reflected that had he intended to harm, he would have done it before. However it was an awful time'.(p.48)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.)) TLM-P also incidentally mentions that, fearful of black attack, 'the least noise alarmed us at night ... We had neither windows nor shutters to the verandah part of the hut [they slept in] & for protection, put some slight bars across. Anyone trying to get in would make quite noise enough to wake me.'((Rosa Praed papers, Box 3, 8370, packet 3/1/1, Oxley Library.\\ | An incident that illustrates the anxiety TLM-P felt for his family (as experienced by all sides of the conflict) during this time occurred when TLM-P and Matilda's eldest son Tom was about 7 years old (c.1855. TLM-P was unarmed when he heard Tom shouting. After rushing to get rifle and ammunition:'I saw my boy, who had just put the rams into the yard, in conversation with a blackfellow, who was gesticulating vigorously. Every time he moved his arm, I felt that the waddy might be intended for my boy ...[but] I reflected that had he intended to harm, he would have done it before. However it was an awful time'.(p.48)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.)) TLM-P also incidentally mentions that, fearful of black attack, 'the least noise alarmed us at night ... We had neither windows nor shutters to the verandah part of the hut [they slept in] & for protection, put some slight bars across. Anyone trying to get in would make quite noise enough to wake me.'((Rosa Praed papers, Box 3, 8370, packet 3/1/1, Oxley Library))\\ |
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| 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 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.\\ |
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| TLM-P's ledger book from his time at //Hawkwood// (1854-58) is at the Mitchell Library. See [[employees_stores|Employees, Stores]]((MLMSS 3117/box 7X)). | TLM-P's ledger book from his time at //Hawkwood// (1854-58) is at the Mitchell Library. See [[employees_stores|Employees, Stores]]((MLMSS 3117/box 7X)). |