===== Maroon =====
With income from his position as Postmaster-General, TLM-P was able once again to afford a grazing property. In November 1864, after selling other property/properties, he acquired the 20,000-acre Melcombe property, close to his old property of Bromelton. With its new name Maroon, it would become home to four generations of Murray-Priors.\\
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[[wp>Maroon,_Queensland|Maroon]] is near Beaudesert in the Logan district, south-west Queensland. [[wp>Mount_Lindesay_(Queensland)|Mt Lindesay]] was on Maroon's south boundary. It was country belonging to the Yuggerabul (or Yugarapul or Ugarapul) indigenous group.((Angela Collyer, //Templin: a German settlement in Queensland//, Fassifern District Historical Society, 1992, p.1.)) Evidence of a rock shelter dates their occupation at least back to 1300 BC.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.14.)) By 1864 the indigenous owners had been dispossessed and largely decimated though 'tension' continued until the 1880s.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.14.)) Originally, the property name was spelt Marroon. Rosa Praed thought the name could be a corruption of the indigenous name for iguana - murrun - due to a legend that an imposing local mountain was created after a girl ate one against tribal rules.((letter to //The Courier-Mail//, 5 March 19??, in possession J. Godden.)) She described Maroon in a number of her books, including as the Doondi station in her novel //The Head Station//. As Patricia Clarke described it, Maroon had rich river flats but in its outer reaches 'the imposing Mounts Maroon, Barney, Ballow and Clunie overlooked wild, thickly timbered rainforest, rocky gorges and ravines, crater lakes, waterfalls, and rugged scrub country.'((p.22)) ((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, p.36.)) \\
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The following map from Collin Pfeffer's well-researched //The Fassifern Story// shows Maroon and adjoining properties.\\
{{:the_fassifern_story_map.jpg?400|}}((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.21.))\\
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When TLM-P bought Maroon, the area was sparsely settled.  Rosa Praed recalled that the family went via Ipswich (then the nearest town), and had to hack their way through the Dugandan Scrub to reach their new home.((Angella Collyer, //Rathdowney: federation history of an Australian rural border community// Rathdowney, Qld.: Rathdowney Area Development and Historical Association, 2001 p.17.)) TLM-P paid £3,000 for Maroon and £1,200 for another property, Heads of Logan. The latter was located between Maroon and his eastern neighbour Telemon: TLM-P incorporated it into Maroon station. Maroon came with 110 cattle, 12 horses and some working bullocks, while Heads of Logan carried 600 cattle and 7 horses.((Angella Collyer, //Rathdowney: federation history of an Australian rural border community// Rathdowney, Qld.: Rathdowney Area Development and Historical Association, 2001, pp.17-18.)) TLM-P used Maroon for cattle and also imported horses to form a stud there.(([H. Krause], //The Story of Maroon. A Souvenir Review of its History and Development 1827-1961//, Maroon Centenary Celebrations Committee, 1961, p.12.))\\
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His timing was unfortunate. TLM-P bought just in time for a prolonged drought. As well, a little over a year after his purchase, the [[wp>Panic_of_1866|British financial turmoil of 1866]] restricted colonial investment and caused a recession.((Ross Fitzgerald, //From the Dreaming to 1915. A History of Queensland//, St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1982, p.143.)) Maroon satisfied his desire for land, and provided a rich source for Rosa when writing about Australia, but never bought easy prosperity. It is notable too, that TLM-P acquired it from the Bank of Australasia after the previous owner forfeited it.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.27.))\\
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TLM-P and Matilda had enough money left over to build a new, red-cedar lined, large home. The 1871 census recorded Maroon as having two houses with 20 people living there, so presumably the original homestead became the workers' quarters.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//, Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.20.)) By 1880, the local council's rate book valued the buildings at £52.10.((Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and surroundings to 1989//Boonah Shire Council, c.1991, p.27.)) As with all such properties, there were quarters for the employees, stores for meat and other goods, and workshops. The local //Fassifern Guardian// described it as one of Queensland's 'most historic homesteads', with 'walls of locally dressed cedar, its impressive fireplaces of Ipswich limestone slabs and its shingle roof'.((//Fassifern Guardian//, 19 November 1947, p.1.)) Maroon by this stage was more like a small village. TLM-P's children, his grandchildren, neighbours and relatives lived there and/or visited. As well, there were employees and their families. The result, Nora wrote to Rosa in 1881, no-one could 'go around a corner ... without tumbling over a child'((Nora to Rosa, 29 October 1881).\\
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Sadly the homestead was destroyed by fire in 1947, some 27 years after [[thomas_bertram_and_lizzie_m-p|Thomas B. M-P]] sold it.((//The Courier-Mail//, 14 November 1947, p.3)) \\
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{{:maroon_drawing_room_with_col_portrait_crop.jpeg?400|}} An undated photograph of the drawing room at Maroon.**to re do**((Provenance: T.A. & M.T. M-P)) The player piano remains in the family, along with the large painting of TLM-P's father, two of the ornamental vases on the mantelpiece, and the three swords and battleaxe hanging on the wall.((pers. comm. M.T.M-P))\\
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A threat to Maroon's viability from the late nineteenth century was the spread of the exotic plant, prickly pear. It was not effectively contained until the mid-1920s with the introduction of cactoblastis.((for an analysis of the threat posed by the prickly pear, see Jodi Frawley, 'Prickly Pear Land. Transnational networks in Settler Australia', //Australian Historical Studies//, 130, October 2007, pp.323-38.)) \\
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TLM-P's love of art means that we have a number of paintings of and around Maroon. These two are by artist George Hart Taylor((Provenance: Glenn M-P)) There are other smaller paintings of the local area by Taylor in the M-P Papers in the Mitchell Library, Sydney.\\
{{:mg_1677_copy.jpg?350|}} {{:mg_1676_copy.jpg?350|}} **For more paintings of and around Maroon, click on [[landscapes]]**.\\

F**or sketches of Maroon by an unknown person/s, click on [[sketches]]**.\\
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The following photos of Maroon homestead was probably taken in the 1910s when TLM-P's grandson Thomas B. M-P, his wife Lizzie and their family lived there.((Provenance for all the following: T.A.&T.M-P))\\
{{:family_at_maroon_enhanced.jpeg?400|}}  {{:maroon_homestead_enhance.jpeg?400|}}  {{:maroon_nd_enhanced.jpeg?400|}}\\

The next photo comes with the information that it is Lizzie and her young son Thomas at Maroon with the Governor's daughter, c. 1914-15. The most likely candidate is that the governor in question was Sir Hamilton John Goold-Adams as he married in 1911 and had two children. He arrived in Queensland to take up his appointment as Governor of Queensland in March 1915, and left in 1920. From the look on the children's faces, they did not appreciate having to hold hands and stay still for the photograph.(([[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/goold-adams-sir-hamilton-john-6425]])) {{:lizzie_mp_with_son_tlmp_and_governors_daughter_maroon_1914-15_enhanced.jpeg?400|}}\\
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An undated photo of Maroon.((Provenance: Jill Fleming)) {{:maroon.jpg?400|}}\\
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A copy of the 1914 subdivision sale poster from Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and its surroundings//((Boonah Shire Council, 1991, p.26)) {{:maroon_subdivision_poster.jpg?400|}}\\
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This photo from Collin Pfeffer, //The Fassifern Story: a history of Boonah Shire and its surroundings//((Boonah Shire Council, 1991, p.22)) is of Maroon c.1920, shortly after T.B. M-P sold the property. {{:maroon_c1920.jpg?600|}}\\
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An account book for Maroon c.1865-72 has been donated to the ML.\\

Note: the Beaudesert Museum has numerous holdings relating to the Murray-Prior family, see [[https://beaudesertmuseum.org.au]]\\