====== TLM-Ps Political and Postal Career ======

When Queensland separated from the colony of NSW in 1859, TLM-P and other squatters were determined to consolidate their interests. The idea of mass democracy was still a radical idea and property owners were generally firm in their conviction that they alone had the right to rule - even if it did mean a few women managed to vote before legislation was amended to exclude them. TLM-P stood for the first election in 1860, but failed to win the seat of East Moreton. He then joined the public service as postal inspector in mid-1861; he was appointed Queensland's first Postmaster-General in 1862. Darbyshire states that TLM-P's brother-in-law, fellow squatters William Barker and Charles Robert Haly, provide part of the necessary bond.(({{http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murray-prior-thomas-lodge-4282}}; Darbyshire, p.7)) Documents from his time are (or at least, were in 1980) located at the Brisbane General Post Office Museum.((https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=5090123&S=1&T=P&R=0))\\

TLM-P((National Archives of Australia, J2364, 1859/3)) {{:tlm-p_pmg_nat_archives_enhanced.jpg?300|}}

TLM-P (bottom left) with subsequent Postmasters-General of Queensland.(([[https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=5090123&S=1&T=P&R=0]]))   {{:postermasters_general_enhanced.jpg?300|}}

TLM-P was a member of the Legislative Council of Queensland from 22 February 1866 until his death in 31 December 1892.(({{https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/members/former/member-register}})) The suggestion that he was its President((Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry,Melbourne: E.A. Petherick, 1891-95, p.49)) appears a confusion with his chairing ...   .