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| gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2024/01/10 21:14] – judith | gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2024/02/06 20:54] (current) – judith |
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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 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.\\ |
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| TLM-P's ledger book from his time at Hawkwood (1854-58) is at the Mitchell Library ((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)). |
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| For photographs (with permission) by Roy M-P of Hawkwood in 2021 click on [[Hawkwood photos]]. Note Roy's observation that the buildings are likely to have been built after TLM-P's time. | For photographs (with permission) by Roy M-P of Hawkwood in 2021 click on [[Hawkwood photos]]. Note Roy's observation that the buildings are likely to have been built after TLM-P's time. |
| After selling Hawkwood, TLM-P bought a banana plantation on the bay of the area now known as [[wp>Ormiston,_Queensland|Ormiston]], some 25km from central Brisbane.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, Masters thesis, pp.215; Isobel Hannah, 'The Royal Descent of the First Postmaster-General of Queensland', //Queensland Geographical Journal//, vol. LV, 1953-54, p.12.)) One factor in TLM-P's decision to move closer to Brisbane was Matilda's deteriorating eyesight. She had contacted trachoma while at Hawkwood: it was a disease then known as 'sandy blight' because it feels like sand permanently and painfully in the eye.((https://www.hollows.org/au/eye-health/trachoma))\\ | After selling Hawkwood, TLM-P bought a banana plantation on the bay of the area now known as [[wp>Ormiston,_Queensland|Ormiston]], some 25km from central Brisbane.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, Masters thesis, pp.215; Isobel Hannah, 'The Royal Descent of the First Postmaster-General of Queensland', //Queensland Geographical Journal//, vol. LV, 1953-54, p.12.)) One factor in TLM-P's decision to move closer to Brisbane was Matilda's deteriorating eyesight. She had contacted trachoma while at Hawkwood: it was a disease then known as 'sandy blight' because it feels like sand permanently and painfully in the eye.((https://www.hollows.org/au/eye-health/trachoma))\\ |
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| TLM-P's diary of 1858-60 is at the Mitchell Library and can shed more light on this period of his and his family's life. | TLM-P's diary of 1858-60 is at the Mitchell Library and can shed more light on this period of his and his family's life. \\ |
| ==== Creallagh 1859-68 ==== | |
| In 1859, after a year at Ormiston, TLM-P moved to 700 acres of mixed farm at nearby Cleveland, on the shores of Morton Bay, opposite Stradbroke Island. The farm was called //Creallagh// after one of the estates originally granted to his ancestor Captain Thomas Prior in Ireland - yet another indication that TLM-P was driven to recover his family's lost fortunes as Irish-based gentry. The colonial //Creallagh// grew maize, cotton and sugar-cane.((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, p.32; //The Australian Encyclopaedia//p.205)) Rosa Praed described it in her //My Australian Girlhood// as 'not one house, but four wooden huts built round a garden, and - as funds increased - joined by covered ways.((p.112)) In October 1861, TLM-P tried to sell it but did not get a buyer.((//The Courier//, 9 November 1861, p.1)) By February 1863 he was offering //Creallagh//'s 700 acres for sale or lease, describing it as situated on the shores of Raby Bay, near Cleveland. By then it was the 'late' residence of TLM-P, and currently occupied by his brother-in-law, Charles Robert Haly, Esq.(yet another indication of his close tie with his brother-in-law) It was, the advertisement stated, 'in one of the most beautiful and healthy localities in Queensland, admirably adapted for the Cultivation of Sugar or Cotton, with Water Carriage, and only 18 miles' from Brisbane. It was next to the Hon. Louis Hope's sugar plantation((//The Courier//, 9 February 1863, p.1.)) and it was Hope who eventually bought the property. TLM-P's ledger for March 1867 records a sale 'of Property ... at Cleveland for £4,000' with the final payment due March 1868.(MLMSS 3117, check which box, item). \\ | ==== Creallagh 1859-68 (occupied until c.1863) ==== |
| | In 1859, after a year at Ormiston, TLM-P moved to 700 acres of mixed farm at nearby Cleveland, on the shores of Morton Bay, opposite Stradbroke Island. The farm was called //Creallagh// after one of the estates originally granted to his ancestor Captain Thomas Prior in Ireland - yet another indication that TLM-P was driven to recover his family's lost fortunes as Irish-based gentry. The colonial //Creallagh// grew maize, cotton and sugar-cane.((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, p.32; //The Australian Encyclopaedia//p.205)) Rosa Praed described it in her //My Australian Girlhood// as 'not one house, but four wooden huts built round a garden, and - as funds increased - joined by covered ways.((p.112)) In October 1861, TLM-P tried to sell it but did not get a buyer.((//The Courier//, 9 November 1861, p.1)) By February 1863 he was offering //Creallagh//'s 700 acres for sale or lease, describing it as situated on the shores of Raby Bay, near Cleveland. By then it was the 'late' residence of TLM-P, and currently occupied by his brother-in-law, Charles Robert Haly, Esq.(yet another indication of his close tie with his brother-in-law) It was, the advertisement stated, 'in one of the most beautiful and healthy localities in Queensland, admirably adapted for the Cultivation of Sugar or Cotton, with Water Carriage, and only 18 miles' from Brisbane. It was next to the Hon. Louis Hope's sugar plantation((//The Courier//, 9 February 1863, p.1.)) and it was Hope who eventually bought the property. TLM-P's ledger for March 1867 records a sale 'of Property ... at Cleveland for £4,000' with the final payment due March 1868.((MLMSS 3117/box 9, pp.244-45))\\ |
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| TLM-P, like other squatters, advocated the use of imported labour while assuming that higher paid labour by Europeans was superior. He told the Legislative Council in 1884, at a time of booming demand for sugar, that he advocated the use of indentured Pacific Islanders after a strike by his men at Cleveland. He believed, he stated, that his men liked him as he liked them, but appeared outraged when they demanded 'a few pounds more'.((Queensland Legislative Council Debates, Hansard, 5 February 1884, pp.47-48.)) For an outline of the context of 'sugar slaves', see article by Jeff Sparrow [[https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-slave-state-how-blackbirding-in-colonial-australia-created-a-legacy-of-racism-187782?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%202368023618&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%202368023618+CID_d58e49792c2466719ed131053d48270f&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Friday%20essay%20a%20slave%20state%20-%20how%20blackbirding%20in%20colonial%20Australia%20created%20a%20legacy%20of%20racism|Friday essay: 'A slave state - how blackbirding in colonial Australia created a legacy of racism', The Conversation, August 5, 2022]]\\ | TLM-P, like other squatters, advocated the use of imported labour while assuming that higher paid labour by Europeans was superior. He told the Legislative Council in 1884, at a time of booming demand for sugar, that he advocated the use of indentured Pacific Islanders after a strike by his men at Cleveland. He believed, he stated, that his men liked him as he liked them, but appeared outraged when they demanded 'a few pounds more'.((Queensland Legislative Council Debates, Hansard, 5 February 1884, pp.47-48.)) For an outline of the context of 'sugar slaves', see article by Jeff Sparrow [[https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-slave-state-how-blackbirding-in-colonial-australia-created-a-legacy-of-racism-187782?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%202368023618&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%202368023618+CID_d58e49792c2466719ed131053d48270f&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Friday%20essay%20a%20slave%20state%20-%20how%20blackbirding%20in%20colonial%20Australia%20created%20a%20legacy%20of%20racism|Friday essay: 'A slave state - how blackbirding in colonial Australia created a legacy of racism', The Conversation, August 5, 2022]]\\ |
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| For a drawing of Como, possibly a later name for Creallagh, see Andrew Darbyshire, A Fair Slice of St Lucia. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8, p.107.\\ | For a drawing of Como, possibly a later name for Creallagh, see Andrew Darbyshire, A Fair Slice of St Lucia. Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, St Lucia History Group research paper no. 8, p.107.\\ |
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| TLM-P loved the rural lifestyle, but now he turned to a career in the public service, as Postmaster-General. See [[politics_and_the_post_office|TLM-P's Career in Politics and the Post Office]]\\ | TLM-P loved the rural lifestyle and the gentry status that went with prosperous grazing properties, but now found a new source of income as Postmaster-General. See [[politics_and_the_post_office|TLM-P's Career in Politics and the Post Office]] It also helped him afford what would become his and successive eldest sons' main property, [[maroon_and_rathdowney|Maroon]]\\ |
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