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| gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2024/01/11 18:28] – [Creallagh 1859-68] judith | gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2024/02/06 20:54] (current) – judith |
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| 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 ==== | |
| | ==== 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))\\ | 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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