George Elphinstone Dalrymple
Explorer, public servant and politician George Elphinstone Dalrymple (1826 – 1876) founded settlements at Bowen and Cardwell and played a significant role in the early settlement of the Herbert, Burdekin, Johnstone and Daintree River districts of colonial Queensland.
Dalrymple began his colonial career as a coffee planter in Ceylon's Central Province in the mid-1840s, then moved to Australia in 1857.
After managing pastoral properties on the Darling Downs in partnership with Arthur Hodgson, Dalrymple led reconnaissance expeditions to what became the Kennedy pastoral district in 1859 and.1860, then became the district's commissioner for Crown Lands (1861-3) and parliamentary representative (1865-7).
He also served as Queensland's Colonial Secretary in July and August 1866, the assistant goldfields commissioner at Gilberton (1871-3) and the police magistrate at Somerset (1874-5).
Illness and injuries sustained on expeditions to Cardwell's hinterland (1864) and Queensland's north-east coast eventually forced him to return to England shortly before a relatively early death.
Sources:
- C. G. Austin and Clem Lack, Dalrymple, George Augustus (1826–1876), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1972
- Jean Farnfield, George Elphinstone Dalrymple: Problems of Early Queensland, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland, volume 8 issue 4, 1969: pp. 697-705
- Rachel Sanderson, William Hann and George Elphinstone Dalrymple: Visions of Progress in the North Queensland Rainforest,
- Wikipedia
Links to add:
Arthur Hodgson
Burdekin district
Cardwell
Daintree River district
Darling Downs
Gilberton
Herbert River district
Johnstone River district
Kennedy pastoral district
Somerset
