Peter Fitzallan MacDonald (4 September 1830 – 19 June 1919) was an Australian politician. He was a

Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly This is a list of members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, the state parliament of Queensland, sorted by parliament. See also * Queensland Legislative Assembly electoral districts This is a list of current and former Electoral dis ...

Early life

MacDonald was born in

Campbelltown, New South Wales Campbelltown is a suburb located on the outskirts of the metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney south-west of the Sydney central business district by road. Campbelltown is the adminis ...

to Alexander Macdonald and his wife Sarah (née Warby). He was educated at

The King's School, Parramatta The King's School is an Education in Australia#Non-government schools, independent Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, Pre-school education, early learning, primary school, primary and secondary school, secondary day and boarding school, bo ...

, and gained farming experience before heading to the

Victorian goldfields The Goldfields region of Victoria is a region commonly used but typically defined in both historical geography and tourism geography (in particular heritage tourism). The region is also known as the Victorian Golden Triangle. Description ...

and later becoming manager of Ingleby station near

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

.MacDonald, Peter Fitzallan (1830–1919)
—

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

. Retrieved 1 March 2015. He arrived in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

in 1857 and soon set out on a series of pastoral explorations with fellow squatters and aboriginal guides with the plan of taking up as many leases as possible. In May 1859 while living at Yaamba, he joined his brother John Graham MacDonald on an exploration tour of the head waters of the Nogoa and Belyando Rivers, where they took up a large area of pastoral country. One such property, Cullinlaringo, which he had sold to Horatio Wills in 1860, was the scene where the

Cullin-La-Ringo massacre The Cullin-la-ringo massacre, also known as the Wills tragedy, was a massacre of white colonists by Indigenous Australians that occurred on 17 October 1861, north of modern-day Springsure, Queensland, Springsure in Central Queensland, Austra ...

occurred in 1861. MacDonald was one of the group who set out to avenge the slaughter.

Politics

MacDonald entered state politics in 1873, winning the seat of Blackall. A supporter of

Samuel Griffith Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and ...

, he supported

secular education Secular education is a system of public education in countries with a secular government or separation of church and state, separation between religion and Sovereign state, state. History Secular educational systems were a modern development inte ...

and liberal land legislation. In 1869, he sued

The Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

for resuming western leaseholds he owned. Known as "The Great Northern Run", the case dragged on until in 1880 he was awarded £22,700. For this he was attacked for using the parliament to further his own interests as opposed to his constituents. In 1876, he announced he was sick of politics and did not stand for re-election in 1878. He stood for the seat of Rockhampton North in 1888 but was defeated by

Rees Jones Rees Jones (born September 16, 1941) is an American golf course architect. Life and career Born and raised in Montclair, New Jersey, the son of legendary golf course designer Robert Trent Jones and the younger brother of golf course designer ...

Later life

MacDonald became more conservative and in 1890–1891, he set out to thwart the Shearer's union by employing non-union labor. As well as his pastoral leases, he purchased hotels throughout Queensland as well as the Northern Argus newspaper and a meat works at Lakes Creek, both based in Rockhampton.

Personal life

In Geelong in 1861 he married Julia Louise Ayrey, the orphaned daughter of a wealthy Western District pastoralist and together they had seven children. MacDonald died in Rockhampton in 1919 and was buried at Yaamba Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, two sons, and two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacDonald, Peter Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1830 births 1919 deaths People educated at The King's School, Parramatta People from Campbelltown, New South Wales Politicians from Sydney