Peter Imlay (1797–1881) was a Scottish-born pioneer settler in southern

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. Peter and his brothers

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

(1794-1847) and George (1794?-1846) operated in the region as pastoralists, whalers and shipbuilders.

Life and career

Peter Imlay was baptised on 22 January 1797 at

Aberdeen, Scotland Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeenshire, but is now separate from the council area of Aberdeenshire. Aberd ...

. He came to Australia aboard the sailing ship ''Greenock'', reaching Hobart Town in February 1830. He was an inspector of stock at Launceston by July 1830. He and his brothers took up 3,885 square km of land near Twofold Bay in southern New South Wales. The brothers experienced financial difficulties in the economic depression that began in 1840. These saw them lose most of the land. Imlay was on the chartered Hobart vessel ''Breeze'', sailing from

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, when the vessel was wrecked at

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, in July 1846 with no loss of life. George died at Twofold Bay in 1846, and Alexander in 1847. Imlay married Jane McGuire on 23 February 1853 at St Andrews Presbyterian Church in Sydney. He and his family moved to

in 1851 and settled at Balgownie,

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. He died there on 8 March 1881, survived by his wife and three daughters.

Legacy

Among the things named after the Imlay brothers in the New South Wales area is Imlay Street (the main street in Eden), Imlay Creek, the Mount Imlay National Park and Imlay Shire (absorbed into Bega Valley Shire in 1981). In New Zealand, Imlay Parish, in the County of

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, bears his surname.Parish of Imlay, County of Auckland, map, NLA
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Life and career

Legacy

References

Further reading