Thomas Petrie (31 January 1831 – 26 August 1910) was an Australian explorer, a YN to the districts, gold prospector, logger, and grazier. He was a

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 ...

pioneer.

Early life

Petrie was born at

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, fourth son of

Andrew Petrie Andrew Petrie (June 1798 – 20 February 1872) was a Scottish-Australian pioneer, architect and builder in Brisbane, Queensland. Early life Andrew Petrie was born in June 1798 in Fife, Scotland, to parents Walter Petrie and Margaret (''née'' ...

and brother of

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

. His family travelled to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, arriving in October 1831 and his father entered the government service as a supervisor of building. They moved to the

Moreton Bay penal colony The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement operated from 1825 to 1842. It became the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. History The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement was established on the Redcliffe Peninsula on Moreton Bay in September 1824, under th ...

(subsequently

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

) in 1837, where Thomas was educated by a convict clerk and allowed to mix freely with Aboriginal children. He learnt to speak the

local language Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

Turrbal The Turrbal are an Aboriginal Australian people from the area now known as Brisbane. The boundaries of their traditional territory are unclear and linguists are divided over whether they spoke a separate language or a dialect of the Yuggera la ...

and was encouraged to share in all Aboriginal activities. He was witness to convicts labouring in chains on the government farms along the river and saw numerous floggings of convicts on Queen Street. Petrie was also in the crowd that watched the first hangings at the settlement in 1841, that of the Aboriginal men Nungavil and Mullan at The Old Windmill. At 14 he participated in a walkabout to a feast in the

Bunya Mountains The Bunya Mountains are a distinctive set of peaks forming an isolated section of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland. The mountain range forms the northern edge of the Darling Downs in the locality also called Bunya Mountains, Quee ...

, chaperoned by Dalaipi. He was accepted by the Aboriginal people and was often used as a messenger and invited on exploration expeditions. He also learned about

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

bushcraft Bushcraft is the use and practice of skills to survive and thrive in a natural environment. Bushcraft skills include foraging, hunting, fishing, firecraft, and tying knots. Woodcraft is a subset of bushcraft that focuses on survival skills for ...

and the local geography while travelling with his father.

Career

In 1851 Petrie prospected for gold in the Turon region of

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 ...

and spent the next five years on

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

goldfields also known as 'finding only enough gold to make a ring!' since it was their motto. He returned to Brisbane a number of times and saw the botched public hanging of Dalla man

Dundalli Dundalli (c. 1820 – 5 January 1855) was an Aboriginal lawman who figured prominently in accounts of conflict between British settlers and indigenous aboriginal peoples in the area of Brisbane in South East Queensland. Traditionally described a ...

on 5th January 1855 "where now the Post Office stands". Petrie married Elizabeth Campbell in 1859 and shortly after the marriage, Petrie sought the advice of a local Aboriginal elder named Dalaipi for a good place to start a cattle station. Dalaipi's son, Dal-ngang showed him their ancestral land at Mandin ( North Pine River) and offered it to Petrie. Dal-ngang expressed indignation when told this land had already been acquired by the Griffens as part of the Whiteside station. Petrie, after consulting with Mrs Griffen bought a ten square mile (26 km²) section of the property in the Pine Creek district and named it '' Murrumba'', an Aboriginal word meaning "good place" (possibly Turrbal or Yugarabul based on location). Aboriginal people helped him to clear his land and build his farm buildings. On 26 June 1861, Thomas Petrie appeared at the proceedings of the Select Committee on the

Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...

Force to give evidence. Petrie's views on Aboriginal people had hardened by this stage as he was supportive of both the composition and continuation of the force, even though he admitted that many Aboriginal people around his residence had been shot by the detachment under Frederick Wheeler based at Sandgate. He also said that Aboriginal people were definitely cannibals and that they should be forbidden to go into Brisbane unless they had "a pass or accompanied by their masters". He claimed that he paid Aboriginal people that worked for him in clothing only, as they would otherwise spend money on alcohol and that it was commonplace for Aboriginal people to be paid for their labour with rum. Petrie continued to look for new timber and places suitable for European settlement. In 1862, he headed to the

Maroochy River The Maroochy River is a river in South East Queensland, Australia. The river rises from the eastern slopes of the Blackall Range and flows east through Eumundi before entering the sea at Cotton Tree, Maroochydore. Other populated centres in t ...

area with a group of 25 Aboriginal people that included Ker-Walli, Wanangga and Billy Dingy. On this journey, he became the first white man to climb Buderim Mountain and also ventured up the tributaries of the Maroochy River looking to exploit the large cedar growing there. At Petrie's Creek, he established a logging camp which was run by Aboriginal labour. At this camp, the Aboriginal workers requested that Petrie brand them with his logging symbol. This was done by using a piece of glass and then rubbing charcoal into the wound. He later surveyed a route from

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

to Eight Mile Plains. He also arranged for some Aboriginal people to welcome the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

in 1868. In 1877 the

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

ministry established Queensland's first Aboriginal reserve on

Bribie Island Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of three major sand islands forming the coastline sheltering the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The others are Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Bribie Island is ...

with Petrie as its chief adviser and overseer, but the reserve was closed in 1878 by colonial secretary

Palmer Palmer may refer to: People and fictional characters * Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land * Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Palmer (surname), including a list of people and f ...

Later life

Petrie died at Murrumba on 26 August 1910. He was buried in Lawnton Cemetery. He was survived by his wife (who died aged 90 on 30 September 1926) and by two sons and five daughters of their nine children. Though Murrumba had been reduced to 3000 acres (12 km²) the family kept the property until 1952. In 1910 the name of the North Pine district was changed to Petrie in his honour.

Legacy

In 1904 ''Tom Petrie's Reminiscences of Early Queensland'' was published, written by his daughter, Jenny James Petrie. The book is regarded as one of the best authorities on Brisbane's early days. In 1910 the name of the North Pine district was changed to Petrie in his honour. On Saturday 15 July 1911, a freestone monument to Thomas Petrie was unveiled by Sir

William MacGregor Sir William MacGregor, (20 October 1846 – 3 July 1919)R. B. Joyce,', ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pp 158–160. Retrieved 29 September 2009 was a Scottish colonial administrator who was ...

, the

Queensland Governor The governor of Queensland is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in the state of Queensland. In an analogous way to the governor-general at the national level, the governor performs constitutional and ceremonial func ...

. It is outside the North Pine School of Arts in Petrie Place Park, 1014-1030

Anzac Avenue Anzac Avenue is a heritage-listed major arterial road lined with trees in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. It runs from Petrie to Redcliffe, with most of the route signed as state route 71. The route was formerly the main r ...

, Petrie (). On 19 June 2009, a new suburb in the area was named Murrumba Downs after Tom Petrie's property.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petrie, Thomas 1831 births 1910 deaths Explorers of Australia Explorers of Queensland Linguists of Australian Aboriginal languages