beards

Sir James Robert Dickson, KCMG (1832 – 1901) was an Australian politician and businessman, the 13th Premier of Queensland and a member of the first federal ministry. Dickson was a leading supporter of the federation in Queensland and was mainly responsible for winning a "yes" vote in the Queensland referendum on the proposed Constitution of Australia in 1900. As a result, Dickson was appointed Minister for Defence in the first federal ministry under Edmund Barton on 1 January 1901. He was intended to stand for election to the first Federal Parliament, but on 10 January he died after being taken ill at the Commonwealth's inaugural ceremonies in Sydney on 1 January. He was the first federal Minister to die in office. Source: monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/government---state...

On Dixon Road in central Buderim is a timber homestead built by the pioneer Joseph Dixon who first selected land in the Mooloolah area in 1869. He was initially in partnership with a friend in a sugar plantation that flooded. He then selected land on Buderim plateau in June 1870 and erected a slab hut, which he occupied with his bride Elizabeth Fielding following their 1873 marriage. In 1875, Dixon and his father-in-law John Fielding established the first sugar mill on the mountain, using equipment purchased from Fountain's Burpengary mill. Between them, Fielding and Dixon owned numerous adjoining properties so the exact date of construction of this house is difficult to confirm. Dating to the early 1880s, it remains one of the oldest surviving sawn timber residences on the plateau. Its exposed-frame construction is typical of the era. Local beech timber has been used in the floors, wall lining and ceilings, with cedar joinery and hardwood framing. As the sugar industry declined from the early 1890s, farmers diversified into banana and orange cultivation and later dairying. Dixon moved to Flaxton, while his Buderim property was transferred to John Burnett. ‘Canambie’ remains a private home and is not publically accessible. Source: apps.des.qld.gov.au/heritage-register/explorer/detail/?id...

Ernest Henry (1 May 1837 – 26 March 1919) was an English explorer and pioneer grazier. He is best known as an explorer of North-West Queensland and was the first settler on a property on the Flinders River which he named Hughenden Station, later the location of the town of Hughenden. He discovered copper in the Cloncurry area and is considered the father of both towns. Henry's life was summarised by S.U. Pearson: "Few men have encompassed more in their lifetime than he, and not many have known greater toil and hardship. In his unassuming way, he probably did more for North Queensland than any other man. The wide untrammeled bush was his home and he reveled in it." In Brisbane, Henry met George Elphinstone Dalrymple who was planning an expedition to explore the Burdekin River. During this journey, Henry's party passed through an area with many Aboriginal people and became fearful of the armed Aboriginal warriors who the party believed were pursuing them, and so the party set a dog upon the Aboriginal people and also shot at them. Henry's participation in Dalrymple's expedition resulted in him securing three pastoral stations: Baroondah (now the locality of Baroondah) on the Dawson River, Mount McConnel at the junction of the Suttor and Burdekin rivers, and Conway (which adjoined Mount McConnel) at the head of Sellheim Creek. By 1861 he and his brother Arthur had stocked them with sheep and cattle driven from southern Queensland properties. But Henry was never satisfied. Henry wanted to view this new country himself and set out from Mount McConnell on 24 November 1863 with a Mr Devlin and his favourite aboriginal boy, Dick. On the Flinders River he took up land which he named Hughenden Station after his mother's childhood home in England, Hughenden Manor. The township of Hughenden was laid out in the same area in 1876. On an exploring trip in the Cloncurry region in 1867, Henry found lumps of a heavy black mineral and took samples to Peak Downs, the nearest settlement inland from Rockhampton, to report and register their find. The mineral proved to be iron ore, a worthless find as the deposit was too distant from the nearest port. Henry again returned to the Cloncurry area with his aboriginal boy, Dick, fossicking for minerals. On 20 May 1867, he found the mother lode of copper that became the Great Australian Mine. In 1876 the township of Cloncurry was laid out by Surveyor William H Bishop, the same man who laid out the township of Hughenden. In 1883 Tarsis Copper Smelting Company began work on the Great Australian mine. A furnace, rail tracks, rail trucks, and other mining equipment were dragged from Normanton. But the mine soon closed and the furnace on the bank of the Coppermine Creek decayed into a rusty Cloncurry landmark. Henry disposed of his various mining leases over the years, and by 1913 the last of his holdings, Mount Oxide, had been sold for £40,000. He lived alone at the Grange on the outskirts of Cloncurry. His wife, whom he had married in 1870 and by whom he had two children, died in 1888. Henry died at Epping, New South Wales, on 26 March 1919. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Henry_(explorer)