George Julius Brockman (2 January 1850 – 29 August 1912) was a prominent explorer and pastoralist in the

Gascoyne The Gascoyne region is one of the nine administrative regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gasc ...

and Kimberley regions of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Born in 1850 at

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, George was the seventh son of Robert Brockman and brother of

Charles Samuel Brockman Charles Samuel Brockman (1845 – 28 November 1923) was a prominent explorer and pastoralist in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Born in 1845 at Guildford, Western Australia, Charles' parents, Robert James Brockman and Elizabeth Elliot ...

. Brockman's father was a settler in the Lake Bamban district near Gingin. The family moved to Mimigarra, near

Moore River Moore River is a river in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. Geography The headwaters of the Moore River lie in the Perenjori, Carnamah and Dalwallinu Shires. The river then drains southwards through Moora, flows westerly before j ...

while Brockman was still a boy then later to a property on the

Greenough River The Greenough River is a river in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Course Greenough River has its headwaters near Woojalong Hills on the Yilgarn Plateau. It runs in a south-westerly direction through deep valleys for approximately ...

. Brockman left home at 16 years of age and rode south to Busselton and eventually took a job on Henty station near Bunbury. The

May River The May River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river is formed when the Lennard River splits into two channels north of Mount Marmion and near the Kimberley Downs Station homestead, the other channel being the Me ...

and

Meda River The Meda River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river is formed when the Lennard River splits into two channels just north of Mount Marmion, the other channel being the May River. Continuing to flow westward the ...

were named in 1881 by Brockman during an expedition in the Kimberley area looking for grazing land north of the Fitzroy River. He named the Meda is named after ''HMS Meda'', an Admiralty surveying vessel that charted the coastline in the area including the river mouth in 1880. after the granddaughter of

John Septimus Roe John Septimus Roe (8 May 1797 – 28 May 1878) was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, a member of Western Australia's legislative and executive councils for nearly 40 years, but also a participant in t ...

, Mary Matilda (May) Thomson. Brockman applied for a leasehold along the Meda which the government refused instead offering a lease for for 12 years rent free. He stocked the property with 1,100 ewes which suffered through

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

followed by floods. Brockman acquired the

Minilya Station Minilya Station, most often referred to as Minilya, is a pastoral lease currently operating as a cattle station that once operated as a sheep station in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The property is situated approximately south of ...

in 1884 for £15,000, from his brother. The property was struck by drought in 1890, then a lean season in 1891. By 1893 good rains meant good feed and plentiful water with Brockman selling plenty of stock. Drought came again in 1895 and 1896 reducing his flock of sheet from 12,500 and his cattle from 3,000 to 10. and remained there until 1902, then selling the property to Mr. D. N. McLeod. He then travelled and bought a property in

. Brockman died on 29 August 1912 in

Geraldton Geraldton ( Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West region of the Australian state of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. At June 2018, Geraldton had an urban population of 37,648. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brockman, George 1850 births Australian pastoralists 1912 deaths 19th-century Australian businesspeople