Graham Mylne (15 October 1834 – 5 April 1876) was an Australian politician and pastoralist in the

Colony of Queensland The Colony of Queensland was a colony of the British Empire from 1859 to 1901, when it became a State in the federal Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. At its greatest extent, the colony included the present-day State of Queensland, ...

. He was a Member of the

Queensland Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

. He was the member for Warrego from 24 June 1867 to 18 September 1868.

Early life

Graham Mylne was born on 15 October 1834 in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, Scotland. He was a Lieutenant in the 95th regiment of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

from 1853 to 1861, seeing action on Deesa, India in 1854, the Crimea 1855, Lucknow 1857, Hunker 1858, Burugain, Sandi and Ruiya 1859.

Australia

Graham arrived in Australia in 1859 to manage the family grazing property Eatonswill, near

Grafton, New South Wales Grafton ( Bundjalung-Yugambeh: Gumbin Gir) is a city in the Northern Rivers region of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is located on the Clarence River, approximately by road north-northeast of the state capital Sydney. The closest m ...

, and in 1860 married Helena White daughter of William and Jane White of Lota in

Manly, Queensland Manly is an eastern bayside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Manly had a population of 4,064 people. Geography Manly is located by road east of the Brisbane GPO. Surrounding suburbs are Wynnum (to the north), Lo ...

. In 1864, he moved to

Roma, Queensland Roma is a rural town and locality in the Maranoa Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Maranoa Region. The town was incorporated in 1867 and is named after Lady Diamantina Bowen (née di Roma), the wife of Sir ...

, in the Maranoa district, where he leased the grazing property Amby Downs in partnership with Sir

Robert Herbert Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, (12 June 1831 – 6 May 1905), was the first Premier of Queensland, Australia. At 28 years and 181 days of age, he was the youngest person ever to be elected premier of an Australian state. Early years Born ...

, the

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

, and Sir John Bramston, the

Attorney-General of Queensland The Attorney-General of Queensland is a ministry of the Government of Queensland with responsibility for the state's legal and justice system. The current Attorney-General of Queensland is Shannon Fentiman Shannon Maree Fentiman is an Aust ...

. He returned to Eatonswill in 1869 with his wife Helena and six children and lived there until his untimely death in 1876, aged 42. Graham was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, Member for Maranoa, and of the Queensland and Australian Clubs, and also a frequent guest of the governor Sir

George Bowen Sir George Ferguson Bowen (; 2 November 1821 – 21 February 1899), was an Irish author and colonial administrator whose appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and Hong Kong.R. B. Joy ...

and his wife Diamantina at

Government House, Brisbane Government House is a heritage-listed mansion at 170 Fernberg Road, Paddington, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the official residence of the governor of Queensland, the representative of the Australian monarch in Queensland. It was ori ...

, they being of similar age and close friends. He died on 5 April 1876 in

Nina Mylne and Sir Ninian Stephen

His daughter and heiress Nina was travelling around Europe, when she employed as a paid companion one Barbara Stephen, who had recently been abandoned by her husband, with a new baby to look after. The baby was christened

Ninian Ninian is a Christian saint, first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland. For this reason he is known as the Apostle to the Southern Picts, and there are numerous dedicatio ...

, after Nina, who paid for his early schooling in Edinburgh, London, Montreux, and Melbourne. Ninian Stephen went on to become a Justice of the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established fol ...

and Australia's longest-lived

governor-general Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

, and was knighted five times. Sir Ninian Stephen was told his father had died, and did not discover until 2003 that he had in fact moved to Canada and started a new family there.Tony Wright, "Sir Ninian's rich life of service and honour", ''The Age'', 9 November 2017
Retrieved 14 November 2017

References

Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly 1834 births 1876 deaths 19th-century Australian politicians Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia {{Australia-politician-stub