Robert Martin Collins (17 December 1843 – 18 August 1913) was an Australian

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, grazier, member of both the

Queensland Legislative Council The Queensland Legislative Council was the upper house of the parliament in the Australian state of Queensland. It was a fully nominated body which first took office on 1 May 1860. It was abolished by the Constitution Amendment Act 1921, which to ...

and 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 ...

Early life

Collins was born in December 1843 at

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, to John Collins and his wife Anne (née Martin).Collins, Robert Martin (1843–1913)
– ''

Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...

''. Retrieved 30 March 2015. A year after he was born, his family moved to the Logan district of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

to take shares in ''Mundoolun'', a property that a friend of his father had taken up. Collins was educated at St John's School in Brisbane and later boarded at Calder House School, Sydney. In 1863, Collins joined his father and brother, William to form ''John Collins & Sons'' and for the next ten years he divided his time between Mundoolun and ''Westgrove'', another property his father had purchased in 1863. In 1873, and hearing accounts of the country out west, he set out to inspect it for himself, the trip taking three months and taking him as far as

Diamantina Diamantina may refer to: Geography Australia * Diamantina Bowen (1833-1893), ''grande dame'' of Queensland and the wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland. * ''Diamantina Cocktail'', 1976 album by Little River Band * Diam ...

. This was but the first of many expeditions he made out west, making him known as an authority on Western Queensland. In 1877, his family, along with

Thomas McIlwraith Sir Thomas McIlwraith (17 May 1835 – 17 July 1900) was for many years the dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland. He was Premier of Queensland from 1879 to 1883, again in 1888, and for a third time in 1893. In common with most po ...

, William Forrest, and Englishman, Sir William Ingram joined to form the

North Australian Pastoral Company The North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO) is a large, privately owned, Australian cattle company which operates 13 cattle stations (as well as the Wainui farm and feedlot) covering over 60,000 km2, managing about 200,000 cattle, in Que ...

. The company owned large tracts of land in both Queensland and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

as well as Alexandria Station in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

and Collins and his brother made regular trips to inspect and purchase land.

Political career

Collins turned to politics and in

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wil ...

, standing as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

in the seat of

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

, he defeated the sitting member, Thomas Plunkett Sr. by a narrow margin. He served the electorate for three years before Plunkett regained the seat at the 1899 election. In June 1913, Premier

Digby Denham Digby Frank Denham (25 January 1859 – 10 May 1944) was a politician and businessman in Queensland, Australia. He was a Premier of Queensland and Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly. He was the first of only two Queensland Premiers t ...

appointed Collins to the Legislative Council but he served only two months before his death in August of that year. While in America, Collins heard stories of

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

and for many years kept closely with that park's progress. From the 1880s onwards, he fought for the preservation of the

McPherson Range The McPherson Range is an extensive mountain range, a spur of the Great Dividing Range, heading in an easterly direction from near Wallangarra to the Pacific Ocean coastline. It forms part of the Scenic Rim on the border between the states of Ne ...

, and was a founder of the Queensland system of

National Parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

, convincing the state government to bring in to legislation laws to protect them.

Personal life

In 1879, Collins married Arabella Clotilda Smyth in Ireland and together had seven children. His sister, Anna Bertha Collins, was the wife of Sir Simon Fraser and the grandmother of Prime Minister

Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Fraser was raised on hi ...

. As well as his pastoral interests, Collins was a director of the

Bank of North Queensland The Bank of North Queensland was formed in 1887 in Townsville with branches in Sydney and London. In 1893 there were branches in: Ayr, Cairns, Charters Towers, Cooktown, Herberton, Normanton, Rockhampton and Thursday Island and agencies at ...

and the Queensland Meat Export Co. and in 1896 was president of the Queensland Royal Geographical Society. Collins died at Tamrookum and was buried in the Tamrookum Anglican Cemetery.Tamrookum AllSaints Memorial Inscriptions
— Chapel Hill. Retrieved 30 March 2015. A sign of his importance and the respect he held with the public was that a special train was engaged to take the hundreds of mourners from Brisbane to his funeral, returning home late that evening.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Robert Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Members of the Queensland Legislative Council 1843 births 1913 deaths