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Thomas Chirnside (1815 – 1887) was an Australian pastoralist who settled on much of what would become western 
1874 portrait of Thomas Chirnside by Alexander S. Mackay in the collection of the State Library of Victoria.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chirnside, Thomas 1815 births 1887 deaths Australian farmers Suicides by firearm in Victoria (Australia)
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
.
Thomas Chirnside was born in Berwickshire
Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of th ...
, Scotland, the elder son of Robert Chirnside and Mary Fairs. His father was also a farmer.
In 1839 Chirnside came from Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
on the ship . He arrived in Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
in January, and Sydney in March of that year. The drought of 1839 adversely affected the sheep he had bought near the Murrumbidgee River
The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...
, so he joined his younger brother Andrew in Melbourne.
In April 1842 the brothers established a station in the Grampians
The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. T ...
, and that same year Thomas acquired a station on the Wannon River
The Wannon River, a perennial river of the Glenelg Hopkins catchment, is located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia.
Name
The name of the river "is believed to have been obtained by Major Mitchell from the local Jardwadjali peopl ...
, where he was one of the first to employ Aboriginal People
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
. In the mid-1840s the brothers acquired series of properties in the Western District of Victoria.
The elder Chirnside settled in Werribee, Victoria
Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Werribee recorded a population of 50,027 at the 2021 census.
Werribee i ...
, just before the gold rushes
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...
, eventually buying 80,000 acres (320 km²) of land. He built a substantial bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:
* basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand
* dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge)
* felds ...
house surrounded by a ha ha wall, and later, in the 1870s, the sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
Werribee Park Mansion
Werribee Park is the estate of a historical building in Werribee, Victoria, Australia.
It includes Werribee Park Mansion, the Victoria State Rose Garden, formal gardens, the Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre, the Werribee Open Range Zoo, ...
.
On 2 September 1853 he purchased through a government grant Section 14, Parish of Cut Paw Paw, County of Burke. This allotment was , which is now the Melbourne suburb of Kingsville.
Thomas Chirnside was a member of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria
The Philosophical Institute of Victoria was a scientific institute functioned in Victoria, Australia during 19th century. It was founded in 1854 through the amalgamation of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science and the Philosophica ...
from 1857 to 1859 and the Royal Society of Victoria
The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in the state of Victoria in Australia.
Foundation
In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being ''The Philosophical Society of Victoria'' (fou ...
from 1860 to 1866. He was a strict Sabbatarian
Sabbatarianism advocates the observation of the Sabbath in Christianity, in keeping with the Ten Commandments.
The observance of Sunday as a day of worship and rest is a form of first-day Sabbatarianism, a view which was historically heralded ...
, allowing no work on his properties on Sundays. He donated an acre (0.4 ha) of land and £100 for the first Presbyterian Church
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
in Werribee, and in February 1884, he laid the foundation stone of the second one. He and Andrew gave £1000 to Ormond College
Ormond College is the largest of the residential colleges of the University of Melbourne located in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is home to around 350 undergraduates, 90 graduates and 35 professorial and academic residents.
Hi ...
, at the University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
.
Suffering from depression, Thomas Chirnside committed suicide with a shotgun in 1887. His body was found in the laundry of Werribee Mansion. Andrew Chirnside inherited the property, but died three years later.
A primary school in Werribee has been named in his honour.
References
Further reading
Wool Past the Winning Post by Heather B Ronald A History of the Chirnside Family published by Landvale Enterprises 1978External links
1874 portrait of Thomas Chirnside by Alexander S. Mackay in the collection of the State Library of Victoria.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chirnside, Thomas 1815 births 1887 deaths Australian farmers Suicides by firearm in Victoria (Australia)