Summary

Francis Edward Cobbold (1853-1935) was an Australian pioneer pastoralist and nostalgic benefactor. As a Fijian trader he escaped the local peoples and the Levuka hurricane to arrive in Australia in 1873. He was highly valued as a ranch manager, forged strong business relationships and became a qualified surveyor. He married Bessie Fulford on 13 June 1889 but she died only eight years later on the same day as his father. Cobbold purchased the huge Hughenden sheep station and the further acquisition of Yarram Park at the foot of the Grampians did nothing to reduce the amount of his travelling. Cobbold left part of his estate to The Royal United Kingdom Beneficent Association to provide annuities for needy Suffolk residents. This memoir recounts the dangers, problems and difficulties experienced in a very full life that had covered shipwrecks, cattle ranching, financial gambles and risks, sheep herding and property deals. Cobbold put so much energy and commitment into his life and work in Queensland that when he returned to East Anglia in 1906, nearly forty years after he had left England, he commented that he no longer felt like an Englishman.