Summary

Francis Edward Cobbold (1853-1935) was an Australian pioneer pastoralist and nostalgic benefactor. As a Fijian trader he escaped the cannibals 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 in 1890 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 Grampions 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.

Dr R A Douglas was Cobbold's "honorary" nephew through Cobbold's marriage to Beatrice Child. Beatrice was brought up with the Ball family at "Rosebank" in Townsville. Annie Alice May (Alice) Ball married Robert Johnstone Douglas, son of former Queensland Premier, John Douglas. Alice and Robert had five children, including Dr Robert Douglas who, during his time as a medical student, remembered Cobbold "as a kind, unassuming, well informed man." This transcript may date to 1978 as Douglas writes that is when he received the [unfinished?] version.

This may be a different version of the two volume typescript draft that was written (but never published at that time) by Arthur W Upfield, "Francis Edward Cobbold: sailor, Fijian trader and Australian pioneer pastoralist" (1935). Upfield's work has since been edited by Sandra Berry and published as The Gifts of Frank Cobbold (2008).