People: Henry Coxen - A Remarkable Lad

The following story on the life of Henry William Coxen illustrates how the lives of people are unwittingly and inexplicably bound up together. It shows how the actions of each person affects all those associated with them and why it is important to know as much as possible about all those connected with each event or situation in order to be able to find out what really happened. This account is also significant in that it includes the story of the beginnings of Jondaryan station.

Henry William Coxen was born on 3 March 1823, at Croydon, Surrey, England. He was the eldest son of Henry Holman Coxen, a Lieutenant in the 14 Regiment Infantry. He was educated at Eaton College. In May 1838, at the age of 15 years, he left England in the company of his aunt Elizabeth and uncle John Gould, the famous ornithologist, bound for Australia. They landed at Hobart Tasmania, where they were the guests of Sir John Franklin, the Governor of Tasmania.

In December of 1838, the Goulds and young Henry Coxen moved to the mainland and Henry went to stay with his uncle Stephen Coxen on Yarandai, a station on the upper Hunter River, owned by his uncle. Early in 1839, Henry Coxen was sent by his uncle to the Manilla River station, another of his stations on the Liverpool Plains, where he was to obtain Colonial Experience. From there, he moved to another of his uncle Stephen's properties in the same region, the Peel River station, which was being managed by Stephen Coxen's younger brother Charles.

Henry William Coxen seemed to live a charmed life, for on a number of occasions he was to narrowly escape death. The first of these incidents occurred while he was on the Peel River station. Here he was saved from drowning by one of the station's employees, while trying to ford the flooded Peel River. From the Peel River, Henry moved to another of Stephen Coxen's stations, Gundamin, a cattle station on the Namoi River.

Young Henry William Coxen seemed to have more than his fair share of that independent and adventurous spirit that characterised so many of our early settlers. He also had a quick intellect, as was shown in his ability to quickly understand and advance in the knowledge of stock management. His ability was greatly respected by his uncle Charles, who gave him responsibilities that he would have hesitated to give to most men twice his age.

Following Cunningham's discovery of the Darling Downs and his glowing report on its potential as grazing country, word quickly spread throughout the colony and many would-be settlers made plans to claim a piece of this rich grazing country for themselves. Amongst these was a group of graziers on the Namoi River, Charles Coxen, Richard Scougall and Lieutenant Irving. Early in 1840, these men dispatched Henry Dennis, an employee of Scougall, on a journey to the Darling Downs to select land for each of them.

More than a year later, no word had been heard from Dennis and the worst was feared for his fate. The continuing rush of men towards the Downs made Charles Coxen very anxious that he would miss out on obtaining a run for himself there. With the backing of his brother Stephen, Charles Coxen assembled an expedition with men, stock, equipment and supplies to set up a grazing run. His young nephew Henry Coxen was put in charge of the expedition and it was dispatched post-haste for the Downs.

Henry William Coxen was still only a lad of 18 years of age and very young to be given such a responsibility. Such was his knowledge of stock management and his command of the situation, that he was greatly respected by all those under him. Henry Coxen had six men under him, including three convicted men and an Aborigine. They were in charge of 300 head of cattle and two bullock drays loaded with supplies.

At the last moment, Lieutenant Irving decided to accompany the expedition. They set off in July 1841 and all went well until just after crossing the Seven River, when one of the drays broke an axle. This was a disastrous situation. The metal axle was unable to be mended there. They were far from any help and were surrounded by hostile Aborigines.

It was decided that Lieutenant Irving would take the rest of the expedition on to the Darling Downs, where he would try to get the axle mended. Henry Coxen stayed with the dray to guard the supplies, keeping James Chatman, one of the convicted men with him.

While the two men waited for Irving's return with the axle, Henry Coxen contracted a severe illness. James Chatman did what he could for him, but his life was only saved by the fortuitous arrival of the Russell brothers on their way through to the Downs. They had medicine that they were able to give to Henry Coxen. Later Brooks and Glover passed that way and further administered medicine to aid his recovery.

More than a month passed while they waited for Irving's return. On a number of occasions, Aborigines trying to take the contents of the dray attacked them and were only scared off by the two men firing over the heads of their attackers. Henry Coxen wished to avoid harming any of the Aborigines.

On his arrival on the Darling Downs, Lieutenant Irving found that Arthur Hodgson had a blacksmith with him on Eaton Vale, his selected run. He was able to get the axle mended and returned to the two men anxiously waiting with the broken-down dray. Getting under way again with the mended dray, they made quick progress and passed those who had helped Henry Coxen, camped on the banks of the Condamine.

Arriving at Gowrie station, Hughes and Isaac's run, they found the rest of the expedition waiting for them there. Gowrie was at that time the most western run on the Downs. Isaac showed Coxen and Irving the western boundary of Gowrie. Henry Coxen and Lieutenant Irving then proceeded to claim land.

Between them, they laid claim to all of a large stretch of open fertile plains, bounded by Oakey Creek in the east, the Condamine River to the south, Myall Creek to the west and the Bunya Mountains to the north.

Henry Coxen taking the southern larger portion of the area in the name of his uncle Charles, calling it "Gundarnian" a word from the Jarowair dialect meaning "Fire Cloud", or "Place of the Fire Cloud".

Irving took the northern portion of the land, calling his run "Irvingdale". By strange coincidence, the area of land taken up by these two men was the same run that Henry Dennis had chosen for himself more than a year before.

Under the guidance of their convict carpenter James Chatman, they set to work to build huts for the men live in and yards to hold the stock. Lieutenant Irving arranged with Henry Coxen to help him set up Gundarnian and in return, he would be given assistance to construct a hut and yards on Irvingdale.

Not long after work had started on constructing the huts, they were greatly surprised to see Henry Dennis and his Aboriginal companion come riding into their camp. Henry Dennis was equally surprised to find them there, as he was engaged in surveying the boundaries of the run he had chosen for himself and was quite unaware of all the developments that had taken place on the Downs in the time he had been away.

Dennis accepted the loss of his chosen run and informed them of the runs he had selected farther to the west, before continuing on his way back to the Namoi.

In February 1842 Christopher Rolleston, Governor Gipp's land commissioner, arrived on the Darling Downs. All the men squatting on land there were able to register their runs. Henry Coxen registered Gundarnian in his uncle Charles Coxen's name, thus making him the first official owner of the run that was to become known as Jondaryan.

Henry Coxen quickly came to the realisation that the Darling Downs was ideally suited for running sheep and began to make plans to obtain stock for the station. In May 1843, he sent James Chatman to the Namoi to report to Charles Coxen and ask him to obtain sheep for the new station. Although James Chatman was still officially a convict, Henry Coxen had no hesitation in making him his head man, for he was well educated, intelligent, resourceful and very trustworthy.

The main part of Jondaryan lay within the tribal territory of the Jarowair, a small and peaceable Aborigine tribe, but the southern part of the station lay within the territory of the Giabal, a large and warlike tribe who had unfortunate dealings with some of white settlers, making them hostile towards the white intruders on their territory.

Henry Coxen fervently believed in treating the Aborigines fairly and with kindness. He allowed them full freedom to come and go as they pleased, supplying them with all that was in his power to give them. Despite his enlightened attitude towards the Aborigines, the consequences of actions of other white settlers caused a violent reaction by the Giabal that caught up the innocent.

In June 1843, tragedy struck those on Jondaryan, when two of their number William Hughes and Richard Cooper, were brutally hacked to death with their own reaping hooks by Aborigines, while cutting grass a couple of miles to the south of the station complex. William Hughes brother Henry, greatly traumatised by his brother's tragic death, left the station and the Downs. With James Chatman being away, Henry Coxen was left with one ticket-of-leave man and an Aborigine to help him.

Charles Coxen sent Chatman to his brother Stephen, with a request for his help in obtaining the sheep needed. Stephen Coxen then sent Chatman on to Camden to obtain rams from John Macarthur. While staying with the Macarthurs, James Chatman formed an attachment to and had an affair with Keturah Small, a girl working for the Macarthurs.

Henry Coxen was in desperate need for more men to assist him on Jondaryan. He managed to get a message to his uncle Charles on the Namoi, informing him about what had happened and making an urgent request for more men. In due course four men arrived to assist on the station.

The long slow journey with the sheep for Jondaryan, took more than four months for Chatman and his helping hand, arriving back at the station early in February 1844. News had arrived ahead of him that Keturah Small was expecting a child. Arrangements were made for Chatman's immediate return to Camden to marry Keturah and bring her back to Jondaryan.

Henry Coxen decided that with the imminent arrival of the first woman on Jondaryan and with a child to be born there, it was time for a permanent and substantial homestead to be built on the station. With this in mind, he set men to work cutting ironbark slabs and shingles in readiness for work to start on the building's construction as soon as James Chatman returned.

James and Keturah Chatman arrived back at Jondaryan in May 1844 and an immediate start was made on constructing the homestead. The building was completed early in July and James and Keturah Chatman moved into it with Henry Coxen. On 27 August 1844, the birth of the first baby on Jondaryan occurred when James Chatman junior arrived.

In September 1844, Henry Coxen entertained a very important guest in the new homestead. He was the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt, who was setting out on his remarkable journey through to Port Essington. Henry Coxen made an important contribution towards the expedition, with a gift of pack bullocks, for which Leichhardt was very grateful. John Gilbert, who was collecting bird specimens for John Gould, accompanied Leichhardt on the expedition.

The homestead had been built on an ironstone knob on the banks of Oakey Creek. During the fierce electrical storms that occurred in the following spring, the ironstone knob attracted so much lightening that Henry Coxen decided that it was unsafe to continue living there and the homestead would have to be moved.

The building was painstakingly dismantled and moved to another site two miles upstream, the site of the present homestead. The degree of skill applied and care taken in its construction is evidenced in the fact that the building was to stand in constant use as the station homestead for 93 years, only being destroyed by fire in 1937.

In October 1844, Henry Coxen's uncle Charles Coxen came to Jondaryan. Things were beginning to turn sour for Charles Coxen. He had no inheritance to invest in the station and was heavily in debt. The rural recession that had hit the Downs hard at that time was making things very difficult for him and his debtors were calling for a large reduction in his debt to them.

Late in December 1844, another tragedy of major proportions struck on Jondaryan, when Aborigines killed two more men on the station, one of these men was James Chatman.

The banks were putting increasing pressure on Charles Coxen and in January 1845, he was forced to sell Jondaryan. James Andrew and the banker businessman Robert Campbell purchased the station along with all its stock equipment and infrastructure for 650 pounds, an amount well under the value of the property.

After Jondaryan was sold, Henry Coxen went for a trip to England and South Africa, where he checked out sheep farming possibilities, but decided that there was no comparison with Australia. On his return to Australia, he toured the southern colonies before coming back to Cooksland, where he took up Binbane station. After developing that station, he sold it.

He then took up Alderton, Murilla and Combabula stations, and purchased Bendemere. Henry Coxen proved to be a much better business man and manager than either of his uncles, both of whom went broke in their business dealings.

Henry Coxen retained wanderlust and an adventurous streak in him and delighted in exploring unknown regions.

In 1856, on one of his journeys into the north-west of Cooksland he came across Paddy O'Malley living with the Aborigines on what had been Mt Abundance station before it was abandoned, when the Aborigines there killed the shepherds and drove off all the cattle.

Paddy had been told that he could take the cattle if he could get them, which he had succeeded in doing. An almost total lack of fear of the Aborigines and a touch of the blarney enabled him to overcome the Aborigine's prejudice of the white man, to the extent that these dusky warriors helped him to secure the vagrant stock.

Henry Coxen imported the first short wool sheep from England for meat purposes. He made a considerable amount of money supplying sheep to the southern goldfields for meat.

In 1864, he sold up all his property in Queensland and went back to England to live, setting up his residence at Englefield Green near Winsor.

The wanderlust again seized him and he travelled all over the United Kingdom, but this failed to satisfy him. His love for Australia once again brought him back to Queensland, where in 1880, he finally settled down to a quiet retirement with his family at "The Ford" at Oxley, Brisbane.

There he spent the rest of a busy and eventful life, honoured and loved by his family and many friends, dying at his home on 25 August 1915, at the ripe old age of 92 years. He steadfastly expressed the opinion that Queensland offered the best field for enterprising energy and the investment of capital of all the countries he knew.