James Tyson
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James Tyson (April 8, 1819 - December 4, 1898) was an Australian pastoralist.
His mother was a convict, sentenced to transportation for theft. His father, William, and his eldest brother, also William, came with her. Receiving a grant from Governor Lachlan Macquarie in the Narellan area, the Tysons set themselves up as small farmers, later moving with their growing family to East Bargo. As a youth James commenced work for neighbours such as Major Thomas Mitchell, and John Buckland who contracted him to take cattle to the north-eastern border area of the colony of Victoria (Australia). Then, with his brothers, he took up squatting licences in western New South Wales. Eventually they settled on land at the junction of the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers, in the reed-beds which had defeated John Oxley’s exploration in 1837.
The legendary Tyson fortune was founded on success in butchering on the Bendigo goldfields. It was extended by canny buying, knowledge of cattle and of stockroutes, pastoral lending and the judicious selection of enormous leaseholds to provide a chain of supply which stretched from North Queensland to Gippsland and which fed beef to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. He travelled much about Australia, but eventually made his principal home at Felton station on the Darling Downs. His wealth became a legend; it is on record that on one occasion he offered the Queensland government a loan of £500,000 towards the cost of constructing a proposed transcontinental railway, and in 1892 in a time of depression he took up £250,000 of treasury bills to assist the government. In 1893 he became a member of the Queensland legislative council but did not take a prominent part in its proceedings
By the time of Tyson’s death in December 1898 his name had become a byword for reticence, wealth and astute dealing. Banjo Paterson, Breaker Morant and Will Ogilvie all wrote about him. He left no will. His estate, the largest in Australia to that time, realised about £(stg.)2.36 million in the middle the ‘big drought’ which lasted until 1905.
[edit] T.Y.S.O.N.
T.Y.S.O.N.
by A. B. "Banjo" Paterson
Across the Queensland border line
The mobs of cattle go;
They travel down in sun and shine
On dusty stage, and slow.
The drovers, riding slowly on
To let the cattle spread,
Will say: "Here's one old landmark gone,
For old man Tyson's dead."
What tales there'll be in every camp
By men that Tyson knew!
The swagmen, meeting on the tramp,
Will yarn the long day through,
And tell of how he passed as "Brown",
And fooled the local men:
"But not for me -- I struck the town,
And passed the message further down;
That's T.Y.S.O.N.!"
There stands a little country town
Beyond the border line,
Where dusty roads go up and down,
And banks with pubs combine.
A stranger came to cash a cheque --
Few were the words he said --
A handkerchief about his neck,
An old hat on his head.
A long grey stranger, eagle-eyed --
"Know me? Of course you do?"
"It's not my work," the boss replied,
"To know such tramps as you."
"Well, look here, Mister, don't be flash,"
Replied the stranger then,
"I never care to make a splash,
I'm simple, but I've got the cash;
I'm T.Y.S.O.N."
But in that last great drafting-yard,
Where Peter keeps the gate,
And souls of sinners find it barred,
And go to meet their fate,
There's one who ought to enter in
For good deeds done on earth,
One who from Peter's self must win
That meed of sterling worth.
Not to the strait and narrow gate
Reserved for wealthy men,
But to the big gate, opened wide,
The grizzled figure, eagle-eyed,
Will saunter up -- and then
Old Peter'll say: "Let's pass him through;
There's many a thing he used to do,
Good-hearted things that no one knew;
That's T.Y.S.O.N."
The Australasian Pastoralists' Review, 15 December 1898
[edit] References
- Serle, Percival (1949). “Tyson, james”, Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
- Denholm, Z. Tyson, James (1819 - 1898), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University Press, 1976, pp 319-320.
