John Gardiner (colonist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Gardiner (5 July 1798 - 16 November 1878) was a nineteenth century Australian banker and pastoralist.
Gardiner was born at Dublin, Ireland. At Colp, County Meath, on 9 September 1822 he married Mary Eagle. In October, accompanied by his wife, her parents and their three sons, he sailed for Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in the Andromeda. He arrived in Hobart in May 1823 and was soon granted 800 acres near Ross, Tasmania.
In 1824 he accepted employment as a clerk with Bank of Van Diemen's Land. His only child, Anna Maria, was born in Hobart in July 1827. During March 1828 he left the bank to become a successful store-keeper in the Macquarie River district. In March 1834 he rented 5250 acres at Lovely Banks and rean sheep.
In 1835 Gardiner, lost his tenancy and sailed for Sydney. He looked for land about Yass but was discouraged by the severe drought. In 1836 he returned to Van Diemen's Land, visited the then year old Port Phillip settlement and thence to Sydney. He bought 300 cattle from Joseph Hawdon, and with him and John Hepburn drove them overland to Gardiners Creek, near Melbourne. Because of this journey, the first with stock, Gardiner is often called an 'Overlander'. Leaving his cattle and men at Gardiner's Creek he returned immediately to Sydney and arranged to send 200 more cattle to Port Phillip.
In 1837 he sailed with his wife and daughter to Port Phillip in the Regia, built a house at Gardiners Creek, bought at Melbourne's first land sale a corner lot at Elizabeth and Little Collins Streets for £22, and established a cattle station of 15,000 acres (6070 ha) at Mooroolbark, where he was joined by his brother David and his cousin William Fletcher. In the same year he became the first president of a new Temperance Society, and his home was used for a meeting which formed a committee to build Melbourne's first Independent Church. In 1839, he presided at the formation and became a director of the Melbourne Fire and Marine Insurance Co. and a local director of the Melbourne branch of the Union Bank. Later he resigned from the Union Bank, was appointed manager of the Port Phillip Bank, sold his Gardiners Creek property and built a home in Bourke Street, Melbourne. In March 1841 he was sent to London where he tried without success to raise fresh capital for the Port Phillip Bank and served on the committee for political separation of the Port Phillip District from New South Wales.
In September 1842 he returned to find Melbourne in financial crisis; he left the bank and returned to England, where he retired to Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. In March 1863 his wife, who had stayed in Melbourne with her daughter, died. Three months later Gardiner married his cousin Sarah Fletcher. He died on 16 November 1878 at Leamington Spa.
[edit] References
- A. S. Kenyon, ‘The Overlanders’, Victorian Historical Magazine, 10 (1924-25)
- Leslie J. Wilmoth, 'Gardiner, John (1798 - 1878)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, MUP, 1966, p. 425.
