Archibald Meston

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Archibald Meston, 1890's

Archibald Meston (26 March 1851 – 11 March 1924) was an Australian politician, civil servant, journalist, naturalist and explorer. He was born in Towie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and migrated with his parents to Sydney in 1859, his family subsequently taking up farming at Ulmarra, New South Wales on the Clarence River.^[1]^[2]

In 1874, after spending many months wandering around Queensland, he married Margaret Frances Prowse Shaw in Sydney, afterwards managing a plantation in Queensland on the Brisbane River. From 1875 to 1881 he was editor of the Ipswich Observer. From 1878 to 1882 he represented Rosewood in the Queensland Legislative Assembly. In 1881 he moved to Far North Queensland where he edited the Townsville Herald for a short time before moving to Cairns and managing a sugarcane plantation on the Barron River until 1889.^[1]

In January 1889 Meston led a government expedition to the Mount Bellenden Ker range and explored its summit. The expedition was considered a success, and this led to further official engagements. In 1894 he was appointed a Special Commissioner of Police and commissioned to prepare plans to improve the conditions of Aboriginals in Queensland; the consequent proposals being embodied in the Aboriginal Protection and Restrictions of the Sale of Opium Act 1897. Meston was made a Justice of the Peace and was, from 1898 to 1903, Protector of Aboriginals for southern Queensland. In 1910 he was appointed director of the Queensland Government Tourist Bureau in Sydney, eventually retiring to Brisbane where he died.^[1]

Meston was survived by his wife and, out of seven children, by four sons and a daughter. He is commemorated in the names of two plants collected by him on Bellenden Ker, Garcinia mestonii and Piper mestonii.^[1]^[2]

[edit] Publications

Apart from numerous writings as a journalist, as well as official reports to government authorities, a book published by Meston was:

1895 - Geographic History of Queensland. Dedicated to the Queensland People. Queensland Government: Brisbane.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Stephens, S.E., (1974), “Meston, Archibald (1851 - 1924)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, pp 243-244.[1]
^ ^a ^b Australian National Herbarium biography: Archibald Meston