Patrick Durack

Patrick Durack
Durack in 1880
Born March 1834
Scarriff, County Clare, Ireland
Died 20 January 1898(1898-01-20) (aged 63)
Fremantle, Western Australia
Nationality Irish and Australian
Occupation Pastoralist
Spouse(s) Mary Costello
Children Michael Durack
Parent(s) Michael Durack & Bridget Dillon

Patrick Durack (March 1834 – 20 January 1898) was a pastoral pioneer in Western Australia.[1]

His family were struggling tenant farmers from Magherareagh near Scarriff in County Clare, Ireland who moved from Ireland to New South Wales in 1853. Two months after arriving in New South Wales, his father, Michael was accidentally killed. He settled his mother and siblings, and moved to Victoria, he returned 18 months later with ₤1000.[1]

On 31 July 1862 he married Mary Costello, only daughter of Michael Costello, a native of County Tipperary and his wife Mary Tully, a native of County Galway. Patrick and Mary had eight children (two of whom died in infancy), including Michael Durack.

Goulburn provided insufficient outlets for Durack's energy, land hunger and organizing powers. Along with his brother Michael and brother-in-law John Costello, they set out to establish a property in South West Queensland in 1863. Drought conditions almost killed the men, but they continued around the country pegging claims to some 44,000 square kilometres (17,000 sq mi).[1] The men established both Kyabra and Thylungra Station in 1868[2] with 100 cattle. By 1877 the Duracks had a herd of approximately 30,000 head of cattle.[3]

Durack and his brother Michael trekked across the north of the continent from Thylungra on Coopers Creek in Queensland which they left from in 1879 along with 7250 breeding cattle and 200 horses to the Kimberley region of Western Australia near Kununurra where they arrived in 1882. The 4,800-kilometre (3,000 mi) journey of cattle to stock Argyle Downs and Ivanhoe Station is the longest of its type ever recorded.[4]

In 1885, he retired to Brisbane. Later that year he purchased gold-crushing machinery from Sydney and began mining on the Kimberley goldfields. In 1889 he learned that financial disaster had overtaken his Queensland interests. He died in Fremantle on 20 January 1898.[1]

Kings in Grass Castles is a 1959 novel based on his life and times by his granddaughter Dame Mary Durack. It was the basis of a TV mini-series.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Durack, Mary (1972). "Durack, Patrick (1834 - 1898)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 22 March 2008.
  2. ↑ "Clyde finally shifts Thylungra for $10.5m". Stock and Land. Fairfax Media. 9 August 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Rees D. Barrett (2009). Significant People in Australia's History. Macmillan Education. p. 26. ISBN 9781420266191.
  4. ↑ "SMH Travel - Lake Argyle Village". The Sydney Morning Herald. 17 February 2004. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  5. ↑ Kings in Grass Castles on IMDb
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