George Palmer Rodd
| First name | George Palmer |
|---|---|
| Last name | Rodd |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | 4/10/1837 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1857 |
| Submitted by | Murray Williamson |
Story
George was a son of an auctioneer and Parish Clerk at Rayleigh, Essex, and the reasons for coming to Australia are unknown.
George Palmer Rodd and his older brother James arrived in Sydney in December 1857 on the “Duncan Dunbar”, sister ship to the “Dunbar” which had been wrecked with great loss of life at Sydney Heads a few months before.
George found employment with Elliot Bros, Chemists, in George St, Sydney. However he soon joined his brother in Braidwood where James had established the Free Trade Stores. George became a partner in the business, and later owned a mill in Braidwood. James became a JP and an MLA for the Southern and then the Northern Goldfields and later a successful auctioneer in Sydney.
Another bother, Ephraim, and his family also came to the Braidwood area after having initially lived in USA (they left on the commencement of the Civil War) and later lived in Adelong and Tarcutta.
A sister, Mary, travelled out to visit them with their recently-widowed mother nee Ann Alabaster, but fell in love with the ship’s Captain, Frederick Denhame Gibson; she married him in Goulburn and they settled in New Zealand.
In 1872 George married Elizabeth Bassingthwaighte, granddaughter of Edward Bassingthwaighte, who with his family arrived in 1837 and took up a land grant at Larbert, near Braidwood. Her father, also Edward, owned a large property “Bonnie Doon” (where she and George were married) near Lake Bathurst, before selling up and moving to the Jandowae area in Queensland.
Elizabeth’s grandfather was William Scott, a convict transported for stealing a sheep. He had worked for the famous Macarthur family and on obtaining his freedom became a successful horse breeder and settled in the Mulloon district near Braidwood. Elizabeth’s grandmother was Elizabeth Owen, who as a child had come out with her mother Ann Owen on a convict ship the “Wanstead” in 1814 after Ann had been originally sentenced to death for stealing a dress.
Both James and George became insolvent in 1872 through investment in gold mining ventures. George became Road Superintendent at Crookwell and Goulburn, before moving to the South Coast. He became an alderman in the first Bega Council in 1884. George died in Bega in 1903.