Kyran Walsh

Story

On the 14th of March 1838, Kyran Walsh was sentenced to Life Imprisonment in the Queen’s County Court, Ireland for House Robbery. He was 26 years of age with no previous convictions. On the 10th of September 1838, he and many other convicts arrived in Sydney aboard the Convict Carrier Clyde. His Standing and Index Numbers on his Transportation Papers were 38-1877 and 191.

After receiving a Conditional Pardon that forbade him to ever leave Australian shores he purchased land between Ipswich and Rosewood in Queensland. These were Lots 29 and 35 at Seven Mile Creek in the County of Stanley. These two blocks totaled 2100 acres and were purchased by him on the 4th of December 1849.

Mary Ann McCabe, the daughter of an Irish farmer John McCabe, became Kyran’s wife on the 22nd of January 1850. She was born in 1827 in County Clare, Ireland and migrated to Australia as a child with her parents. Kyran and Mary had 5 children; Catherine, Mary Ann, Richard, Ellen and Thomas. Together they built up the cattle property, a road building plant and saw milling interests.

Mary predeceased Kyran during a miscarriage on the 30th of November 1864. Kyran died on 14th April 1870 from complications after being speared by Aborigines. After his death, his and Mary’s children moved to other parts of the state.

Some moved to Rockhampton and Mount Morgan and their second daughter Mary Ann and her husband John Frederick Francis, an illegal immigrant, who had previously worked for her father became selectors in the Western Downs region of Warra. This was in 1875 when Mary and her husband were in that district working on the construction of the Western Rail Line. Large holdings were being cut up for selection and Mary’s inheritance provided the funds that enabled them to purchase their own selection.

For well over the next hundred years and to this day, descendants of theirs lived and farmed in the Warra district.

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