William Brownbill

Story

William Brownbill was born at Edgehill, Liverpool, England on January 2nd 1825. His parents were farmers on the outskirts of the city and ensured that he gained a good education. Until 1849 he worked on the farm and part time at an ironworks. Later he became a teacher at the Lower School Collegiate Institution in Liverpool. He was encouraged to come to Australia by a Dr Lang whose lectures promoted Melbourne as offering good opportunities for a teaching career.

Armed with glowing references from the College he sailed for Australia in December 1849 on the Eliza Caroline and arrived in Melbourne in April 1850. His hopes of a teaching career were dashed – no position was available. In a vain attempt to obtain employment as a blacksmith he walked to Benalla but was forced to return to Melbourne. From there he sailed to Port Fairy but again found little work. Moving to the Grampians area, he worked with a contractor on a sheep station replacing huts that had been destroyed by the horrific Black Thursday bushfires of 1850.

Hearing of the discovery of gold at Bunningnong in the Ballarat area, he left hut building and went there to seek his fortune. In September 1851 he discovered gold at a place later known as Brownbill’s Diggings, and was visited by Governor LaTrobe during the latter’s tour of the whole area. William maintained that he was robbed of his claim by a group of Irish bullies who rode roughshod over the average miners. He claimed a reward for finding gold at Brownbill’s diggings but his claim was dismissed. William was one of a small number of literate men who wrote to authorities about the problems leading up to the Eureka Rising in 1854, but at the time of the Stockade battle he was out of the area mining at the nearby town of Creswick.

After moderate success in the Ballarat area he moved to mine at Forrest Creek (Castlemaine) and later became a storekeeper in Bendigo. His success continued in both ventures. Disaster struck, however, during his attempt to set up a store in the Ovens area. He had hired bullock wagons to transport his goods for sale and set up at Greta South, half way between Benalla and Beechworth. While there he was held up by mounted robbers. Later, following a trumped up police sly grogging charge, he was taken to Wangaratta for a Court hearing and was imprisoned. On release he found his tent and stores pillaged.

Returning to mining and blacksmithing, he went to Avoca in 1855. There he married Sarah Broderick, a widow with one surviving child, Anne, who became one of the new Brownbill family. He remained in the Avoca area for several years and most of his and Sarah’s eight children – William Henry, Ellen Victoria, Elizabeth Mary, Fanny Adelaide, James Henry, Thomas Henry, Alfred Henry and Sarah were born there.

In 1864 he selected land at Newbridge, became a farmer, and was granted a Publican’s Licence for the Liverpool Hotel which served also as a store and their living quarters. All these ventures were successful, and in 1875 he extended his land holdings by gaining leasehold property on the Kangderaar Creek, and by selecting land at Simpson’s Creek (now Arnold West). On January 2nd 1874 one of his sons, James Henry, then aged eleven years, plunged into the nearby Loddon river and saved three people from drowning. One of the three, George Bayley, then aged six, was later the discoverer of gold at Coolgardie in Western Australia. In 1879 William sold his Newbridge land and hotel as well as his Kangderaar Creek leasehold and moved to the Simpson’s Creek farm. In the same year he was appointed a Justice of the Peace.

As an educated man actively involved in public affairs he chaired meetings, petitioned authorities on matters such as the need for a school at Sinpson’s Creek, and wrote letters for local citizens. He was bitter about the dismissal of his claim for a reward for the discovery of gold at Brownbill’s Diggings in Ballarat and carried this disappointment to his grave. Although his claim for a reward was dismissed, the discovery was finally given recognition in the 1960s when a cairn with a plaque was erected in a Ballarat park stating that William Brownbill had discovered gold nearby in September 1851.

In his later years William became a dedicated adherent of the Salvation Army. He opened a Sunday School, and, with a bible under his arm, moved from farm to farm in the area to read a chapter and offer up a prayer. He was a forceful public speaker and a keen debater. Although valuing education, he opposed the Government’s 1870s free, compulsory and secular program on the grounds that it neglected God, and would ruin the country.

William Brownbill died on October 6 1911 and was buried in the Tarnagulla cemetery.

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