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The "Lawn Hill" Diaries - Frank Hann

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The “Lawn Hill” diaries 1875 to 1895 are missing. Hopefully, interest in this site could see the diaries come to light again for the family and public benefit.

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Latest Activity: Feb 7

Background

Well known pastoralist and Western Australian explorer Frank Hann kept good accounts of his activities and explorations in diaries.
What is important about the “Lawn Hill” diaries is that they are missing.
Frank Hann was at “Lawn Hill Station” in Queensland’s Gulf Country for 20 years from 1875 to 1896. When he left “Lawn Hill” in March 1896, the Bank of New South Wales had taken over the running of the property. Undoubtedly his diaries for that period were left at the Station. What became of them since then is a mystery that his descendents would like to solve.
Hopefully, this site may create some interest in events involving Frank Hann during his time at “Lawn Hill” that could, hopefully, see the diaries come to light again for the family and public benefit.
Frank Hann was born on 19 October 1846 and came to Australia in 1851, on board the "John Knox", as a five year old. The family settled in the Westernport district of Victoria and Joseph, purchased the pre-emptive rights to Coolort (now called Coolart). They moved to Queensland in 1861, but Frank his mother, sister and one of his brothers stayed in Victoria until 1863. Frank managed “Lolworth Station”, North West of Charters Towers, from 1865 to 1870 and in 1875, when the cattle industry revived, took up “Lawn Hill Station” in the Gulf country of Queensland in partnership with Rolly Edkins.
During his time at “Lawn Hill”, Hann made extensive journeys droving cattle to the Northern Territory goldfields and Darwin and developed an excellent reputation as a bushman and drover.
He was also involved in a number of exploratory trips with the Queensland State Government to survey a proposed railway line from Blackall to the Gulf and to establish a port at Point Parker, just west of Burketown.
By the 1890’s Hann was suffering from a combination of misfortunes led by falling beef prices and drought as well as losses from ticks and red water fever. He had refused to sell in better times and was eventually overtaken by low prices.
The Bank of New South Wales in Townsville questioned his handling of Lawn Hill Station and set about dictating conditions for his management of the property. Hann decided to leave the property in 1895 to find better fortunes in Western Australia, however more bad luck saw him break his thigh in two places in July when his mare fell on him while mustering. He eventually rode off Lawn Hill in March 1896 penniless and miserable with 67 horses and accompanied by several faithful Aborigines, travelled overland to Halls Creek in Western Australia.
Although Frank Hann at age 50 was virtually broke and homeless he decided to look for new pastoral lands and new mining prospects and spent the next 12 years exploring Western Australia from the Kimberley to the southern goldfields. Many of his explorations started from a place still known as Hann’s Camp to the east of Laverton where Hann lived for about 15 years. He was always accompanied by Talbot, one of the faithful Aborigines from Lawn Hill.
Frank Hann documented his exploration of Western Australia including his departure from “Lawn Hill” in March 1896 and these original diaries are held by the family descendents in Townsville with some copies in the Battye State Library of WA.
Copies of these diaries were also compiled and edited by Mike Donaldson and Ian Elliott in 1998 and are available from Hesperian Press in WA. These diaries cover the period 17th June 1895 to 1908.
Each of his diaries in the Battye Library, Perth, is prefaced by the motto, 'Do not yield to despair'.
An accident put him on crutches in 1918 and he retired to Cottesloe, Perth, where he died unmarried on 22nd August 1921 and was buried as a pauper in his brother’s grave at Karrakatta cemetery in Perth.

There are two earlier diaries written by Frank when he was at “Lolworth Station” near Charters Towers. These are at the James Cook University, Townsville (Ref H/34) Volume 1 is from January 1866 to December 1872 and Volume 2 is from January 1873 to April 1875. It is said that he managed “Lolworth” from 1865 to 1874 so these diaries also cover a few months that he spent at nearby “Maryvale Station” before travelling to the Gulf and taking up “Lawn Hill” in early 1875.
I think that we can safely assume that Frank Hann was a good record keeper and diligently kept diary records of his activities. When he left “Lawn Hill” in 1896 for Western Australia, no doubt he did not wish to carry excess weight and as the Bank of New South Wales had also taken over the property, they may have required that they be left with the station.
We believe that a Mr Thomas Brassy Macintosh represented the bank at the station at the time of his departure and that all of Hann’s dealings were with the bank’s branch in Townsville. Maybe the diaries were eventually sent to the bank in Townsville or alternatively left for later owners of the property.
T B Macintosh managed “Lawn Hill” for around 15 years until it was sold to A J Cotton in 1906.
In the late 1990’s, a “Lawn Hill” manager found some diaries in the roof of the office of the homestead, however we are not aware if any of these was written by Hann. At the time the Century Zinc mine owned the property and the cattle operation was managed by the Lawn Hill Riversleigh Pastoral Holding Company, a partnership between the mine and the local Waanyi aboriginal people, who still manage it today. The diaries found by the manager were passed on to the pastoral company for safe keeping.
The homestead at the time was not the original one that Hann had lived in but rather one built possibly in the 1930’s so they were not put in the office roof by Hann.
It is now believed that the these diaries, although Lawn Hill Diaries, may only go back as far as 1910, some 15 years after Frank left, so could not have been written by him
Not withstanding these there would still be others unaccounted for as Frank was at Lawn Hill for around 20 years.

Discussion Forum

The Flick Murders at "Lawn Hill" 3 Replies

Started by Greg Blackmore. Last reply by Rodney Beaumont Feb 7.

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Started by Greg Blackmore. Last reply by Greg Blackmore Dec 15, 2011.

Filling in the Gaps - What may be in the Diaries

Started by Greg Blackmore Aug 17, 2009.

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Comment by Greg Blackmore on February 7, 2012 at 7:33am: Russel Carrington advises:- "Good timber in that old ship ("Firefly") that was broken up to build Synott Murray and Scholes store in Burketown. There is still some laying exposed at "Almora" (Clarke's) and the good stuff is used in the renovatations here and there in the house. The big lengths of timber at "Almora" that are exposed are pretty buggered now but they have been laying on top of drums since around 1970". So it may be possible that Watson Bros also used some of the timber for their Burketown store.

Comment by Greg Blackmore on January 11, 2012 at 9:35am: T B Macintosh managed the store in Burketown for Aplin's prior to managing Lawn Hill. See link below:-

Thomas Brassy Macintosh

Comment by Greg Blackmore on January 11, 2012 at 9:29am: Thanks for you diligent research Rodney. My best guess is that Frank may have burned them before he left Lawn Hill as at the time he was fairly depressed about his circumstances of losing the property due to bad prices, ticks and Redwater (tick fever). On the other hand he makes no mention of doing this in his diary, transcribed by Ian Elliot from 17th June 1895 which was about 9 months before he left Lawn Hill in March 1896. Maybe he kept this one simply as it was in a financial year that he also overlanded to Halls Creek in WA and he wished to keep records of his explorations. I was researching the wreck of the brig "Firefly" in the Albert River at Burketown in 1861, that had set Landsborough of on his expedition, and noted somewhere that T B MacIntosh later also managed a store in Burketown. There is some suggestion that the Watson Bros, from Gregory Downs, may have used some of the timbers from the "Firefly" to build their store in Burketown, however, as this was more than 16 years later, the timbers may have been fairly well decayed by then.

Comment by Rodney Beaumont on January 11, 2012 at 9:01am: As Greg commented, I have investigated the banks archives in search of the diaries.

I am sad to report that the bank's archives do not hold the diaries.

They do however, have some financial papers from Frank that I am getting photocopied. (They are too fragile to scan). They provide details of Frank's mortgages.

Comment by Greg Blackmore on December 14, 2011 at 5:35pm: Rodney Beaumont advises that he has established that after the sale of "Lawn Hill" to A J Cotton in 1906, Frank went to meet with the bank (Bank of NSW) in Sydney in June 1909. They gave him a sum of money - for his retirement. This raises the possibility that Frank's papers, and possibly "Diaries" may have gone to Sydney?

If the "Diaries" had been left at "Lawn Hill" (with T B Macintosh - manager for the Bank of NSW) in 1896 it would be unusual for him to dispose of them.

Comment by Roger Dickson on October 19, 2010 at 10:45pm: Good find,
Something I had lost, but now found. It indicates Frank new he had enemies.

Comment by Greg Blackmore on October 19, 2010 at 8:15pm: From NLA Newspapers, Brisbane Courier, 2nd June, 1888 via Con in Mt Isa:
"Mr. F. H. Hann, who is at present in Brisbane, received a telegram on Saturday last, stating that a fire occurred at his Lawn Hill station, in the Burke district, by which the kitchen and other buildings were totally destroyed. The only persons on the premises at the time were the cook and some blacks. It is rumoured that the fire was caused by some wild blacks, bat Mr. Hann doubts this, as those in the neighbourhood give but little trouble beyond killing a few cattle occassionaly."

Comment by Russell Carrington on September 6, 2010 at 5:59am: A difference that dont really matter but where I was told Frank Hann's Diary along with other station journals were found was actually in the roof of the old office, a completely different building to the new homestead. This building looks like a very early Sidney Williams construction with an accomodation section added on at a later date. I would think the office might have gone up in the 1900 to 1920 era.

Comment by Roger Dickson on August 6, 2010 at 12:24am: I can confirm that the diaries held by Century Mine (and it is of great disappointment to say this) are not Frank's. 1911 is the earliest I could see when invited onto the mine site to inspect them. However, that does not mean they are without value as they are almost continuous from that date. The way they track climate, stock and feed prices as well as the day-to-day running of the station is historically significant. James Cook University is definitely interested.

Comment by Greg Blackmore on August 4, 2010 at 10:07am: Rodney Beaumont and I have made contact with current owners of the mine, MMG, and provided them with a copy of my work on Frank Hann. Jillian D'Urso, their stakeholder relations officer in Townsville advises that "Jo Burgen, one of our employees, is currently researching the history of Riversleigh and Lawn Hill stations and this information was incredibly valuable to her". They have not indicated that they are aware of any "Diary" that may have been written by Hann.