THE MURDER of my great-great-great-grandfather by Maori warriors caused his daughter, my great-great-grandmother, THOMASINE, to decide not to emigrate to New Zealand and instead to settle on the isolated Nerang River in South-East Queensland in what became the Gold Coast. Thomasine, a 29-year-old widowed mother of four, and her new husband, WALTER JOHN “JACK” BROWNE, were the first pioneer family to settle on the Nerang in 1865. Battling isolation, floods, and other hardships, they established a series of successful farms while becoming leaders in the development of the region. Thomasine, who had given up a privileged life in London, worked to establish music and the Arts in Nerang and Southport and went on to have a further 11 children with Jack, six of whom survived, bringing her total family to ten. Jack became for many years Clerk of the Nerang Board and Secretary to the Agricultural Society, and was a major figure in the citizens’ militia based in Southport - the Walter J. Browne bridge spanning the main highway leading into Nerang is a tribute to his work. In this book I trace Thomasine’s forebears back to Wales and Herefordshire and on to New Zealand, and then present a picture of the early days of Queensland’s Gold Coast.
