William Adams Brodribb

William Adams Brodribb
Born	27 May 1809 London, England
Died	31 May 1886 (aged 77) Sydney, NSW, Australia
Occupation	pastoralist, politician

William Adams Brodribb (27 May 1809 – 31 May 1886) was an Australian pastoralist and politician.^[1][2]

He was born in London on 27 May 1809. His father, also William Adams Brodribb, was an attorney who was convicted of administering unlawful oaths in 1816 and transported for seven years. He arrived at Sydney in the Sir William Bensley in March 1817, and sent to Hobart. In February 1818 his wife and children arrived at Hobart in the Duke of Wellington. They settled on a farm near New Norfolk and three more sons were born.

In April 1835 William junior moved to New South Wales and became a partner in a cattle station. In 1836 he overlanded the second draft of cattle to Melbourne. On returning from Port Phillip Brodribb relocated to what later became the site of Gundagai. In August Brodribb petitioned for a punt over the Murrumbidgee near his Gundagai hut and in January 1838 Deputy Surveyor General Samuel Perry reported that 'a better site could not have been chosen for a Town of the first class' in reference to Gundagai.^[3] In 1841, following Strzelecki, he formed an expedition to Gippsland which named Port Albert, the Latrobe River,^[4] the Albert River^[5][6] and explored inland.

In 1843 he became manager of the Monaro runs of William Bradley. For the next twelve years he lived on Coolringdon station near Cooma. In 1855 he settled on the Wanganella run, near Deniliquin. He owned a series of properties in western New South Wales until retiring to Sydney in 1879.

In July 1861 Brodribb won the seat of Brighton in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. In November 1880 he won the seat of Wentworth in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. In December 1881 he accepted of a seat in the Legislative Council and retained it until his death.

Brodribb published an autobiography in 1883.^[7] He died in Sydney on 31 May 1886 and was buried with his family in St Andrew's Graveyard, Brighton, Victoria.

Etymology

The Brodribb River in East Gippsland is named after him.^[4][6]

References

1. Finch, Jannette; Teale, Ruth (1969). "Brodribb, William Adams (1809–1886)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University.
2. "THE LATE MR. W. A. BRODRIBB.". The Sydney Morning Herald. NSW: National Library of Australia. 1 June 1886. p. 5. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
3. Brodribb, William Adams (1883). Recollections of an Australian squatter: 1835-1883. Sydney: Woods.
4. Blake, Les (1977). Place names of Victoria. Adelaide: Rigby. p. 294. ISBN 0-727-00250-3.
5. Reed, A. W. (1973). Place names of Australia. Frenchs Forest, NSW: Reed Books. p. 11. ISBN 0-7301-0051-0.
6. Bird, Eric (12 October 2006). "Place Names on the Coast of Victoria". The Australian National Placename Survey. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 February 2011.
7. Brodribb, William Adams (1883). Recollections of an Australian squatter: 1835-1883. Sydney: Woods.