Obituaries Australia

Our Geeves Town correspondent writes;—During the past week death has removed from our midst one who for over 30 years has borne the strain of Huon pioneer life. I allude to Mr. George Dunn Bennett, sen., the announcement of whose death appeared in your issue of Saturday. Very few, even of those who knew the quiet, unostentatious, old man intimately, knew anything of his early history, and, therefore, I have jotted down a few particulars which will, I am sure, be interesting to many of your readers. Mr. Bennett was born at Cadney, in Lincolnshire, in the year 1809, and in 1838 married the daughter of Mr. John Gibson, of Brigg, in that county, and it was in consequence of some family disagreement in connection with this alliance that Mr. Bennett determined to leave England. He came to this colony with the late Captain Goldsmith, in the ship Wave in 1839, the late Mr. Lavington Roope being a fellow passenger. Soon after landing he went up the country to manage an estate, but after a while came back to Hobart, and eventually purchased 100 acres of land from Lady Franklin, being a portion of her estate on the banks of the Huon River, where has since arisen the thriving township bearing her name. The 100 acres purchased by Mr. Bennett is now the heart of Franklin, but unfortunately for him, he sold and almost gave away, piece by piece, until all was gone. One of Mr. Bennett's brothers was a doctor. Another farms the old family estates in Lincolnshire, belonging to Lord Yarborough. A third, who was rendered totally blind by an accident in his youth, is living in retirement in Lincolnshire; while a fourth, who was for a time a successful sugar planter in Jamaica, died at the Huon a few years ago. One of Mr. Bennett's sisters married a Mr. Brooke, a wealthy gentleman, brother of the great London merchant, notification of whose death appeared in your paper a day or two ago. It is satisfactory to know that the old gentleman's declining days were brightened by the thoughtful kindness of his English friends; and so peacefully passed away at his son's residence at this place one whose name is intimately connected with the early days of Franklin, and who has done his share in the work of forming the newer settlement of Geeves Town.