Obituaries Australia

Daniel Cudmore, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 15 January 1914

"Bendleby" includes in his "Stock and Station Notes" in the Australasian of Saturday last the following obituary notice of Mr Daniel Henry Cudmore:

The recent death of Mr D. H. Cudmore, late of Avoca Station, Wentworth, New South Wales, has removed another of that little band of pioneers whose energies were devoted to the exploiting, not of one part of Australia alone, but of many parts in several different States. Mr Cudmore was in a great measure responsible for the name of Cudmore being so well and favorably known throughout Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. He was the second son of Mr Daniel Cudmore, of Claremont, Glen Osmond, a few miles out of Adelaide, one of the very earliest settlers in that State. His father emigrated in 1836 with his bride, her mother and two sisters and landed, in the first instance, in Tasmania. Thence he shifted to Adelaide and lived in a pise house on the bank of the Torrens, having chartered a schooner to bring his stock and family possessions across to the mainland. After some time he moved 200 miles inland and settled at Pindah, near Port Augusta, and later on shifted south to Yongala, near the Burra. It was during this period that the subject of this sketch was born.

During the father’s adventurous travels in Queensland, the two eldest sons shared with their mother all the cares and responsibilities of the South Australian station. After leaving St. Peter's College, Adelaide, the second son took charge of Yongala station for some years, and then set out on a long expedition to Northern Queensland, exploring the Burdekin and the Herbert, and assisting his father in stocking up new country with sheep and in travelling backwards and forwards with them. Sheep, however, proved a failure in that part of the continent. Some attention was then directed to sugar and a considerable area there was purchased on the Herbert River, and some of this the deceased still held at the time of his death. Returning to South Australia the Cudmores purchased the western half of the well-known Tapio Station, on the Darling River, from Messrs Menzies and Douglas, while the eastern half became the property of Messrs Service, Brook and Osmond. Fencing operations were just about beginning at that time in Western New South Wales, the pioneer of the movement apparently being Mr Brook. This example was energetically followed by the two young Cudmores. A home was built, and called Avoca, and plans were entered into for the better distribution of the flood waters of the Darling down the ana-branch. In 1873 a fine stone house was built to take the place of the first house at Avoca, the which, until quite recently, ranked as the finest and coolest on the Darling, surrounded as it was by attracttive gardens and pleasure grounds, sloping down to the river. In 188o Mr. Cudmore, sen., sold his interest in the estate to his two youngest sons, Milo and Arthur, and the new partners bought an adjoining station (which had at one time belonged to Mr Henry Ricketson, of Baratta) from Messrs. James and Brooks, of Melbourne. Mr. Arthur Cudmore managed the new venture, which had an area of 1,100 square miles, and carried up to 120,000 sheep. In 1888 the first Wolseley sheep shearing machines were introduced in the Avoca shed, and there they have been running ever since. Experiments in irrigation with a pumping plant on the river and the growing of lucerne and other fodder crops for stock came in for attention. In 1889 Mr. D. H. Cudmore sold out his interest to his two brothers and retired to Victor Harbour in South Australia, where he lived quietly until his death a few weeks ago. For some years past he had been in very bad health, but his end was hastened by the tragic death some weeks ago (the result of a motor accident) of one of his sons.