Obituaries Australia

Aubin Dowling, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 October 1917

The late Mr. Aubin Dowling, who died last month at his home, Woollahra, near Towoomba, Q., was the third son of the late John Leonard Dowling, on whose sheep farm in Tasmania he was born in 1849. After finishing his education at the Launceston Grammar School he went to Queensland in 1863, to Talgai Station, then owned by the Clarks. He stayed there for a time, and then made up his mind to go to England and learn woolsorting. He first went to Stroud to learn the clothing portion, and then to Bradford to learn the combing business. He stayed in the two places for seven years, subsequently visiting Bordeaux, in France. He then came back to Queensland and took up the work of sheep and wool classing on the Peak Downs, where he successfully classed for 20 years for most of the stations of note in that district.

About 1890 Mr. George Clark, sen., sold all the land on the west side of the railway to the Scottish A.I. Company Limited, who put Mr. Aubin Dowling on as manager. The company went in for dairying and pig raising. The company still continued sheepbreeding business, and Mr. Dowling was very successful in winning numerous prizes and many championships for ewes and rams, and honours for Milking Shorthorns, carrying on the work for twenty years, relinquishing it four years ago, but continuing to make visits once a year in connection with the stud sheep on the company's numerous stations. About eight months ago he was seized with a violent attack of aneurism of the heart, which proved fatal. The late Mr. Dowling in 1884 married Miss Christoe, whose father was assayist at the Peak Downs Copper Mines. He leaves a widow, one son, and three daughters. The son, Mr. John B. Dowling, is managing a stud flock for Mr. Austin, "Nardoo," near Coonamble. One of his brothers, W. G. Dowling, is stock inspector at Forbes, N.S.W., and another, Alfred, lives on Stradbroke Island. Mr. Aubin Dowling was a most lovable man, and everyone who came in contact with him felt he was a sympathetic friend. His death breaks another link in the chain of old pioneers who helped to build up the pastoral industry of Queensland.