Obituaries Australia

The late Mr. Frederic Bigge, whose death in England is announced, was one of our Moreton Bay pioneer squatters of the early days. A good oarsman, his muscle was as often proved as that of his friend, the late Mr. Robert Little, and many were the jokes of the small wits of the period over the conjunction of the two names. "Bigge's Camp" (renamed "Grandchester" by the classic Sir George Bowen) derived its title from the deceased gentleman and Mr. Henry Mort (afterwards of Franklyn Vale) was at one time manager for the Messrs. Bigge (Frederic and Francis). The Mount Brisbane station, managed by Mr. William Bowman, a son of Dr. Bowman, of the Hawkesbury, New South Wales, was another property of the same firm's, and famous for the Westminster and Touchstone strains of racing blood in the horses bred there. Many a Queensland turf winner came from the pretty station near Wivenhoe 'Bigge's Folly," a conspicuous building in the early fifties at Cleveland – the great seaport and Brisbane extinguisher that was to have been, and where wool in abundance really was shipped during the days of the Crimean War – is another memento of the name that forms one more of the very few now left of the early band of pioneers who cleared the way for us in Moreton Bay.