Obituaries Australia

Thomas Dowling, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 15 August 1914

There passed away in Melbourne last month one of the most prominent men in the Western District of Victoria, in the person of the Hon. Thomas Dowling. For some time he had been in failing health, and to his intimate friends the news of his death caused little or no surprise, although it was at the same time received with feelings of the deepest regret.

Born in Colchester, Essex, in 1819, he was ninety-five years of age, arriving in Tasmania in 1829 and in Port Philip in 1848. After nineteen years of agricultural pursuits in Tasmania, the late Mr. Dowling settled on Lake Coragulac, near Camperdown, in Victoria, erecting a dairy, and continuing in the business until 1851. He then purchased Jellalabad Station, on Emu Creek, Darlington, the property still being held by the family. He was appointed a magistrate for the Southern Bailiwick in 1854, and had the honour conferred upon him of opening the first police court at Timboon.

The late Mr. Dowling represented the Nelson Province for twenty years in the Legislative Council, and during the whole of his lengthy municipal career he never received opposition, a fact which indicates the unbounded confidence and esteem in which he was held by the ratepayers who elected him. The splendid services he rendered to this State and the community in general cannot be adequately measured, and he certainly deserved the title of "Grand Old Man" of the Western District.