Obituaries Australia

Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 July 1925

Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh, a dear and valued friend of 34 years' standing, has coiled up his ropes and gone to a better place. If ever there lived a British gentleman in every sense of the word, he was one, and all is summed up in that. Wherever he lived, in numerous parts of Australia, he was beloved by everyone, and the world is poorer for his death.

He died when en route for his property Mungerie, near Coonamble, N.S.W., and would have been 88 years old on the 22nd ult. For several years he had made Blackheath his summer home, and paid periodical visits to Mungerie, which was managed by his well known and popular son, Major C. Fetherstonhaugh.

Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh was born in Co. Westmeath, Ireland, in 1837, and arrived in Melbourne 16 years later. After nine years in Victoria, most of which time he managed Muntham for Mr. Edward Henty, he went to North Queensland. A few years later he accepted the management of Brookong (N.S.W.), owned by Messrs. Hebden and Osborne. The station comprised 315,000 acres of heavily timbered country, and depastured only 46,000 sheep. In 1871 he resigned, and it then carried 96,000 sheep, and was all fenced. He then became a minister of the Church of England, being ordained by the Bishop of Goulburn at Wagga in 1873, and was appointed to the large districts of Urana and Jerilderie. Two years later he resigned from the Church and took charge of Canally Station, near Balranald, of 400,000 acres. A year afterwards he purchased, with some friends, Goorianawa Station, now owned by Campbell and Stirton. In 1894 he interested himself in the meat export trade.

For some years, from 1902, he was engaged in valuing work for the New South Wales Government, valuing over 20 million acres for land taxation purposes, and recently he has owned Mungerie, a fine property near Coonamble, on which he did well. He wrote for this paper for many years, and a few years ago published an autobiography under the title of After Many Days.

He took great interest in kindergarten work, and was one of the founders of the Golden Fleece branch of the kindergarten in Sydney. He leaves a widow, two sons, the elder being Major C. Fetherstonhaugh, late of the Light Horse, the other, Albany, who is, I believe, a resident of Queensland, and one daughter, Mrs. McMillan. His wife was a Miss Florence Murchison, daughter of a very well-known Army man.