Obituaries Australia

Mrs. Barbara Fraser died at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. J. A. Buchanan—Erneton, Wickham-terrace—early on Wednesday morning. By her death Queensland has lost one of its oldest colonists. Mrs. Fraser came out with her husband in 1842, accompanying the party formed by two of the sons of Sir Colin Mackenzie, of Kilcoy, Ross shire. Those young gentlemen—urged thereto by the generosity of their well known sire—determined to woo fortune by taking up a sheep run in Australia. Mrs. Fraser's father had lived for eighty-two years on the Mackenzie Estate in Ross, and it was fitting that she, with her husband, should accompany two promising scions of the house into an unknown land. But the first year at Kilcoy, Queensland—it was not Queensland then—proved disastrous. The scab warred with the young Mackenzies' sheep, and proved the victor. Within a year, Sir Colin's sons went home, with temporarily emptied pockets. Mr. and Mrs. Fraser remained, going over to the Archers, on their neighbouring station of Durundur. Here they remained five years. Then, removing to Brisbane, Mr. Fraser found employment in the Customs, and after fourteen prosperous years retired on a competency. That practically closes the uneventful history. Mr. Fraser died in 1883, having paid one visit to Scotland prior to his demise. Mrs. Fraser did not accompany him. From the time of her arrival in 1842 right up to the moment of her death on Wednesday she never left the colony. On Jubilee night she became unwell, but she remained conscious up to the last. The cause of death seems to have been dengue fever and old age. For twenty years she had not consulted a doctor. She had suffered slightly from asthma within the past year or two, and that was all. Always a quiet, home-loving woman, she went little into society; but her heart was large, and her charities generous. She leaves six children, twenty-six grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren. Her remains were buried at Toowong, beside those of her husband, on Thursday.