Obituaries Australia

Eric Mackay, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 May 1923

Another of the Queensland pioneer pastoralists has passed away through the death of Mr. Eric Henry Mackay, late of Huntly Station, Peak Downs, and Alpha Station on the central railway line, Queensland.

Mr. Mackay was the son of Colonel Mackay, of Norfolk, and was born in Ireland. In the early days of the colony of Queensland he came to Australia, and in 1867 he was associated with the late A. S. Webster as part owner of Huntly Station on the Peak Downs. Subsequently Mr. Wesbter's share in the property passed to the late Charles S. Coveny, after whose death Messrs. Arthur J. and Leslie Milson became Mr. Mackay's partners. They sold their share in the station to Mr. Mackay's nephews, Messrs. A. N. and Eric Templeton, in 1911.

In conjunction with the late William Kilgour, Mr. Mackay took up Bellkate Station on the head of the Diamantina, which property afterwards was sold and became part of the well-known Kynuna Station.

He was also associated with Mr. C. W. Neville Rolfe and the late William Kilgour in Alpha cattle station on Native Companion Creek, not far from Tambo, and with the late Arthur Neville Rolfe in Lanark cattle station near Clermont.

Mr. Mackay married Miss Jessie Knox, daughter of the late Sir Edward Knox, and sister of Mr. E. W. Knox; chairman of directors of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and of Sir Adrian Knox, the Federal Chief Justice. He was a well-known figure in Sydney, and was a member of the local board of advice of Dalgety and Co. Limited, and a member of the board of the Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company Limited.

He went to England in 1911, and lived in Hampshire, where he died on 9th January, 1923, at the age of eighty-two. He leaves a widow and a daughter, Mrs. Grenville Miller, whose husband, Commander Miller, is in the Royal Navy, and was private secretary to Sir Harry Rawson when he was Governor of New South Wales.