Obituaries Australia

Mrs. Jean Ann Macleod, late of Bungarimbil, Tumbarumba, N.S.W., and who donated the property to the Church of England, died in the Tumbarumba District Hospital on 7th March last in her eighty-ninth year. She was a member of a well-known Riverina family of earlier years and was born in 1862 at Old Goree Station, Widgiewa, her parents being John Henry and Isabella Spiller, two Scots who finally settled on North Yathong and Somerset Park. Prom her parents she inherited a strong sense of personal responsibility for those who lived about her.

In 1892 she married the Rev. Charles Eldrid, who was then Rector of Narrandera, and for a number of years exercised herself in the best traditions of the Rectory until her husband died at a relatively early age. Later she married Boyd Macleod, of Narrandera, and in 1911 they took up the country which was to become her beloved Bungarimbil ("Wooded mountain").

Writing of Jean Macleod, The Southern Churchman (Goulburn) says:—

"She loved the earth and its fruits, not least the trees, and her great hope was that the valley in which she lived should never suffer that timber treatment which has denuded Australia of shade, fertility, and rainfall. Beyond her own run of country her interests were wide and her sympathies liberal. She loved the Church of God and was a regular Communicant and supporter of its work. She helped many good causes consistently, particularly the Boy Scouts, the Returned Soldiers, Legacy, and the Save the Children Fund.

"It was from these wide sympathies that the thought arose of passing the responsibility for Bungarimbil on to the Church. She was anxious to see it so used that young Australians might grow up in its beauty and learn to love the bush and all the best qualities of bush life. Here, too, she hoped they would experience a real education related to the earth and instilling in them high standards in work and character.

"We have just purchased an additional 1000 acres adjacent to the original Bungarimbil to ensure a sound economy for the future home-school, and we now understand that Jean Macleod's generosity in a final bequest will meet that charge. We thus can thank her for the whole of the Bungarimbil lands and we shall continue to hope that our gratitude will be shown across the years by the creation of such a home as will fulfil her visions and remain as a living memorial to that spirit which possessed her life and assuredly greets her now."