Obituaries Australia

Michael Miles, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 February 1922

Mr. Michael Miles, of Mt. Elsie, Charters Towers, Queensland, who died in December at the age of 92, was born at Rotherfield, in Essex, England, being the son of a surgeon who practised for some years at Evidge, Tunbridge Wells. He came out to Australia when 20 years of age, landing in Melbourne in 1849.

For some time he was droving, and then followed station life in New South Wales. In 1859 he went to Queensland as a member of the Dalrymple Exploring Expedition with Edward and Michael Cunningham, Stenhouse, and others. Mr. Miles took up country on the Star, which was afterwards part of Dotswood, in conjunction with Favenc and Wise, of Sydney, but like most of the early ventures, it did not pay, and they sold. Favenc was an uncle of Ernest Favenc, the explorer, who was with Mr. Miles on the property just mentioned, and which they called Evidge.

Mr. Miles next managed Barcaldine Downs, on the Alice, for a few years, and in '69 became a member of the firm of Chatfield, Miles and Co., of Natal Downs. They were financed by Mr. Parbury of Sydney. In 1874 they sold to Messrs. Bundock and Haynes, and Mr. Miles then took up Mt. Elsie, where with varying fortunes he lived until the time of his death. He was the oldest justice of the peace in Queensland, and was one of the first members of the Dalrymple Divisional Board.

Mr. Miles married in 1871 Miss Giles, a sister of Giles, of Thompson and Giles, Sydney, and his wife and three daughters survive him.