Obituaries Australia

Robert Quarrell, n.d.

photo provided by Mark Quarrell

Another of the old pioneers passed away recently in the person of Robert Quarrell, of Oxton Downs, North Queensland, who was well known from Melbourne to the Gulf. Born in London, he came to Australia with his parents at a very early age, and when quite a youth engaged in pastoral pursuits, taking up various properties in Victoria and New South Wales, the most important being Mitchell's Creek, near Seymour, Victoria. Selling out of there owing to closer settlement encroaching on the run, he travelled in search of country, enduring many hardships, and often sleeping out for weeks with only his saddle for a pillow.

Arriving in Queensland he took up Oak Park, near Charleville, in the south-west, but the desire for larger areas soon sent him on the road again. This time he turned his attention to the north-west of Queensland, and acquired Oxton Downs, between Richmond and Cloncurry, one of the best known runs in that district, and which he stocked up with a very fine class of sheep. Unfortunately some 18 months ago he was stricken by a severe illness, from which he never quite recovered, and died on the 9th inst., in his 71st year at Bondi, New South Wales, whither he had gone in the hope of recuperating his health. His wife and two sons predeceased him, and he leaves two sons, Messrs. Herbert and Victor, of Oxton Downs, and three daughters, Miss Quarrell, of Oxton, Mrs. Feenaghty, wife of Mr. M. B. Feenaghty, of Queensland National Bank, Brisbane, and Mrs. Bourke, wife of Dr. Bourke, of Richmond, North Queensland.