John Stuart Hepburn
Captain John Stuart Hepburn (1803–1860) was an early pastoralist and landholder in
Hepburn was born in Scotland in 1803.[1] He initially became a seafaring man and progressed to become master of a 226-ton brig, Alice.
In 1835, the Alice sailed for
In 1837, Hepburn and
Smeaton Hill Run
Hepburn had hoped to settle on the country he had passed through in 1836 but found it was all taken.
From Mount Alexander, Hepburn sited Mount Kooroocheang, and the Major's Mammaloid Hills. The party moved on to establish the Smeaton Hill Run on 15 April 1838.[3] William Coghill travelled further west, crossing Bullarook Creek and establishing Glendaruel and then Glendonald. Captain Hepburn named Smeaton Hill station after a small hamlet which lay near his birthplace. The homestead which he named Smeaton House, was constructed in 1849-50 and is occupied today.[2] Hepburn founded the rural town of Smeaton and the town of Hepburn Springs is named after him. John Hepburn died in 1860 aged 57 and he was buried with other members of his family in a small cemetery on the property. Smeaton House was purchased by the Righetti family and is sometimes open to the public.[3]
References
- ^ Quinlan, Lucille M (1967), Here my home : the life and times of Captain John Stuart Hepburn 1803-1860, master mariner, overlander and founder of Smeaton Hill Victoria, Oxford University Press, retrieved 26 May 2019
- ^ a b c d Darwin, Norm. "SQUATTERS ON THE UPPER LODDON". Ballarat Genealogy Society. Archived from the original on 2009-01-26. Retrieved 2008-12-27.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-9804536-2-1.