Archibald Meston

Archibald Meston ( March 26, 1851 in Towie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, † March 11, 1924 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia ) was an Australian politician schottischstämmiger, Protector of Aborigines, journalist, author, naturalist and explorer.

Personal life

Archibald Meston in 1859 immigrated with his parents to Sydney, where they operated at Ulmarra, New South Wales Clarence River on a farm.

On August 22, 1871, he married Margaret Frances Prowse Shaw in Sydney.

After long-lasting and different careers he went to Brisbane, where he died in poverty and was buried in the South Brisbane Cemetery.

Professional and Public Life

In 1874 he worked on a sugar plantation in St Lucia on the Brisbane River, the present site of the University of Queensland. From 1875 to 1881 he was a journalist at the Ipswich Observer and later at The Toowoomba Chronicle. From 1878 to 1882 he represented Rosewood in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, where the strongly supported the Prime Minister of Queensland Thomas McIlwraith. The seat he lost after he was convicted in a civil court for a bankruptcy.

In 1881 he went to Far North Queensland, where he briefly worked at the Townsville Herald as a journalist before he went to Cairns for The Cairns Post and lived until 1889 at the Barron River.

Although he was interested in the cultivation of sugar cane, he never operate this, but lived from journalism, speculation and real estate. In January 1889 Meston led a government expedition to the Bellenden Ker Range and explored the local mountain peaks. Because of this successful expedition, he received further public contracts.

In 1894 he was commissioned to the living conditions of Aboriginal people in Queensland to investigate what led to that he was committed to the adoption of the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act ( 1897). Meston was in Queensland Southern Protector of aboriginal people 1898 until 1903.

In 1910 he was appointed director of the government official tourism offices of Queensland in Sydney.

Throughout his lifetime he was a prolific journalist, often published Courier and other newspapers in The Queenslander, The Brisbane addition to the aforementioned newspapers.

Aftermath

At Archibald Meston remember two plants he collected at Bellenden Ker, Garcinia mestonii and Piper mestonii.

1936 painted by the artist and his friend BE Minns a portrait of him in the public order, which was issued in the Queensland National Art Gallery (now the Queensland Art Gallery).

1938, the Meston Street in Mitchelton, Brisbane, named after him.

Publications

In addition to his newspaper articles and his official reports to government agencies he also published books:

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