page_title: Henry Plantagenet Somerset
section_title: Farming in Queensland
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Plantagenet Somerset / Farming in Queensland
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Brisbane River from the Caboonbah Homestead, looking south-west
context_page_description: Henry Plantagenet Somerset was a pioneer pastoralist and politician in Queensland, Australia. Somerset was a liberal politician who represented the district of Stanley in the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1904 to 1920, and canvassed successfully for the extension of the Brisbane Valley railway through the Brisbane River Valley to the rich timber reserves in the Blackbutt Range and beyond. Both the Somerset Dam and the local government area of Somerset Region are named in his honour.
context_section_description: On the advice of Mr. Charles Grant Tindal, with whom Henry shared a love of thoroughbred horses, Henry paid £40 for passage to Queensland as a sailor-passenger on the wooden barque Polmaise and a land order for 40 acres. On arrival he met William Bowman, manager of Mount Brisbane Station on part of which the township of Esk was built and accompanied him to New South Wales. Henry returned to Queensland and worked for David Cannon McConnel from 1872 to 1874 at Cressbrook Station. He established Mount Marlow Station for James Henry McConnel in 1875 where his head stockman was James MacPherson the bushranger, known as the Wild Scotsman, after his release from prison.
  Mount Marlow station was sold in 1877 and Henry returned to England in December 1878 on the Whampoa after having proposed to Katharine Rose McConnel, daughter of David Connan McConnel on the top of Mount Coot-tha. They were married at the British Legation in Berne, Switzerland, in 1879 and returned to Cressbrook for the birth of their first daughter. Henry then purchased Glenhaughton Station on the Dawson River for D. C. McConnel before leaving to manage Ramornie Station on the Clarence River for Charles Grant Tindal until 1885 and then Gordon Brook Station until 1888. He returned to Queensland permanently in 1888 to build a house for his wife and four children, first at Mount Stanley and finally at Caboonbah in 1889-1890.
  His Caboonbah Homestead was built in a unique position commanding a view of both the Stanley and Brisbane Rivers and it was from here that Henry Somerset sent riders on two separate occasions to warn Brisbane of impending flooding in 1893. The first was a local bullock driver named Harry Winwood who rode to Esk with a telegram for Post Master General, Brisbane, but "not a soul was warned". The second was a stockman from Dalgangal station, Billy Mateer, who rode to North Pine with more success. Convinced that Caboonbah's location was ideal for a flood warning station for the Brisbane and Stanley Rivers, Henry lobbied hard and achieved his objective in 1895.
  In 1893, he became the first chairman of the Mount Beppo State School, which opened on 4 September 1893.
caption: View of Brisbane River from the Caboonbah Homestead, looking south-west
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