page_title: James Ainslie (pastoralist)
section_title: Time in Australia
hierarchical_section_title: James Ainslie (pastoralist) / Time in Australia
caption_attribution_description: Canberra viewed from on top of Parliament House.
context_page_description: James Ainslie was a Scottish shepherd, best known as the first overseer of the property known as Duntroon in the Australian Capital Territory. During his time on the Limestone Plains he is said to have had a relationship with an Aboriginal woman. After 10 years at Duntroon, Ainslie returned to Scotland and after numerous offences committed suicide in jail in 1844.
  The suburb Ainslie, originally a part of Duntroon, is named after James Ainslie, as is Mount Ainslie.
context_section_description: Leaving his son behind, James Ainslie traveled to New South Wales, Australia in the ship Admiral Cockburn, arriving in February 1825. He was recruited by Robert Campbell in 1825 to establish a sheep station in the Limestone Plains of New South Wales.  On his way from Bathurst to find an appropriate site for a sheep station, Ainslie and his convict labourers came across a terrified group of Aboriginal Australians near Booroowa.  It is said that the Indigenous people had never seen sheep or white people before and believing Ainslie to be a dead spirit "sacrificed" a woman to him, who they had earlier "stolen" from down on the Yass plains. Ainslie was guided to the south-east by that woman and established Campbell's property, later named Duntroon in the area of present-day Canberra.
  In 1827 the unknown woman and James Ainslie had a daughter, called Ju Nin Mingo - or Nanny. 
  Ainslie ran Campbell's sheep station for around a decade, turning his flock of sheep from Bathurst into a flock of 20,000 (after sales). It was during this time that Mount Ainslie was named after him. 
  In January 1835, Robert Campbell announced there had been "irregularities and insubordination...occasioned by a [liquor] Store on a neighbouring Farm" and made it known that he would henceforth pay no more orders drawn by Mr Ainslie.  Within two months of the announcement, Ainslie was making preparations to leave Australia.  He advertised in the Sydney Herald that he was about to "quit the Colony". 
  Leaving behind his partner and his daughter, Ainslie sailed on the Edinburgh to Liverpool, England from Sydney, departing 16 March 1835. From Liverpool, he made his way back to the Scottish Borders.
caption: A view of Mount Ainslie from Parliament House.  Mount Ainslie is a prominent landmark in the Australian Capital Territory named after James Ainslie.
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