The Merchant Prince of Old Sydney

Mate to Master Mariner

Robert Towns was born at Long Horsely, in the County of Northumberland (England), 11 November 1794 of respectable but comparatively humble parents and at the village school he received an elementary education.

As a youth Towns had a keen desire to become a sailor and he was apprenticed at the neighboring coal port of Shields to a collier plying between that centre and London. He quickly mastered the practical work of seamanship and when his vessel was in port he studied the theory of navigation from an old master mariner.

At the early age of 16 years he was given a position of mate and at 17 he secured his master's certificate. He also obtained command of a coasting vessel and within a few years he was entrusted with a large ocean going brig trading in The Levant and other ports of the Mediterranean.

English Entrepreneur

He saved and accumulated sufficient capital to pay for the construction at Shields of a clipper ship of 355 tons, which he named "The Brothers". The British Government had also embarked upon a policy of emigration to Australia about the time that Towns was prepared to enter this trade with his new clipper.

The Imperial Authorities in London had offered grants of land to suitable applicants who possessed £500 and upwards. On arrival each settler in New South Wales would receive 500 to 2000 acres or land according to his capital, six months free rations from the King’s stores and cattle from the King’s herds which were to be repaid in kind at the end of seven years.

Bounty Immigrants

This made an immediate appeal to large numbers of people in Great Britain, there was a great rush to secure passages to New South Wales. The shipping rates for passengers and cargo were greatly increased and seizing the opportunity Captain Towns entered the Australian trade with "The Brothers".

He commanded his own vessel on the first voyage to Sydney in 1827 at the age of 33 years. Captain Robert Towns secured a large share of this trade and his ship was reputed to be the best managed and fastest sailing vessel on the run.

In 1833 Captain Towns a close friend of the Australian statesman, William Charles Wentworth married Sophia his seventeen year old half sister who had come to Australia aboard "The Brothers" that year.

The emigrant trade had proved profitable and the demand for agricultural labour from England had increased. This business was made more profitable when the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke allowed a bounty of £18 per head for each adult and £5 for each child.

In 1842 the emigration boom showed signs of decreasing when Governor Sir George Gipps was censured by the Imperial Government in London for excessive expenditure in bounties to skippers and he discontinued all forms of encouragement to those interests in the introduction of migrants.

Economic Opportunist

That same year despite conditions that might well have dismayed the most hardy, Captain Towns established a mercantile and shipping agency in the name of "R. Towns".

The company's first offices were located at Miller's Point, adjacent to what came to be known as Towns Wharf, a shipping centre and focus for trade.

Despite the failure of the Bank of Australia in 1844 which cost the Australian economy £1,500,000, Towns expanded his business to large scale whaling operations and opened up trade with the Straits Settlements, modern day Indonesia, Manila and Hong Kong buying sandal wood, coconut oil and Beche-de-mer.

The same year, Towns also took a leading part in inaugurating a Royal Mail Line between Sydney and England.

In 1851 he took an active part in the reorganization of the bank of New South Wales. His genius for finance was such that he was appointed Chairman in 1853.

Pastoral Pursuits

At that time Towns had also taken up large tracts of pastoral land in Queensland discovered by Ludwig Leichhardt and Sir Thomas Mitchell during their expeditions of 1844 -45.

On 11 October 1844, Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt set out from Jimbour Station, near Dalby on the Darling Downs with 8 men, 2 natives, horses and cattle on a 3,000 mile trek to Port Essington, Northern Territory.

The fourteen month long expedition discovered many of the colony's major river systems and extensive pastoral areas in North Queensland which soon attracted the interests of Victoria and New South Wales pastoralists including that of Robert Towns.

On 15 December 1845, two days after Leichhardt completed his epic journey, Major Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor General of New South Wales, believing Leichhardt to be long dead, began another expedition to find an overland route to Port Essington from Boree, near Orange.

Although the expedition failed to reach the Northern Territory, Mitchell discovered more important river systems including the Maranoa, Upper Nogoa. Belando, Warrego and Barcoo Rivers.

The opportunity presented by these new discoveries of well watered prime pastoral land was seized by Captain Towns and other traders.

Expanding Business Empire

His business operations had now become too vast for one man and in late 1853 he went into partnership with Alexander Stuart forming Robert Towns and Company.

The business continued to expanded aided by progress on land and sea - the opening of the first railway between Sydney and Parramatta in 1855 and the first foreign steamer, the "Golden Age", arriving in Sydney from the United States.

Robert Towns and Co. became identified with a great number of enterprises. One of these was cotton growing in Queensland on the Logan River and later at Townsville.

The Company worked a cotton plantation of 2,000 acres with 250 South Sea Islanders and a capital outlay of £20,000. They also engaged in meat preserving and tinning in New South Wales and Queensland.

In 1856 Robert Towns was appointed a member of the first Legislative Council under responsible government and became the Hon. Robert Towns M.L.C. On June 17, 1863 he was reappointed to the Legislative Council under the life tenure system.

Gulf Pastoral Properties

In 1864 in conjunction with Sir Charles Cowper and Sir John Robertson, former Premiers of New South Wales, and the arduous effort of John Graham Macdonald, he acquired an immense station property "Floraville" on the Leichhardt River in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Still the mercantile side of the firm's business continued to grow. In 1860 the firm was offered and accepted an important agency for American tobacco, T. C. Williams Coy of Richmond Virginia, which they retained for almost fifty years.

Birth of Townsville

In 1863 Robert Towns foreclosed on Fanning Downs, south of Ross River, Woodstock Station 25 miles south-west of Townsville and other pastoral properties between the Burdekin River and Cleveland Bay, retaining the previous owners as managers.

John Melton Black, the pioneer of Fanning Downs, was appointed General Manager of the northern branch of Robert Towns and Company.

The distance from Port Denison at Bowen to Woodstock Station was 100 miles, whereas the coast at Cleveland Bay could be reached in a quarter of that distance. The economics of a closer port was not lost on Black.

The search for a suitable port on Cleveland Bay led to the discovery in 1864 of Ross River and Ross Creek by Andrew Ball and Mark Watt Reid, who were acting on behalf of John Melton Black.

This discovery was submitted to Robert Towns and soon afterwards the first wharf was constructed on Ross Creek off Flinders Street - in latter days, the site of Burns Philp and Co. Ltd. shipping offices.

First Land Sale

The first land sale of allotments in the new township took place at Bowen 31 July 1865 and Towns and Black purchased a number of the allotments at auction.

The new township was then named Townsville in honour of Captain Robert Towns. This name was selected by Sir Augustus C. Gregory, the Surveyor-General of Queensland.

Townsville grew with remarkable rapidity as businessmen from Bowen and pastoralists on the Burdekin and Flinders Rivers were attracted to trade through the port.

On 15 February1866, the Australian Steam Navigation Company's ship "Rangatira" arrived at Townsville for the first time with Robert Towns as a passenger. Towns financed a cotton plantation near Ross Creek (Hermit Park) Townsville, and erected a boiling down plant there.

He also opened up coal mines at Redbank, in the Brisbane River district, and established meatworks in the same locality.

Stroke Victim

On 11 April 1873, Captain Robert Towns suffered a second stroke and passed away peacefully at Cranbrook, his home at Rose Bay, Sydney. He was aged seventy nine years old.

Towns was buried at Balmain Cemetery, 15 April 1873 following a service at St. Mark's Anglican Church, Darling Point, conducted by the Very Reverend Lord Bishop of Sydney, Frederick Barker assisted by Reverend Thomas Kemmis and Reverend Edward Rogers.

Towns was survived by his wife Sophia, two sons Robert and Edward, and three daughters, Sophia, Sarah and Sabina. He left a personal estate of £74,000.

The memorial stone from his Sydney grave was acquired by the Townsville Municipal Council in 1942 and now stands atop a monument at the summit of Castle Hill overlooking the city that bears his name.

Source: Trove Digitized Newspapers -The Townsville Daily Bulletin - 14 November 1946