William Locke Brockman
Encyclopedia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, who became a leading pastoralist
Pastoralism
Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and...
and stock breeder, and a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
.
Born in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1802, William Locke Brockman was a member of the Brockman
Brockman
The Brockman surname is not common, but has spread to several countries around the world. The name can be a topism combining "wet/water" and "man". However, in Old English and in heraldry a "brock" is also a badger, and some have claimed it to mean "broker". Thus, there may be multiple meanings of...
family, a prominent Kent family with a history dating back to the 14th century. Little is known of his early life, except that he was a farmer with land in the Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 mi ² .-Quotations:*“As Egypt was the gift of the Nile, this level tract .....
area. In 1827, Brockman married Ann Francis Elizabeth Hamersley. They would have six sons and three daughters.
In 1829, Brockman, with his wife and eldest son Edmund, emigrated to the Swan River Colony
Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony was a British settlement established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832, the colony was officially renamed Western Australia, when the colony's founding Lieutenant-Governor, Captain James Stirling,...
in Western Australia. They arrived on the Minstrel in January 1830. Brockman brought with him a prefabricated house, seven servants, and a number of sheep. Under the colony's system of land grants
Land grants in the Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony, established in June 1829, was the only British colony in Australia established on the basis of land grants to settlers. Under the conditions stipulated by the Colonial Office, settlers would be granted land in proportion to the value of assets and labour that they brought to...
, this entitled him to a grant of over 20,000 acres (80 km²). He was only the ninth person to be granted land in the colony.
Brockman established himself as a pastoralist and wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
grower in the Upper Swan
Upper Swan, Western Australia
Upper Swan is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located in the City of Swan local government area.It contains Upper Swan Primary School....
district. He named his grant Herne Hill, and this name survives today as the name of the Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
suburb of Herne Hill
Herne Hill, Western Australia
Herne Hill is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located in the City of Swan local government area. The area holds several wineries that make the Swan Valley popular for its wine production.- Wineries :Carilley Estate, Highway Wines, Talijancich Wines,...
. He was a foundation member of the Swan Agricultural Society in 1831, and in 1833 became a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
. In 1837 he constructed a mill
Gristmill
The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...
on his property. Brockman's success as a farmer prompted his wife's brother Edward Hamersley
Edward Hamersley (Snr)
Edward Hamersley was an early settler in colonial Western Australia. He became a successful and wealthy pastoralist, and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council. The Hamersley family became one of the most prominent families in the colony.Edward Hamersley was born at Sandgate,...
to immigrate. Hamersley arrived with his wife and son Edward
Edward Hamersley (Jnr)
Edward Hamersley was a Western Australian pastoralist, and a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for nearly ten years....
in February 1837. He ultimately became a successful and wealthy pastoralist, and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council, and the Hamersley family
Hamersley family
The Hamersley family were a wealthy and well-connected family of early settlers in the colony of Western Australia. Members of the Hamersley family emigrated to Western Australia from England in 1837.Prominent members and connections of the family include:...
became one of the most prominent families in the colony.
In 1839, Brockman was nominated to the Western Australian Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
, but he resigned the following year. From around 1845 he began exporting horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. He later acquired land near Northam
Northam, Western Australia
Northam is a town in Western Australia, situated at the confluence of the Avon and Mortlock Rivers, about north-east of Perth in the Avon Valley. At the 2006 census, Northam had a population of 6,009. Northam is the largest town in the Avon region...
, and was the first person to take up land in what is now the Shire of Bindoon
Bindoon, Western Australia
Bindoon is a town located from Perth city on the Great Northern Highway within the Shire of Chittering.Bindoon is where the majority of training and selection takes place for the Australian Special Air Service Regiment...
. For this reason, the Brockman River
Brockman River
Brockman River is a river in wheatbelt region of Western Australia that rises north of Bindoon Hill and then flows in a southerly direction. The river crosses the Great Northern Highway near the Bindoon-Moora Road turn off then travels parallel with the highway as it continues southward...
, which flows through the Bindoon Shire, was named after him.
Local aborigines showed Brockman the land around Gingin
Gingin, Western Australia
Gingin is an agricultural town in Western Australia. The town is located north of Perth along the Brand Highway.The town is well suited for agriculture with a mild climate and available water sources...
and because it had permanent water, he took up land there in 1841. He called the property Cheriton, after the parish of his father, the Reverend Julius Drake-Brockman. A water powered mill was built over the Gingin Brook by Alfred Carson and wheat was milled into flour, helping relieve the West Australian colony's dependence on imported flour. Due to favourable soils, the property became the principal source of citrus fruit for Perth, and was especially known for what came to be called Cheriton oranges. It's thought that he had sourced the seeds in the Canary Islands.
In the 1860s, Brockman became involved in the public push for representative government. Eventually, the Governor of Western Australia
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
agreed to hold informal Legislative Council elections, in the understanding that he would nominate those elected. In the informal election of May 1867, Brockman was elected for Guildford
Guildford, Western Australia
Guildford is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located 13 km northeast of the city. Its Local Government Area is the City of Swan.-History:Guildford was established in 1829 on the Swan River, being sited near a permanent fresh water supply...
, and was accordingly nominated to the council. He held the nominative seat until July 1870, when the council became formally elective. He contested the seat of Swan in the subsequent election, but was defeated by Thomas Courthope Gull. Two years later he contested the seat again, this time defeating Gull. He held the seat until his death at Herne Hill on 28 November 1872.
Two of William Locke Brockman's sons, Henry
Henry Brockman (Australian politician)
Henry Brockman was a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1884 to 1889.Born on 21 June 1845 at Herne Hill, Western Australia, Henry Brockman was the son of William Locke Brockman and Ann Frances Elizabeth née Hamersley, a nephew of Edward Hamersley , and a cousin of Edward ...
and Edmund Ralph, became prominent farmers in the colony and Members of the Legislative Council.