sketcher and squatter, was born in India, youngest of the four sons of Thomas Learmonth and his second wife, Christian Donald, Scottish gentry of Parkhall, Stirlingshire. He was living in Van Diemen’s Land with his parents and brothers by 1835, then left in 1845 to serve in the East India Company’s army at Bombay [now known as Mumbai], invaliding out as lieutenant after five years’ service and joining his squatter brothers in Victoria. He, his brothers and his uncle made a fortune from having a sheep run where Ballarat now stands and from a gold-mine (at Forest Creek, Castlemaine), according to Stanley Leighton . By 1868 Andrew Learmonth had leased or purchased several large runs, including Urseldown in Victoria and Groongal in the Riverina district of New South Wales. Learmonth visited all his properties from time to time but, said Leighton, his headquarters were the Melbourne and Sydney Clubs where he received regular reports from his overseers and managers.
Leighton, who visited and drew Groongal in 1868, commented that it was 'a squattage of first rate size’, 28 miles deep with a river boundary of 20 miles, which employed 70 men, plus many more at shearing time. Despite paying 'good wages’ of 15s or 20s a week with food and lodgings to his regular hands, Learmonth told Leighton that 'he could only depend on one besides his overseer and manager’. He had paid £113 000 for the stock and lease of Groongal and spent nearly £50 000 on improvements. This did not, however, include anything on the homestead,
a picturesque red brick building with a high shingle roof and, of course, a verandah. There was but one small room both for eating and sitting in. A treble-bedded sleeping room served for my companion, Rees Davies, Buxton and myself. Mr Main, the manager, and Mr. Learmonth slept in an adjoining room, and I think there was a third slip of a room somewhere. The only improvement which Learmonth had made to the house was the putting up of a rough bathroom of wood, where we could have a tub of muddy Murrumbidgee water in the mornings… There were several well-fingered books in the house, Spencer, De Quincey, Tennyson and others.
Learmonth told Leighton that he was intending to return home because of 'the hopeless exclusion of the upper classes from public life in Australia and the envy which they had to contend against. He spoke bitterly of the effects of universal suffrage, and of the corruption of the members of Parliament.’ Meanwhile, shearing was under way at Groongal and Learmonth was experimenting with employing Chinese shearers since his white shearers had previously attempted to strike for better conditions. Leighton added: 'He was a remarkably refined and rather well-read man, and was something of an artist besides.’ No paintings are known.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
