The Robertsons of Colac

The Robertson Family’s Journey from Scotland to Colac

In the shadow of the Cairngorms, nestled between Fort William and Inverness, lies the little parish church of Alvie. It was from this stark but beautiful landscape that the Robertson family began their journey — one that would eventually take them to the far side of the world, and see their family name woven into the early history of Tasmania and Victoria.

In the early 1800s, Alvie was a remote and struggling community. The New Statistical Account of Scotland described a declining population and bleak prospects for those trying to make a living from the land. Farming was poor, poverty stalked those living there and the landowners mostly lived elsewhere. Even the local vicar seemed to be close to despair when made note of the fondness for whisky among the locals, writing with some disapproval of the squabbles that broke out even at funerals and other gatherings.

It was here that Donald Robertson and Christina McBean raised ten children — though only eight survived to adulthood. Their gravestone was still legible in the churchyard by Loch Alvie when their 95 year old great-great-grandson visited in 2012. It records Donald’s death in 1828 at the age of 71, and his wife Christina’s in 1812, at just 40. Over the next three decades, five of their children — John, William, James, Daniel, and Christina — would leave their homeland and start new lives in Australia.

A New World in Van Diemen’s Land

John and William Robertson were the first to leave. In 1822, the two brothers arrived in Hobart aboard The Regalia, drawn by the colonial government’s offer of land and convict labour for settlers willing to establish farms. They were in their twenties, with some education and determined. William had completed his schooling at the local Baldow School, and both brothers brought with them not only farming knowledge but enough capital to take real advantage of the opportunities on offer.

They were granted 700 acres each near Campbell Town, north from Hobart. Their younger brother James joined them in 1825 and received 800 acres near Richmond. Later, Daniel and Christina followed, arriving in 1829, just a year after their father’s death in Scotland. The younger siblings’ passage had been arranged by John, who had returned briefly to Britain to secure stock and supplies for the family’s growing colonial venture.

While life in Van Diemen’s Land was undoubtedly difficult, it also offered free settlers the chance to thrive. Land was plentiful, and convict labour made large-scale farming possible. Details of the Robertson brothers’ daily lives, at this time, are scarce, but documents that survive show the conditions were tough. Yet despite the harshness of frontier life —the Robertsons persevered.

A Frontier Marked by Conflict

It was not just the physical conditions that were hard. The conflict that existed between the settlers and the Indigenous people was more than background noise; it was a defining feature of early Tasmanian settlement. The Campbell Town district was very much at the centre of this conflict. Eummarrah, a well known leader of the local Aboriginal people, was born in the Midlands about 1798 and he died in 1832, meaning he shared his entire adult life with William Robertson. As Eummarah sometimes worked for Hugh Murray, the father of another future settler of Colac, it is highly likely they would also have known each other.

In 1828 Eummarrah was captured, along with his wife. The Hobart Town Courier noted on 22 November that the “King, named Eumarrah . . . declares it his determined purpose . . . to destroy all the whites he possibly can, which he considers a patriotic duty“. In May of 1830 he escaped and the Australian Dictionary of Biography cites that he once again began “harassing settlers in Tamar and Esk valleys“. He was later re-captured and died of dysentery.

Another stark reminder of this conflict came in 1830, when William Robertson was called to give evidence in an official investigation into a reported massacre of 70 Aboriginal people in the Midlands, close to Campbell Town. It records that William Robertson had visited the site two days after the incident and found no bodies, but was told by a member of the party involved that in fact no one had been killed — they had merely “done nothing”, they were just boasting.

Robertson’s statement was published in the British Parliamentary Papers in 1831, and it also resurfaced this century in Keith Windschuttle’s provocative book, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. In this way, William Robertson has been drawn into the debate now known as the Aboriginal History Wars. At its heart is how historians make judgements about the veracity of allegations of conflict and massacre that had taken place long ago.

While Robertson’s testimony is clear, that there was no evidence of a massacre, it must be viewed through various lenses. Yet even if its truthfulness can be questioned, it remains a rare surviving glimpse into those violent and morally fraught early years of settlement.

From Farms to Commerce

By the mid-1830s, the Robertson brothers had begun to shift their focus from agriculture to commerce. William and John sold their farms and opened a retail business on the corner of Elizabeth and Collins streets, in Hobart — Robertson Bros. — which grew into one of the colony’s early department stores. Their siblings Daniel and James, along with their sister Christina and her husband Archibald Smith, also joined the business but they were located in Launceston.

The family’s path to success was set. But even as the economy transitioned from its convict origins, the colony still offered limited horizons. William, ever alert to new possibilities, began to look north — across Bass Strait, to the untapped mainland district that would soon be known as Port Phillip.

Port Phillip, Colac, and the Rise of a Dynasty

Having established a firm footing in Tasmania, William’s attention soon turned to the opportunities across Bass Strait where he saw land — vast, fertile, and unclaimed by European settlers. Along with a group of fellow Tasmanians, he helped form The Port Phillip Association, a private syndicate of investors aimed at establishing grazing runs in what was still officially part of New South Wales. Robertson was no minor investor. He personally contributed half of the Association’s funding.

On May 29  1835, the group’s first foray onto the mainland — led by John Batman — saw them land a small party at Indented Head. This event marked the start of European settlement in the Port Phillip District. It was only a few months later, that William Robertson’s own journey to the mainland took place.

Walking Into Wadawurrung Country

William Robertson’s journey to Port Phillip Bay was with J. T. Gellibrand, a former Attorney General in Van Diemen’s Land and a fellow investor in the Port Phillip Association. They travelled on board The Norval and the trip was most eventful.  The ship was loaded with sheep intended to stock the run claimed by Captain Swanston, another Port Phillip Association member. The account of the journey, which started on 17 January 1836, and finished on 24 March 1836, was an extract from a diary written by Gellibrand and sent to the Governor in Sydney. It was later published, after his death. The diary is also possibly the earliest detailed eye-witness account of the Port Phillip District soon after first settlement.

Gellibrand’s diary is a daily account that describes conditions on board the ship, its ill-fated diversion to Western Port, the group’s epic hike to Fawkner’s small settlement in Melbourne and then the horseback journey to Indented Head, through present-day Geelong and across the Bellarine Peninsula. It is a tale of survival under scorching summer suns and torrential downpours. 

Gellibrand makes mention of the local Aboriginal population and their camps, in particular how their location close to ‘native wells’ ensured their survival. After poor weather delayed their entrance into Port Phillip, an ill-advised decision was made to unload the sheep at Western Port. The group then split, with one group staying with the sheep and the other, including William Robertson, J T Gellibrand and a small group of other men, deciding to walk to present-day Melbourne where a small settlement had recently been established. The group had seriously under-estimated the distance and the impact of the summer conditions, making this journey a life and death proposition. 

The diary records that on January 30 the party woke before dawn and walked for over four hours, without finding water. After drinking their remaining supply, they continued walking till noon. At this time, members of the party were struggling to keep together. However, they then found themselves on a native track and he wrote “the advantage of following those tracks was soon experienced.”  It lead the group to a beach, a collection of huts and a native well.  It was here that Gellibrand records his admiration for William Robertson when others in the party declared the water in the well undrinkable. He wrote, “Mr Robertson, however, examined the well, and thinking it had chocked up, he got an oyster shell and cleaned it out and deepened it.” 
He then described how the party waited anxiously as the water slowly rose but that eventually “Mr Robertson was enabled to distribute to each person half a pint.” They stayed at the camp for four hours and were able to slake their thirst with more water and to even take three more bottles with them. That evening with the rain pelting down, their spirits were buoyed by their discovery of wagon tracks and their access to water. 

“the settlement (of Melbourne) consisted of about a dozen huts, built with turf, on the left bank of the river Yarra-Yarra”.

The next day, January 31, the bedraggled group reached Melbourne, “the settlement consisted of about a dozen huts, built with turf, on the left bank of the river Yarra-Yarra”.    It was here that William Robertson first met William Buckley, the escaped convict, who had lived with Wadawurrung for over 30 years, after escaping from the short-lived convict settlement at Sorrento. Gellibrand, according to his account, negotiated with Buckley to become the “superintendent of the natives” with whom he had so recently lived.  Buckley also agreed to guide them to the Port Phillip Association camp at Indented Head on the Bellarine Peninsula.

On February 3, 1836 William Robertson, Buckley, Gellibrand, a Mr Furgesson and three Aboriginal men from Sydney mounted horses for the next stage of the journey. Gellibrand writes that they dined “at a chain of ponds” (probably close to modern-day Lara) before pushing on to the bay to a spot “near to the point of Geelong harbour” where they camped the night. 

That next day Gellibrand recorded that as soon as Buckley “obtained a view of his own country, his countenance was much changed, and when we reached Geelong he took the lead and kept us upon a trot”.  They travelled about 14 miles and, after stopping to eat, the group then “proceeded across the Bellerine Hills (sic) to the settlement of Indented Head” which they reached at about four in the afternoon.

When William’s party first met up with a group of Buckley’s Wadawurrung clan, the Bengalat, Gellibrand wrote that “it was one of the most pleasing and affecting sights. There were three men, five women, and about twelve children. Buckley had dismounted, and they were all clinging round him, and tears of joy and delight running down their cheeks”.

A few months earlier, in 1835, John Helder Wedge had explored the Port Phillip District on behalf of the association. Subsequently he drew up a map that allocated runs to the various investors in the Port Phillip Association. Each run was given a numerical appellation and William’s run was marked as Number 16, which covered the greater part of the Bellarine Peninsula. 

As a significant investor in the association, this trip was William Robertson’s first opportunity to see the lands provisionally allocated to him. Over the next few days William’s party continued across his run towards Barwon Heads and then worked their way back up the river towards Geelong.  Gellibrand records that they headed towards the junction of the Barwon with, what Gellibrand called, the Yallack River, which is probably the Moorabool. They detoured across a fallen tree to visit Buckley Falls. 

The party’s next steps are uncertain. It is likely they headed for the You Yangs before heading back to Melbourne. However, it is possible that William Robertson, with William Buckley, explored further up the Barrabool Hills. The uncertainty is caused by damage done to the manuscript at the printers which resulted in a number of sections being destroyed. However, John Morgan, in the foreword of his famous biography of Buckley published in 1851, asserts that Buckley was so impressed with Robertson that, at this time, he endowed him with the ownership of all the land between Barrabool Hills and Colac. 

Building a Western District Empire

These events, despite being in opposition to government policy, sparked a frenzied period of exploration and settlement that forced the NSW government to step in and take control. This intervention, which declared Batman’s treaty null and void, was not to the financial advantage of William Robertson and his fellow entrepreneurs. 

This decision forced William Robertson to adjust his strategy. Realising that land needed to be purchased ‘freehold’ he embarked on an ambitious program to purchase the best runs and herds. In 1837 he acquired 6000 acres near Colac and 7000 acres at Bolinda, near Sunbury on Deep Creek. In 1843 he bought some of the Bolden brothers’ stud and by 1847 he had also acquired Foster Fyans’s run and herd in the Colac area. In 1849 he acquired the 40,000-acre Ondit run, north of Colac. Altogether by 1850, William held the freehold title to over 53,000 acres of farmland and had acquired a number of herds, steps which laid the foundations for a cattle empire that, with the support of his sons, was to last until the end of the 1880s.

In 1852, William closed his Hobart business and began the move that would see the family move to Victoria permanently. First, the family pivoted to England where the four sons – John, William, James and George Pringle – completed their education. On their return William and his sons formed a formidable combination.

Back in Victoria William had built Coorangamoorah, though it was more well known as simply The Hill, a grand mansion overlooking Colac. It was there he settled with his wife Margaret Whyte and family. In time each son built his own mansion. Today only two survive, Coragulac which sits beneath Red Rock and has recently been fully restored, and Glen Alvie, built by James Robertson, which lies as almost a ruin.

Once living fulltime in Victoria, in the early 1860s, William Robertson’s focus was on expanding his pastoral activities but he also had time to be influential in colonial affairs. To highlight his status, it was to William’s mansion that in 1868 Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria’s second son, chose to stay. This royal visit engendered much local enthusiasm — although the Duke famously dented it when his entourage skipped the welcoming party in Colac and rode straight through to The Hill, trailing dust and disappointment over the locals in one stride.

Four Sons and a Fortune

William Robertson died at 76 years of age, in January of 1874. The Colac Observer remarked that he had suffered greatly from Dropsy for five or six weeks before his death but that he “bore it with great fortitude”.  The same article recorded that William was “a man of great energy and force of character, and … as has often been remarked in Colac, ‘he was hard to beat.’ ”

After William’s death the brothers, like their father and his siblings, formed a joint company –  another Robertson Bros. –  to exploit the legacy left to them. They had been gifted a considerable legacy; William left an estate of £289 067 – the equivalent of over $1.8 billion in the currency of 2001. This placed William at number 141 in William Rubinstein’s The All-time Australian 200 Rich List, published in 2004.

In this joint enterprise it was the younger son, James Robertson, who took on the role of Managing Director and continued overseeing the family business. The brothers continued to prosper even after the death of their father; they invested heavily in their Shorthorn stud, purchasing the best sires from England and developing their own bloodlines. In 1875 the brothers purchased Richard Morton’s Mt Derrimutt Shorthorn stud for £27,000. The following year, their January 7 cattle sale broke all records with £30,807/4/- received, with the cattle sold averaging over £100 per head.

The Robertson brothers spared no expense and made significant improvements to the land. These included the installation of an amazing irrigation network across the estate.  In an account published in 2020 by the Colac Historical Society and written by Craig Pink it was recorded that “a large steam powered pumping unit was installed to pump water from the fresh water springs known as Bullock Swamp, situated several miles north-east of the Glen Alvie mansion. Depending on the season, the Bullock Swamp area consisted of, on average, around 20 to 30 acres of drinkable water from the fresh running springs”.

The same article recorded that in 1875 the brothers employed William Parker as their chief engineer. Parker operated and maintained the boiler, steam engine and pumping installation at the Bullock Swamp springs. A large stone reservoir with the capacity of some 35,000 gallons was built approximately one mile to the west, and around 160 feet above the height of the Bullock Swamp pumping station. This reservoir was situated to the south of the Glen Alvie cattle sheds, on the Warrion Hills.

From this large stone reservoir, the water was distributed over the estate to some 9,000 acres. Over 20 miles of iron pipe was used mainly to supply the Glen Alvie mansion, its paddocks, and the Glen Alvie cattle sheds. A direct pipe ran to the south-west, also supplied water to the Coragulac House mansion of James’ brother, George Pringle Robertson. 

Even after James’ death in 1891 the remaining brothers and then their executors continued to make improvements. In mid-1895, the largest windmill in the colony was erected at the Bullock Swamp springs, close to the existing steam engine. Made by Mr J. Abraham of Ballarat East, this huge one-off windmill had a wheel diameter of 36 feet, a total height of around 82 feet, and a weight of some 13 tons. With a driving capacity equal to over 10 horsepower, the Abraham windmill’s pumping capacity was up to 100 gallons per minute.

The brothers had continued to hold annual sales at The Hill until 1887. By the mid-1880s the cattle boom had slowed, and the Robertson Bros began scaling down their large scale cattle stud. The article published by the Colac Historical Society noted the brothers had also previously invested quite heavily in stations in Queensland but which failed around this time.  Family history also suggests that on the breakup of the Robertson Bros. venture the dispersed cattle were used as the backbone of the cattle empire founded in Northern Australia by Sidney Kidman.

As well as selling most of the stock, the Robertsons also began to sell their land. The land was well suited for smaller scale farming ventures. Any unsold land was leased out at lucrative rates and terms. Also after the April 1887 dispersal sale the Robertsons still carried on the breeding of pure Shorthorn stud cattle and horses, but on a much smaller scale than previously. 

The annual cattle sales at The Hill had been major events. Their breeding stock was renowned, and their estate became a model for modern pastoralism. However contemporary accounts show that there was jealousy of the Robertson Bros. success, especially among the Western District elite. 

In the book Men of Yesterday by Margaret Kiddle, which is often considered the definitive history of the Western District, the author referenced a less than flattering assessment of them from The Hamilton Spectator.  Its assessment of the brothers, that they were “not necessarily great breeders, but great organisers and born salesmen” highlights this well.  Perhaps the source of the antipathy towards them stemmed from William and his sons avoiding the hardship and privations of early settlement, whilst still reaping its rewards in full.

Sorrow and Slow Decline

But any success comes at a cost. The lives of William Robertson’s four sons were all cut short, all of them dying in their forties and fifties. James Robertson’s life was also marked by tragedy. He and his wife, Margaret Stodart, lost their daughter Ruby to tuberculosis at just 21. James himself died the next year in Bournemouth, aged only 42. His estate was worth over £112,000 — a vast sum — but his early death marked the beginning of the family’s decline.

Within five years all four sons of William had died. George Pringle Robertson’s death in 1895 marked the end of a remarkable period, as all his brothers had died in the years before him. With their deaths, the Robertson partnership was at an end. Two figures highlight the business acumen of the Robertson Brothers. When probate was assessed in November 1890 it was recorded that James left an estate valued at £112,580 and his brother George Pringle, who died in 1895, left an estate valued at £63,408.

James Robertson’s will highlights the dissolution. He divided the estate between his six children but it also stipulated that his wife was to receive an annual income £2,000 from it. It also indicated that the daughters would only receive half of the share their brothers inherited, with the daughters receiving £10 000 whilst the sons would receive £20 000 each.

Just prior to Margaret’s death in 1903, the executors of the James Robertson estate announced a sale to subdivide the Glen Alvie estate. On 17 October 1902, 3182 acres of the Glen Alvie Estate were offered at auction bringing in some £70,000. A further sub-division of the Glen Alvie estate in October 1910 included the Glen Alvie mansion and 550 acres of surrounding land which netted a further £18,360.

By the early 20th century, the once-mighty Robertson estate had been largely broken up due to the pressure of the 1890s depression and the untimely deaths of the Robertson brothers. The story of the Robertsons is not a simple tale of pioneers triumphing over hardship. It’s a complex and layered history — one of ambition and conflict, privilege and compromise, vision and vulnerability.

The family mark remains across the Western District: in street names, surviving homesteads, and the still-whispered names of cattle bloodlines. But perhaps most enduring is the land itself — the plains, creeks, and ridgelines once walked by a Scottish farmer’s son.

Sources:

Alsop, P.F.B and Brown, P.L., (1989), The Todd Journal, Geelong Historical Society.
Clark, Neville, (2010), Boz: Aviator, Framer, Schoolmaster, W.R. Parsons.
Gellibrand, J.T., Memoranda of a Trip to Port Phillip, Internet Archive, https://ia601406.us.archive.org/16/items/biostor-257720/biostor-257720.pdf, accessed online 20 May 2025.
Gordon, Rev. John, (1794,) The New Statistical Account of Scotland – Alvie, County of Inverness, OSA, Vol. XIII, 1794, https://stataccscot.ed.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/viewer/nsa-vol14-Parish_record_for_Alvie_in_the_county_of_Inverness_in_volume_14_of_account_2/, accessed online 20 May 2025.
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Kiddle, Margaret (1961), Men of Yesterday, Melbourne University Press.
MacDonald, Rev. George (1845), The New Statistical Account of Scotland – Alvie, County of Inverness, NSA, Vol. XIV, 1845, https://stataccscot.ed.ac.uk/static/statacc/dist/viewer/nsa-vol14-Parish_record_for_Alvie_in_the_county_of_Inverness_in_volume_14_of_account_2/, accessed online 20 May 2025.
Morgan, J. (1852), The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, Archibald MacDougall.
National Portrait Gallery, (2011), William Robertson, https://www.portrait.gov.au/portraits/2011.4/william-robertson, accessed online 20 May 2025.
Pink, C., (2020), The Robertsons, Colac Historical Society, https://colachistoricalsociety.org.au/pdfs/CDHS_Newsletter_2020_02.pdf, accessed online 20 May 2025.
Robertson, M. (2011), Brothers on Farms, https://www.portrait.gov.au/magazines/41/brothers-on-farms, accessed online 20 May 2025.
Roe, M., (2005) ‘Eumarrah (1798–1832)‘, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/eumarrah-12905/text23313, accessed online 20 May 2025.
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Correction: Updated sources to include references for the New Statistical Account of Scotland (22 May 2025)