Rawson Family collections

Charles, Edmund & Lancelot Rawson

In 1867 the brothers purchased property in the Pioneer River Valley, known as Shamrock Vale, which they nicknamed Sleepy Hollow, or 'The Hollow'.

Charles 'Charlie' Rawson married Winifred Harrison in 1870, and in 1875, Edmund 'Ned' Rawson married her sister Margaret. Their two houses 'The Hollow' and 'The Nyth' were co-located on the banks of the Pioneer River, now the present township of Mirani.

Lancelot 'Lance' Rawson, married Wilhelmina 'Mina" Cahill in 1872 and in 1877 moved his family to Kircubbin, a sugar plantation on the Mary River. After it's failure he took up a 'fishing station' at Boonooroo, on the Fraser Coast as well as acting as Crown Lands Ranger for the Rockhampton district, he died in 1899, age 55.

At left: Delightful, humorous and skilfully illustrated diary relating the stories of the Rawson family's daily activities for the year 1871.

Lionel 'Jack' Reginald Rawson, MC

Lionel Rawson mostly known as 'Jack' (son of Charles and Winifred) was born in Queensland in 1876, and spent his early days at the 'The Hollow'. He left for England with his parents in 1886, returning to Queensland afterwards to learn mining engineering, and worked as an assayer at the Aldershot Smelting Works, near Maryborough.

Lionel served in the South African Campaign (Boer War), with the 2nd Queensland (Mounted Infantry) Contingent, and was briefly detained as a prisoner of war at Swartz Kopje. Returning to England he gained a commission in the 36th Battalion, Imperial Yeomanry and went back to South Africa until the end of that war.

Lionel took up the position of Cyanide Manager at the Shamva Mine in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and after the outbreak of the First World War served with 1st Rhodesian Regiment, in German South West Africa.

In September 1915, Lionel was commissioned with the 17th Infantry Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps, and served in France before being killed in action during the Battle of the Ancre Heights, 23 October 1916; he is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial, France. Lionel was awarded the Military Cross in 1917 for conspicuous gallantry.

Wilhelmina 'Mina' Frances Rawson

Wilhelmina Cahill (1851-1933) married Lance Rawson in 1872 and in 1877 they moved from the cattle station at Mackay to Kirkcubbin, a sugar plantation near Maryborough with their young family. After the demise of the plantation in 1880, they relocated to the remote Boonooroo 'fishing station' on the Fraser Coast, at the time only accessible by boat via the Mary River.

At Boonooroo, Lance and his partner Francis Ravenhill, sought to take advantage of the huge quantities of fish - particularly mullet, crabs and oysters, for the commercial market. Lance Rawson died in 1899 age 55. In 1903 Mina Rawson married Francis Ravenhill, her late husband's partner at Boonooroo, he died just three years later in 1906.

Believed to be the first female cookbook author in Australia, Mina wrote many of her recipes while living at the 'The Hollows' in Mackay, Kirkcubbin, and Boonooroo, they reference many Indigenous Australian plants, and animals. Mina was also the author of a number of short stories, fictional accounts of life in 'the bush', and children's stories.