Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore was a pastoralist in the early days of South Australia and the founder of a family highly influential in that and other States, especially Queensland.
History
Daniel was born in Tory Hall in County Limerick, Ireland in 1811 and educated in Essex, England. In 1835 he and his wife Mary, together with his wife's immediate family, emigrated to Australia on the John Denniston under Captain Mackie which left Liverpool on 11 February 1835 for Sydney, Australia and arrived in Hobart, Tasmania on 7 June 1835. His original destination may have been Sydney, but while the ship was in Hobart, he met a cousin, surgeon Captain Russell of the 63rd Regiment, who persuaded him to settle in Tasmania. Daniel found employment as a schoolmaster, then at Peter DeGraves' Cascade Brewery at The Cascades in Hobart. A year later they received news of the Proclamation of South Australia and he chartered a yacht and with a cargo of supplies headed for the new colony, arriving at Holdfast Bay early in 1837, Mary following in the Siren, on which yacht their second child, James Francis, was born. Daniel was a partner in the Adelaide Union Brewing Company opposite the office of the Southern Australian on Rundle Street in 1838. In August 1843 he took out a wine and beer licence for the "Harp Inn" on North East Road, near Dry Creek. In the early 1840s he built a substantial brewery and a malt factory off Melbourne Street, North Adelaide, which perhaps became the Lion Brewing and Malting Company. In 1847 the news came that he had inherited a considerable property, "Manister", in County Limerick, Ireland from Jane Cudmore, a cousin. He arranged for it to be sold and with the proceeds purchased pastoral properties in the mid-north of South Australia: Yongala, Pinda and Beautiful Valley. He also purchased the Paringacattle station. He left management of these properties to his sons and went to Queensland. He took up a station on the Clarke River, a tributary of the Burdekin River, and purchased 4,000 acres on the Herbert River, near Cardwell for a sugar plantation. In 1871 he purchased Avoca Station at the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers in New South Wales and in 1876 added the adjoining Popiltah Station, making a total leasehold of 900,000 acres and freehold of 33,000 acres near Wentworth. His sons Daniel Henry, Milo Robert and Arthur Frederick together ran Avoca and Popiltah stations in New South Wales, Oakvale in South Australia, and Boondoon in Queensland as Cudmore Brothers. In 1895 Daniel Henry left the partnership to take over Boondoon.
Interests
Daniel was a strong swimmer, and saved several people from drowning. He wrote several poems, published under the title Poetical Scraps. In 1862 he bought "Hartley Bank", near Glen Osmond, built-in 1848 by Alfred Hardy, one of Colonel Light's survey team. He renamed it "Claremont" and immediately set about enlarging it.
Family
Daniel Michael Paul Cudmore married Mary Nihill in 1835, home "Claremont", Glen Osmond, South Australia. Among their children were:
Mary Jane moved to Killiney, Ireland, never married.
Margaret Alice
Margaret Alice married George Agars J.P. on 14 January 1863. home Courtabie station, Venus Bay, South Australia. Agars married again, to Margaret Dinnison on 1 May 1878 and had at least two more children and James Magnus ). George owned at various times Courtabie, Warna Grange and Avoca stations.
Daniel Henry
Daniel Henry Cashell "Dan" Cudmore married Harriet Garrett Smedley on 20 February 1872 Martha Earle "Mattie" McCracken on 15 November 1882, With brothers Milo Robert and Arthur Frederick ran Avoca and Popiltah stations then left in 1895 to manage Boondoon. His homes were "Thornbank", Northcote, Victoria and Avoca, New South Wales. He purchased "Adare", Victor Harbor, across the River Hindmarsh from Mount Breckan, from John Hindmarsh jun. Dan's widow lived at Palmer Place, North Adelaide in 1926. Their children included:
Sarah Elizabeth
Sarah Elizabeth "Rosa" married Dr. John Sprod MRCS on 15 July 1878. Sprod was appointed, then sacked, as City Health Officer, then appointed to the board of Adelaide Hospital, He was one of Australia's oldest practising physicians.
Milo Robert
Milo Robert Cudmore married Constance Alexander on 15 September 1891 home "Alverstoke" Glen Osmond, last address 17 Murphy Street South Yarra, Victoria
*Francis Alexander "Frank" Cudmore was a noted palaeontologist; he donated his extensive collection of Tertiary marine fossils to the National Museum of Australia. He married Evelyn Mary Eddy on ????.
When the three surviving sons were orphaned, they were cared for by their mother's sister Dr. Lilian Helen Alexander In 1935 A.S., F.A. and W.M. Cudmore presented a statue "The Wheel of Life" by Web Gilbert to the University of Melbourne in her memory. She and her friend Helen Sexton were two of the first three female medical graduates of the university.
