A colourful aspect of the early history of the South Burnett was uncovered during research into the origin of the name of Kingaroy Creek.

Thanks are due for information kindly provided for this article by:-
- Libby Leu, of Taabinga Homestead
- William Standish O'Grady Haly and Richard Swift O'Grady Haly, London
- Eddie Geoghegan, of website araltas.com

Click to select, or scroll down the page:-

The Burnett region takes its name from the Burnett River. In 1847, the Burnett River was named in honour of surveyor J C Burnett who was the first European to explore its full extent.

By the time that Burnett had achieved his feat of exploration, the region known today as the South Burnett had already been occupied by European settlers. Of course, many of the placenames used today did not yet exist.

European settlement of the South Burnett began in 1842 with the selection of the sheep runs of Taromeo, Nanango, Tarong, Taabinga and Burrandowan (1843). Dozens of other runs were selected within the next few years. Details are sketchy because official records for the South Burnett region appear to be scarce until at least the end of the 1840's.

Burrandowan was selected by the explorer Henry Stuart Russell in 1843, during an 1842-43 expedition in which he discovered the Stuart River and the Boyne River and its confluence with the Burnett River. The Stuart River was subsequently named in honour of its discoverer.

Russell chose the name Boyne River because he mistakenly thought that it and the Burnett River were the already-known Boyne River that meets the ocean at Gladstone. The Boyne River that Russell discovered is actually a tributary of the Burnett River that flows into the ocean at Bundaberg, 140 kilometres southeast of Gladstone.

So, thanks to Russell, southeast Queensland has two unconnected rivers that are both called the Boyne River.

Some say it was in 1842, others say it was in 1846, that the Haly brothers travelled from Tamworth in NSW with ten shepherds, five thousand sheep, three bullock drivers, a few cattle and horses, two boys, a carpenter, a blacksmith and three bullock drays on which were loaded two tons of provisions, tools, equipment and weapons. They explored the region west of Nanango Station that had been founded earlier in 1842. They selected a tract of land that straddled the Stuart River and there they founded Taabinga Station. The year of their arrival was probably 1842, although their occupancy of Taabinga did not officially begin until 1846. Taabinga Homestead was constructed in 1846.

The first squatters, as they were then known, forged their way into lands that initially did not have any towns or roads. They laid claim to vast realms and brought with them thousands of sheep. Squatters were in those days among the elite of Australia.

Some of the pioneers who founded the first sheep stations in the South Burnett became the local aristocracy. For example, in 1849 William O'Grady Haly of Taabinga and Pollet Cardew of Wooroolin were appointed as magistrates for the Burnett District. In 1859 Charles Robert Haly of Taabinga became an elected member of the lower house in Queensland's first Legislative Assembly.

Not so well known is that some of the first settlers were actually real aristocrats from old European aristocratic families. The founders of Taabinga Station in 1842, brothers Charles Robert Haly and William O'Grady Haly, had ancestors that included English and Irish royalty and French nobility.



The Haly brothers who founded Taabinga Station were Charles Robert Haly (1816-1892) and William O'Grady Haly (1820-1861).

Charles Robert Haly was born at the Chateau de la Tomaserie near Amboise, France, during a visit by his parents to his grandparents.

William O'Grady Haly was born at Ballyhaly in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

After the deaths of their parents, Charles and William Haly emigrated from Newfoundland to Australia, travelling via Plymouth. They arrived in Australia in 1838.

Their Irish ancestors included The O'Grady and The O'Hanly. In Ireland, the title "The" signifies a chieftain or king. Their ancestors also included William the Conqueror and Brian Boru, the last high king of Ireland.



The william1.co.uk website is dedicated to mapping the family tree of the many descendants of William the Conqueror (1027-1087), Duke of Normandy (1035) and King of England (1066). Branches of the Haly family can trace their descent from William the Conqueror via William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury (1161-1226).

William Longespee's tree of descendants begins on page Longespee 1 and 2. The part of the tree that includes the Haly brothers of Taabinga is on page Longespee 3 and 4.



Richard Swift O'Grady Haly, who lives in England, has written that:-

"The known link with Irish royalty comes through the O'Grady line. "The" O'Grady was the head of that line, and at one time was a very powerful man. The Haly family married into the O'Grady family in 1729, the man in question being William Haly (1707-1780), [of Ballyhaly, County Cork, Ireland], the great grandfather of the brothers that settled in Australia."

"Also through the O'Grady line comes the link to William the Conqueror."

"However, our Sept of Haly was formerly known as O'Hanly, and "The" O'Hanly of Slievebawn had his ancestral lands in County Roscommon. When one son moved to Limerick in about 1545 he changed his name to Haly and chose the coat of arms and motto [see below]. The O'Hanly (or O'Hanley - spellings vary) were tributaries to O'Conor Don to which family, I understand, the last High King of Ireland belonged. By coincidence my mother's cousin married "The" O'Conor Don so in the 21st century we are definitely related to Irish royalty, however, I find it inconceivable that we were not connected 500 years ago, and certainly the O'Hanly family gets mentions in "The Four Masters" as early as the fourth century AD."


A Haly family history, written in 1961 by Richard Haly's grandfather, John Barrington Haly, states that The O'Hanly of Slievebawn had a very large territory and was descended from one of the princes of Connaught. The history explains that the reason that the youngest son of The O'Hanly, James, fled to Limerick in 1545 was because he had killed the son of Lord Clanricarde in a duel.


The present-day Richard Haly also provided information about his namesake relative:-

"The William Haly (1707-1780) that I mentioned above had 16 children (8 boys and 8 girls). My brother [William Standish O'Grady Haly] and I are descended from the eldest son, however, it is the third son Richard (1733-1819) who is pertinent to the story here. Richard Haly (1733-1819) left Ireland in the mid 1750's and joined the Irish Brigade fighting in the service of the King of France, following the example of an uncle. Several of his younger brothers followed the same path. This Richard married [a French noble lady, Anastasia Amaranthe Naveteur] and settled in France and several of his sons also joined the Irish Brigade, including Charles Dominic William Haly (1769-1835), known as William."

"After the French Revolution, this latter William was one of those who transferred to the British Army. This William would have been a fluent French speaker but I suspect he was completely bilingual. For reasons unknown, William was in Cork, Ireland in 1796 and got married, however, the family history records that in 1799 he arrived in Newfoundland a widower so one presumes that his wife died in childbirth. I believe that he had been sent to Newfoundland by the War Office with his regiment. He married Anne Hutchings there in 1801 and they ended up with several children, including the brothers who went to Australia."

"William became a lieutenant colonel and commanded the Nova Scotia Fencibles, and died on his estate at Ballyhaly, St. John's [Newfoundland] in 1835. His wife Anne died in 1838."

"Thus the circumstances of Richard going to France were not exile, but a voluntary process based on financial needs - there was nothing for them in Ireland at the time, particularly for a younger son."


A website specialising in Irish heraldry and ancestry can be found at araltas.com. Eddie Geoghegan of araltas.com has kindly given permission to reproduce here some information from the araltas.com website page about the name O'Grady:-

"Cormac Cas was King of Thomond around the fifth century and he spawned a tribal grouping known as the Dal gCais or Dalcassians which dominated Munster until the final suppression of the old Gaelic order in the seventeenth century. Twenty-three generations later and in direct descent from Cas we find Gradhach (also called Bradach), meaning "illustrious", from whom the name O'Gradhaigh (descendant of Gradach) is derived. This Irish name would later be anglicised as O'Grady."

"The O'Grady sept originated in Co. Clare though the seat and territory of the Chief of the Name has for several centuries been at Killballyowen, Co. Limerick. The present holder of that dignity (i.e. in popular parlance "The O'Grady") is one of the very few the authenticity of whose claim to chieftainship is officially recognized by the Chief Herald and the Genealogical Office in Ireland. The name in Irish is O Gradaigh or more shortly O Grada, so that the anglicized form approximates closely to the original. Keating's History gives O'Grada or O'Grady, as chief of Kinel Donghuile, a large territory comprising the present barony of Lower Tullagh in Clare."

"The O'Gradys are an ancient aristocratic family, kinsmen of their neighbours the O Briens of Thomond in Limerick. The original O Grady stronghold was Inis Cealtra (Holy Island) on Lough Derg. The tower of a ruined O Grady castle can still be seen in their former territory in Cineal-Donghaile near Tuamgraney, County Clare, where the O Briens granted them a generous acreage of land. A little further north, near Scarriff, there is a Lough O Grady."



Richard Haly has kindly supplied an image of the Haly family coat-of-arms. This is a fine work of heraldic artistry painted in 1961 by John Barrington Haly who, at an advanced age, had taken up painting as a hobby. The care and attention to detail show that John Haly took great pride in his family's heritage. The coat-of-arms can also be seen in the book mentioned above about the Haly family, a copy of which is held at Taabinga Homestead.



Richard Swift O'Grady Haly wrote:-

"My brother [William Standish O'Grady Haly] has translated the family motto for you. This would have been the same for the Haly brothers [at Taabinga], but technically their coat would have been "halved" with those of the Naveteur family - the wife of their grandfather, Richard (1733-1819). In fact the purist (and the law) would state that a coat of arms is registered to a specific individual and therefore one should not automatically take on the arms of ones forebears - however, in practice everyone appears to do exactly that! As it happens, William O'Grady Haly registered his pedigree and coat of arms at Dublin Castle in 1860-61 before setting off back for Australia - a journey he would never complete as he died on the way."


The crest of the Haly coat-of-arms is a mermaid with comb and mirror. The presence of a mermaid in a coat-of-arms signifies eloquence. A mermaid is traditionally usually shown with a comb and mirror in her hands, these objects having no particular significance.


The same Haly of Ballyhaly coat-of-arms can also be seen, drawn by a different heraldic artist, in the araltas.com website at araltas.com/features/healy/. Each individual heraldic artist has their own unique style.



The Healy page of the araltas.com website contains a wide range of coats-of-arms belonging to a diversity of families with surnames similar to Healy and Haly, including Haly of Ballyhaly. These families with similar surnames are not all related to each other.



Added: November 2019

The coat-of-arms of the Alford Family is depicted in a book about the family compiled by Robert Dudley Chisholm Alford in 1989 titled "Thomas Alford --- 1838 --- 1864. Drayton --- Toowoomba. Journals. Richard Symes Alford. Memoirs. Other Papers".



Kingaroy Creek is a small tributary of the Stuart River. The Stuart River was discovered by Henry Stuart Russell after whom the river was named. Russell and other European settlers arrived in the area in 1842.

For the practical purpose of being able to communicate information about navigation, it was standard practice to give names to every substantial natural landmark including creeks. Therefore it is probable that Kingaroy Creek was given some sort of name in 1842 or shortly thereafter.

The Haly brothers may have played a role in the naming of some places in the Taabinga area because they were the first Europeans to settle there. For example, a locality near to Taabinga Homestead is called Haly Creek.

As part of the search for the origin of the name of Kingaroy Creek, the early history of Taabinga has been re-examined.

Recent research has shown that some history books contain a few inaccurate details about Taabinga. Most history books incorrectly state that the size of Taabinga Run was initially more than 300 square miles. In fact, initially the Taabinga Run was officially much smaller. The earliest official record so far uncovered of Taabinga Run shows that in 1852 it was only 25 square miles.

There appear to be three factors that may have contributed to the discrepancy in the history books. Firstly, the Taabinga Run is only one of five runs that became part of Taabinga Station, being the Bonaire, Taabinga, Boonnenne, Wooroolin and Gordonbrook runs. Secondly, the Haly brothers appear to have expanded their initial holding by making additional selections and by acquiring the Wooroolin Run from Pollet Cardew. Eventually Taabinga Station and its five runs did collectively become larger than 300 square miles. Thirdly, back in those early days there may have been an inexact correlation between what was shown in official records and what was actually happening on the ground.

All the Haly family holdings together were known as Taabinga Station. Most of the station's land was not actually in the Taabinga Run. By 1872, Taabinga Run was officially estimated as 68 square miles. The other runs held by the Haly family were Gordonbrook Run (57 sq miles) , Bonaire Run (47 sq miles), Boonenne Run (81 sq miles) and Wooroolin Run (65 sq miles). Looking at a map from 1872, it is clear that the official areas of some runs did not match the actual areas, a fact that would have been obvious at the time. Either the estimated areas are incorrect or the boundaries on the map are incorrect. (For example, the map shows that the Wooroolin Run was nearly twice as large as the Boonnenne Run, but the official areas of the two runs were 65 square miles for Wooroolin and 81 square miles for Boonnenne.)


In the Haly family history there is a description of the founding of Taabinga Station compiled by the surveyor Hector Munro who had attended boarding school at Ipswich with a son of Charles Robert Haly. Hector Munro knew the Haly family well. Indeed, on one of the old glass window panes of Taabinga Homestead the name "Hector" is scratched into the glass in large ornate letters.

In the Haly family history, the initial size of Taabinga is stated to be about one thousand square miles, an inexplicably inaccurate observation for a surveyor to have made. Some of the stories associated with Hector Munro have been proved to lack veracity. In this case, it is possible that Hector Munro wrote his account when he was still at school, for he would have been only fifteen years old when the Haly family sold Taabinga.


Pollet Cardew

From what has been written by some historians, it had been assumed that the Haly brothers were the first European holders of the land in which Kingaroy Creek is situated.

Kingaroy Creek is located in the Wooroolin Run. The original selector of the Wooroolin Run was actually Pollet Cardew (1817-1900), who became a local magistrate in 1849. According to Henry Stuart Russell's 1888 book, "The Genesis of Queensland", Cardew had settled on the Stuart River shortly after the Haly brothers in 1846.

Cardew had arrived in Australia from England in 1840. As well as his South Burnett holding, in 1853 he was a part-owner of Mount Flinders Station. Cardew purchased land in Ipswich near Brisbane in 1854. In 1854 or 1855 the Wooroolin Run was transferred to the Haly brothers.

If Kingaroy Creek was given its name by an early European settler then it would probably have been Pollet Cardew's prerogative to have chosen the name. However, 1872 is the date of the first record so far discovered that contains the name Kingaroy Creek. This means that there is as yet no evidence available about whether the name of Kingaroy Creek was created before or after the Wooroolin Run was transferred to the Haly brothers.



The placename Bonaire is a combination of two French words, "bon" (good) and "aire" (area or zone). The name Bonaire has nowadays become Benair.

The Boonnenne Run was initially called the Taabinga Number 2 Run. By 1852 its name had been changed to the Boonnenne Run.

In 1863, Charles Robert Haly transferred the ownership of Gordonbrook Run to two of his older sisters, Jane Lucy Haly and Amelia Harriet Kerly, who both resided in England. No information has been found about the reason for this transfer.

In 1875, the Haly family sold Taabinga Homestead along with the Taabinga, Gordonbrook, Bonaire, Boonenne and Wooroolin runs to a consortium that included Thomas Alford.

In 1878, the first resumptions of Taabinga Station lands took place. The Markwell brothers selected two adjoining blocks that were excised from the Wooroolin Run. The Markwells' land became known as Kingaroy Paddock.

In 1883, Thomas Alford became the sole owner of Taabinga Station, including the Taabinga, Gordonbrook, Bonaire, Boonenne and Wooroolin runs.

Under the Crown Lands Act 1884, if two or more adjoining runs were held by the same tenant then they became one consolidated run. "Taabinga Run" became the official name of a consolidated run that comprised the former Taabinga, Gordonbrook, Bonaire, Boonenne and Wooroolin runs. Thus in 1884 the Taabinga Run for the first time officially exceeded 300 square miles, although of course Taabinga Station with its five runs had already been this size for many years.

When a consolidated run lease expired, half of the run was automatically resumed for closer settlement. In 1886 the Taabinga Run, now an area of 305 square miles, was cut in two and the northern half, an area of 151 square miles, was resumed.

In 1887 or 1888, the Alford family sold Taabinga Homestead with its remaining 154 square miles to Arthur Youngman.

By 1907, further resumptions had reduced the homestead block to 3000 acres. Eventually, the area was reduced to about 1500 acres.

Libby Leu, a direct descendant of Arthur Youngman, resides at the homestead to this day. Libby and her husband Colin Marshall have rehabilitated the homestead and gardens which are now in splendid condition.

Taabinga Homestead today offers pleasant holiday accommodation, interesting tours, group visits and facilities for special functions. Further information can be found at taabingahomestead.com.

Among the homestead's prized possessions is a history of the Haly family that was written in 1961 by John Barrington Haly for John Robert Charles Haly of Brisbane who is a direct descendant of Charles Robert Haly who founded Taabinga. John Barrington Haly was the grandfather of William Standish O'Grady Haly and Richard Swift O'Grady Haly who kindly contributed information for this article. The history of the Haly family shows that the family had many illustrious and distinguished members.



The history of Taabinga Station has links with the Ogg family. Thomas Alford (1844-1928) was a member of a consortium that owned Taabinga from 1875 to 1883. He was the sole owner of Taabinga Station from 1883 to 1888 and resided at Taabinga during this time. In 1872, Thomas Alford married Sarah Margaret Ogg, daughter of Edward Ogg JP of Ipswich. Two of their eight children were born while they lived at Taabinga.

There were three marriages between the Alford and Ogg families. Thomas Alford's brother Richard Symes Alford (1854-1920), who managed Taabinga Station from 1875 to 1883 and who managed the transfer of the station to Arthur Youngman in 1888 and who worked as book keeper and lived in "The Lodge" at Taabinga Station for three years from about 1908, married Sarah Ogg's sister Rachel Gordon Ogg in 1893. As a result of his close friendship with Arthur Youngman, Alford Street in Kingaroy was named after Richard Symes Alford. Also, a brother of the Ogg sisters married the daughter of another of Thomas Alford's brothers, Henry King Alford (1852-1930). Henry King Alford was Mayor of Toowoomba (1911-12).

The Ogg family had many notable relatives:-

• The great-grandfather of sisters Sarah and Rachel Ogg was Governor Pile of Barbados.
• A cousin of their mother was the Earl of Gordon who became the Governor of Fiji.
• Another cousin of their mother was Major General Charles George Gordon (1833-1885), better known as Gordon of Khartoum. The siege of Khartoum happened during the time that Thomas and Sarah Alford lived at Taabinga.
• The Ogg sisters were first cousins of siblings Dora and Gordon Edgell of Bathurst who founded the Edgell tinned vegetable company.

The surname Ogg comes from the name Og

The name Og occurs in Ireland, going back more than a thousand years. An example of an Irish-born noble with the name of Og is Garret Og Fitzgerald (1487-1534), 9th Earl of Kildare, who was the Lord Deputy of Ireland. He died while imprisoned in the Tower of London. Surnames with the prefix Fitz are norman in origin. At that time English monarchs were the nominal rulers of Ireland, but from 1471 until 1534 the Earls of Kildare were in effect the actual rulers of Ireland.


The Intertwined Histories of Ireland and Scotland

The name Og has associations with the norse-gaelic clan Donald of Scotland. For example, Alexander Og MacDonald was Lord of the Isles in the 13th century.

Clan Donald traces its descent from Somerled, King of the Hebrides, who was killed fighting Malcolm IV of Scotland at the Battle of Renfrew in 1164. At that time Scotland had become the home of many Irish gaels. According to the seanchai, the bearers of celtic lore, Somerled's ancestry on the male line can be traced back to the high kings of Ireland. However DNA evidence suggests that most present-day MacDonalds are descended from norse ancestry on the male line.

The remainder of this section is not about the name Og, but has been included here as further background information to help illustrate how intertwined are the histories of Ireland and Scotland.

Scotland and Ireland each experienced numerous wars and incessant internal strife. Between the mid 13th century and the early 17th century, many bands of dispossessed Scottish warriors, particularly from Argyll and the western isles, were recruited as elite mercenaries by Irish nobles and by Norman-Irish lords. Many were rewarded with land and settled in Ireland.

In the late middle ages, Scottish mercenaries in Ireland were known as the galloglass, which means foreign young warriors. The favourite weapons of the galloglass were the massive two-handed nordic battle axe and the broadsword or claymore. They also used throwing spears. Each warrior had two young assistants who carried his weapons and provisions. A description of the galloglass from 1600 states that they were picked and selected men of great and mighty bodies, cruel without compassion. They chose to die rather than to yield, so that in battle they were either quickly slain or quickly victorious.

kingaroar.com main page

How Kingaroy Got its Name

More About
How Kingaroy Got its Name