Above: Thomas Robertson jr.

Above: This sketch by Gerald Achilles Burgoyne (1874-1936) was made in 1893. It has the title "

Mr. Robertson - Wool King

" and is commented: "

Thomas Robertson (1824-1904), owner of a 167,000 acre sheep station in Toganmain (aka Singorambah East), NSW, with 100,000 beasts from which to produce wool, and a vast mansion he called Merioola, situated on Edgecliff Road, Woollahra, Sydney.

"

After the family firm had split up Thomas purchased a large sheep station, Brewarrina, in New South Wales, sold it a few years later and purchased a sheep station called

, with an area of 167,000 acres, which was very roughly in the shape of a rectangle on the Southern side of the

; it had about 13 miles of river on its northern side. In 1905 they had 100,000 sheep there. The station remained in Robertson hands until 1988, when John Robertson sold it. (He is the son of Graham, shot down in 1942 at the age of twenty-eight, and the grandson of Thomas' son John Seymour Robertson).
 
Thomas junior acquired Brewarrina station, in New South Wales, but in June 1873 was offered and acquired

station, also NSW, near Hay, on the south bank of the Murrumbidgee River, and this was to be home for Thomas and his family. In September 1876 it was recorded that 202,292 sheep were shorn at Toganmain "by 92 blade shearers" which set a record for the greatest number of shearers at one shearing: a record that still stands.

some pictures of Toganmain, of life and work there and in other stations are shown.

Above: Thomas Robertson's house at Toganmain,

,

, in the

area of New South Wales, Australia ("Toganmain" is thought to be Aboriginal for "I am cold".)
 
The whole territory called "Toganmain" was owned by Thomas Robertson (another name of it seems to have been "Singorambah East" as the 1890 auction advert at the bottom of this page shows; the advert also gives an impression of the dimensions of these territories).

"....The demolition of grand houses and their grounds often took place in stages. The Gardens of Merioola, a vast mansion built in 1859 in Edgecliff Road, were taken up with residential subdivision in the early 1920s. The house itself was demolished for a block of flats in 1952. ...."
  - Sydney's Century: A History, by Peter Spearritt, UNSW Press, 1999.
 
Edgecliff Road runs North-South for most of its length. Rosemont Ave makes a T junction on its western side (left on the map), so Merioola stood on the corner to the south of the Avenue.

Most of the following information is taken from reports by John Humphreys:

Also this garden scene might show house and garden of Toganmain.

See also:

Toganmain, Telleraga and Brewarrina stations -

, 1835-1986, gift of the Robertson family:
141 boxes on 25 metres of shelf space,
State Library of New South Wales.

 
Historical

We express our gratitude to the National Library of Australia and their fabulous online project "Australian Newspapers" to whom we owe these two precious insights into our family's past.

Toganmain