26 August 1844 Dr John Harris Brown

On 26 August 1844 Dr John Harris Browne was somewhere north of Moorundie on the River Murray with Captain Sturt on his last expedition to the north. The party also included Poole as Sturt’s lieutenant and John McDouall Stuart. Edward John Eyre accompanied the group for a while along the river from Moorundie where he was serving as Protector of Aborigines. The trip later became a nightmare as heat and drought took their toll. Poole died and the others suffered badly from scurvy. Sturt was very ill and nearly blind and for much of the return journey was carried on a dray; he probably only survived through Browne’s devoted care.

John Harris Browne had come to South Australia in 1840, two years after his brother, William, who was also a doctor educated in Edinburgh. After his return from the north John Harris continued with his pastoral interests in partnership with his brother and they jointly owned the Booborowie and Canowie properties in the 1860s. In 1856 they bought Buckland Park where John Harris lived for several years. They had other properties in the north and on the west coast and Moorak at Mount Gambier. John Harris settled in England in the 1870s but made several trips back to South Australia to visit his properties. He died in England in 1904.

R. Cockburn, Pastoral Pioneers of South Australia, Volume 1, 1925, pp.32-3.