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"John Robertson is remembered as one of the   ' cousinhood of Robertsons, all canny Scotchmen, shrewd, illiterate and rich'. " [Peter Rymill, 2010, Notes of a Journey to the South Eastern District January 1863 by William Milne, p 60, ftnt 2]   The author of that witty slur (in italics) was Stanley Leighton (1837-1901), second son of an English baronet, educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford University. He 'toured' the Australian colonies in 1868 and his collection of watercolours, pencil drawings and "copious rough jottings" from that period were subsequently gifted to the National Library of Australia (MS 360). Despite his inscription that "The writer of these notes was traveling for pleasure", Leighton's Sketches of Australia with Journal Extracts  (London, 1868) are "Not just a gentleman's reminiscence". They are "as much the report of a self-appointed inquiry into the progress of the Australian colo...

  The squatters John and William Robertson entered the "New Country" and settled on "Robertsons Plains" in 1842. In the era of Occupation Licences they held No. 64, claiming 60 square miles of land (38,400 acres). When the system changed to Pastoral Leases in 1851, they held No. 169 and claimed 140 square miles (89,800 acres). The story of their decade of expansion and consolidation is illustrated by a contemporary survey of the "Struan Run". Held by the South Australian Lands Office, and drafted by Garrald & Shaw, surveyors from Geelong in July 1851, the map has the long but descriptive title of Sketch of Musquitoe Creek Sheep Walk, County Robe, South Australia In the occupation of Messrs W & J Robertson Contents 89,827 Acres, 140 Sq M 227 Acs. and is annotated "Lease No. 169, Robertson". The relatively detailed "Sketch" makes clearer what is only hinted at in the general licence and lease maps posted in the previous article on...

  Along the Naracoorte-Penola Road, on a rise above the Mosquito Creek, there is a private burial ground around a granite plynth. On one side of the memorial stone are the words In Memory of JOHN ROBERTSON who was born at Dunachton . Inverness-shire, Scotland, 1809 arrived in Australia, 1832 settled at Robertsons Plains, 1842 died at Struan House 31st March 1880. And his wife SUSAN who was born at Kinrara Inverness-shire, Scotland, 1831 died at Struan House 27th May 1906. John and Susan had come a long way, in circumstances as well as distance, from Dunachton (and Kinrara) in the Scottish Highlands to Struan in the South East of South Australia. By the time of his death in 1880, John Robertson was 'laird' of several adjoining sheep stations. "At one period the estates owned and leased by this enterprising grazier reached a maximum of over 125,000 acres, while the stock carried, when the various runs directed from Struan were at their zenith, may be put down at 60,000 sheep...