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Clan Munro (Association) Australia : The Official Registered Website of the Clan in Australia

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Ancestor Colin Munro of Drynie

Munro called his new property Drynie. He had about 200 acres under sugar cane and employed 18 Kanakas and 5 white men. Munro had used Kanakas at Fisherfield and also did so at Drynie but there he went one step further. Together with a few others, he formed the Townsville Shipping Co. Ltd. and operated a schooner, the Ceara, to recruit Kanaka labourers – “blackbirding.” Munro must have treated his Kanakas well for EW Docker in his book “The Blackbirders” says “Former labourers would genuinely wish to enlist again but were put off because the Queensland destinations were so unpolular. William Matson F.A. of the May Queen, recruiting for the Brisbane district in 1874, found one group of islanders willing towork for such employers as Davy, Goodin and Munro as he began to call off some names but emphatically not for Louis Hope or george Raff of Caboolture." When it came time for the Kanakas to return to their island, most elected to stay at Drynie. The Kanakas were generally of a happy nature with a fondness for children. We will see an example of that another issue in AC Munro’s story.

At Drynie, Munro also ran cattle and established a factory that is thought to be the first to manufacture condensed milk in Australia. But things now took a turn for the worse – a bovine disease then called “redwater” struck the cattle. It was a problem caused by a blood stream parasite carried by the cattle tick that had been introduced on water buffalo brought in from the Netherland Indies. Cattle in Australia, having had no previous exposure, were entirely without immunity and the results were disastrous. By the time treatment and control measures had been devised, Munro’s herd had been reduced to one beast. The factory was taken over by Nestles.

At the same time, Australia suffered a horrendous depression. Before recovery, the Australian banking system was in tatters. Instead of the seventy odd, well established banks before the depression, there remained only about fourteen by 1900. Munro had weathered one bank failure but this was all too much. He struggled on until the end of 1900, when the mortgagees sold Drynie. In 1901 the family dispersed. Archibald went to prospect for gold around Charters Towers. William, who had earlier fallen out with his father, had taken a job splitting railway sleepers and later became a sugar boiler. Later still, he was employed in a survey crew and studied surveying while so employed. Colin obtained a small farm at Cardwell but could not keep it. Elizabeth took employment as a governess and later trained as a nurse and Aunt Alice also was trained in nursing.

Further south, McConnel of Cressbrook had subdivided his substantial holdings into farms suitable for dairying but of course a market for the dairy produce was essential. For this reason, he decided to set up a milk condensery and approached Munro to manage the project but it was not successful initially. Although Munro had succeeded in manufacturing condensed milk in North Queensland, here he encountered problems that were not within his experience and the early output was a failure. McConnel temporarily closed down the factory and sent Munro’s son William Albert overseas to learn the latest manufacturing techniques. On his return, he was appointed manager and, with the new methods he introduced, the venture was successful.

Colin Munro III and his wife Mary Neill Young in the centre with son William behind.

His grandson, Colin, from whose writings the above story has been condensed, had only vague childhood memories of Munro. “My own recollection did not, could not, tally with the imaginary figure which loomed large in family legend. All I remember was, as a very small boy, no more than 5 years of age, if that, walking with my father up the front stairs of a house in Brisbane to be met at the head of the stairs by an old man, broad shouldered, white bearded and wearing a dark green velvet skull fitting cap, then known as a smoking cap. At that point my mental image fades. I cannot recall more.”

Colin Munro III of Drynie died at his residence in Doris Street, West End, Brisbane on 9th July 1918 having lived a very full and eventful life as a pioneer of the Australian sugar and condensed milk industries. Colin Munro tells us that Munro’s son, William Albert has given us Munro’s most fitting epitaph when he said “He was a clever man – he would try anything.” That surely expresses the spirit of the men who set out to tame this new land – to make it a country for us, their descendants.