John T. Baker was appointed as customs officer to the new port of Mackay in 1863. Baker also served as harbour master, a justice of the peace and as a police magistrate.
Edmund James "Ted" Banfield, author and naturalist, was born in Liverpool and brought to Australia as a boy by his father, who became proprietor the Ararat Advertiser. Banfield had experience with newspapers in Melbourne and Sydney in the 1870s, and in 1882 went to Townsville, where he became sub-editor of the Townsville Bulletin. In 1884 he visited England in 1884, where he met his future wife. They were married in Townsville in 1886and he remained at the Townsville Bulletin until 1897 until he resigned, being diagnosed with tuberculosis. Banfield and his deaf wife then settled on Dunk Island. He obtained a 30-year lease of 129 ha of land on 4 January 1900 and lived a comparatively solitary life. Except for occasional holidays on the mainland, he spent the rest of his days on the island. In 1908 he published Confessions of a Beachcomber which was followed by My Tropic Isle (1911), and Tropic Days (1918). Last Leaves from Dunk Island was published posthumously in 1925. Wikipedia entry Australian Dictionary of Biography The Confessions of a Beachcomber My Tropic Isle Tropic Days Last Leaves from Dunk Island
Thomas Henry Bowman Barron was an ex-police officer and chief clerk of the Queensland Police Department.
Commander E.P. Bedwell of the Royal Navy in HMS Llewellyn recognised the Cumberland group of islands in 1879 and named each after towns in the county.
William Vereker Bindon from Auckland, New Zealand applied for an occupation licence on Brampton Island (10 June 1912) but he did nothing with the island and the licence lapsed in 1913. He visited the island from time to time in his boat Florence, which he sold to the Busuttin family when he departed. He also obtained an occupation licence over Carlisle Island on 18 September 1911 which he held until 1913. Lands Department records of the time show he also was interested in Green Island and Prudhoe Island in the Northumberland group. He may have had a criminal record in New Zealand (here) or may have been the chief inspector of schools for the Wanganui Education District (here).
Henry Mackinnon Bohle was born in India, on the 30th September 1842, son of an Irishman who started the first brewery in India. Henry's father died in 1851 and Henry became heir to the estate, but after the Mutiny the family left India and migrated to Australia, joining near their cousins, the Byrnes, at Parramatta. Henry was an excellent horseman and encouraged his cousins James (Jim) and Samuel Byrnes, to join him droving cattle and sheep in South Australia and northern Queensland. In 1861 he formed a partnership with J.M. Black, James Byrnes and Henry Mackinnon to take 22,000 sheep from Sydney and Singleton to stock Fanning Downs and Victoria Downs Stations. Fanning Downs Station at that time was owned by J.M. Black, W.A. Ross and W. Longshaw. F.J. Walker accompanied Henry, James and Samuel to Fanning Downs Station, and later became mayor of Townsville.
Bohle stayed in Townsville, and in 1864 sold his rights as heir to his father's estate to his mother for 1,000 pounds. In 1865 Henry and James returned to Sydney, where he married Sussanah Ann Byrnes, his second cousin and moved to Newcastle, where Henry became the Government Ballast Master. eHive
F.W. Bolton, manager of Farleigh mill
Colonial administrator Sir George Ferguson Bowen's appointments included postings to the Ionian Islands, Queensland, New Zealand, Victoria, Mauritius and Hong Kong. Wikipedia entry Australian Dictionary of Biography
Sir John Bramston (1871 -1921), politician and civil servant, Member of Legislative Council 1863-69, Member of Legislative Assembly Burnett 1871-73 and Attorney-General 1865 and 1870-74. Wikipedia entry Australian Dictionary of Biography
Henry Brandon was associated with the Pioneer sugar plantation in Mackay, and acquired land west of Sheep Station Creek near Ayr after disposing of his Mackay interest. In 1883 set about establishing the Pioneer sugar mill near the town that ended up bearing his name.
Alexander Brown and William Chalmers Brown established Croydon station in the 1880s.
Horace George Brinsmead came to Cairns from Melbourne around 1881, obtained land on the Barron River Flats at Freshwater and began cane farming in 1882. He called his plantation 'Virginia Plantation'. Brinsmead was active in civic affairs and served on the Cairns Divisional Board, moving the Motion that Cairns take the necessary steps to become a Municipality. He was a pioneer of tourism in the area, taking the first tourist party to view the Barron River Falls in 1885. Biographical sketch
Father Pierre-Marie (Paul) Bucas was the first Catholic Parish Priest appointed to Mackay, serving as the Parish Priest from 1869-1880 and from 1887-1912. He died in Rockhampton on 20 October 1930. His remains were re-interred in Mackay Cemetery (Shakespeare Street) in 1946.
Burdell family built the Bohlevale homestead (c1910), west of the Bohle River and gifted land for the Bohlevale State primary school in 1911.
Joseph Busuttin and his family became Brampton island's first European settlers in 1916. In the early 1930s with the Whitsundays beginning to attract tourists the Busuttins decided Brampton would be an ideal location for a resort, better suited to the role than St Bees or Keswick Islands. In 1933 Joseph Busuttin's sons, James Arthur, Victor John (Mick) and Joseph Vincent (Pidge) began building facilities behind the beach facing Maryport Bay. In December that year the first tourists arrived on the Howard Smith vessel Canberra, to be off-loaded into launches and ferried ashore on the Woy Woy, a former State Government pilot vessel which bought as a service and tourist vessel. The pastoral holding was transferred to Arthur in March 1934 and in July he and his wife Jess took up permanent residence on the island and took over its management.
During World War Two Brampton closed down, but at the end of the war they re-opened the resort and began a refurbishment, adding new units. In November 1959 Carapark Motels purchased the resort from the Busuttins and asked them to stay on under a five year sub-lease of their dwelling and its grounds.
Charles Buzacott was a journalist and Queensland parliamentarian who began publishing the Peak Downs Telegram and Queensland Mining Record at Clermont in 1864. He remained a lifelong journalist until his death in 1918. Wikipedia entry Australian Dictionary of Biography