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From: "Daryl Crabtree" <>
Subject: [AUS-VIC-NorWest] Dr. Peter Fairbairn
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 02:26:48 +1000


Hi all,
If anyone is going to the PRO could you look up Peter Fairbairns arrival for me.
This man was a friend of my G Grandfather Abraham Crabtree and used his skill in healing the sick
in the Booroopki & Goroke districts. I did a search on line of the PRO immigration records
and found the following.
surname given name age month yr. ship code fisch page
FAIRBAIRN PETER 34 FEB 1866 MOIRA B 254 002

I feel this is the one as the age fits in well, only a couple of years out.
Kind Regards,
Daryl Crabtree
Gladstone Central Queensland


THE WEST WIMMERA MAIL
Friday March 13 1903
DEATH OF DR. FAIRBAIRN
The Booroopki district has lost by death a very old resident in Peter Fairbairn, M.D. L.R.C.S.
His end was painfully sudden. At about midnight on Friday last he rose from his bed and with
lighted candle in hand went to the room of Mrs. Smith, sister-in-law of Mr. A Crabtree, at
whose place he resided. He complained of pain in the region of the heart and asked for
some stimulant. This was given him, and he lay down and shortly afterwards expired.
Information was at once sent to constable Sargeant, of Goroke, and a magisterial enquiry
was on Saturday conducted by Thos. Jelbart, J.P. who returned a verdict of death from natural
causes.
Deceased was born in Edinburgh 73 years ago, and took his diploma in 1856. He than served
in the navy and subsequently in the army as surgeon, a post which he occupied on the
man-of-war "Indus" in the West Indies in 1870. About 30 years ago he voyaged to Australia
as a Doctor on a sailing vessel. For a time he was employed on Mount Elgin Station, near Nhill,
and afterwards practised his profession at Lochiel, and subsequently at Lawloit, Goroke and Apsley,
finally settling at Booroopki 11 years ago, where the residents subsidised him. He was an excellent
surgeon, and especially skilled in children's ailments. To those unable to pay for medical assistance
he was ever ready to make allowance, and but for a failing which has brought about the downfall of so
many gifted men would have become eminent in his profession. The death will prove a great loss to
his people of Booroopki, who will now be compelled to travel long distances for medical aid.
Deceased's remains were interred in the Minimay cemetery on Saturday last, the funeral arrangements
being in the hands or Mr.T Jelbart........END
NOTE> Indus was a 2nd Rate 80-gun ship of the line, built in Portsmouth Dockyard, and
launched on 16 March 1839. Unusually she was built of teak instead of oak. During the
early years of the 1840s she served in the Mediterranean before returning to Devonport England
where she was out of commission until November 1856 when she became Vice Admiral Sir Huston Stewart`s
flagship on the North American and West Indies station. She returned to Devonport at the end of 1860 as
guardship of the Reserve Fleet until she was sold in 1898.
Peter Fairbairn is shown in the Navy List as Assistant Surgeon (acting) as from 7 January 1857. He was
appointed to the Indus on 17 January, presumably while she was in Bermuda. He is out of the List by 1861.

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