Benjamin Boyd

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Arguably, Benjamin Boyd was more responsible for the early development of the NSW South Coast than was any other pioneer. At that time, most other settlers were only interested in establishing their own businesses or farms in the area, whereas Boyd had a vision for developing the whole area, had plans and the capital required to establish a major town, and intentions to provide links between the South Coast, Sydney, Melbourne…and indeed the world. But, as the Australian Dictionary of Biography notes, ‘eventually Boyd’s grandiose ideas and his complicated and somewhat dubious financial transactions were his undoing. His schemes were wrecked by unfavourable public opinion, changing economic circumstances and management failure.’ To suggest that he was ‘a colourful character’ is perhaps an understatement!

Benjamin Boyd – Stockbroker, Visionary, Entrepreneur

Benjamin Boyd was born in Scotland on August 21st 1801. He was the second son of Janet and Edward Boyd, a London merchant. His grandfather was a wealthy landowner and minister of the Church of Scotland.

In 1825, Boyd began business as a stockbroker in London and four years later was regarded as a financial wizard. He became a Director of a steamship company and an insurance company. He moved in highly respected business circles both in London and in France. Through family associations, he developed contacts with British Empire merchants in India, the Far East and the West Indies.

He planned to develop his own ‘empire’ through establishing a trading enterprise based on wool growing, grain, whaling and shipping.

He contacted the Colonial Secretary in London with plans to establish a large steamship operation linking Australian settlements and he asked for the right to buy land adjacent to five or six harbours in the colony. He was promised every assistance and the NSW Governor was instructed accordingly.

He had hoped to marry Emma Green, the object of his continuing love as a young man, but she was confronted by and queried the viability of his ambitious plans. She also could not accept the likely different lifestyle that would follow, should she agree to marry him – so she declined his proposal. As a parting gesture, she allowed Benjamin to commission an artist to paint her portrait. This was then mounted in a locked cabinet in Boyd’s cabin on his ship the Wanderer.

Apparently untroubled by news of economic difficulties then being experienced in New South Wales, Boyd departed for Australia optimistically confident of success.

One of Boyd’s plans was to open a bank in Australia – the Royal Bank of Australia, which had been funded by a group of London investors. Boyd organized for the Bank to give him personal responsibility for some £200,000 (today’s equivalent: $40 million) worth of gold. However, the Royal Bank of Australia never operated as such; and Boyd subsequently used its capital as a personal source of finance for his grandiose schemes.

Boyd, and a chest containing the £200,000 worth of gold, set sail in December 1841 on a leisurely 179-day voyage to Australia aboard the Wanderer. Three other of his own steamships carrying cargo and passengers (including Bank staff) arrived in Sydney before Boyd – ensuring he received a colourful reception on his arrival. The Sydney Herald reported: ‘On coming to anchor in the cove, the Velocity schooner owned by Mr Boyd fired a salute and the neighbouring heights were crowded with spectators to witness the arrival. The Wanderer is armed to the teeth and is fitted up in a most splendid manner’.

On his way to Sydney, Boyd stopped off in Melbourne where he made his first significant Australian purchase, the Colac pastoral station. He was later to set up a waterfront warehouse, wool stores, and a wool-washing works in Neutral Bay in Sydney. He fitted out his trading and whaling ships in nearby Mosman. He also purchased a waterfront home, Craignathan, in Neutral Bay.

Pastoral interests were to provide the backbone to Boyd’s ‘empire’ and Boyd’s interest in this area could not have been better timed. Vast areas of crown land were being thrown open to pastoralists who only had to obtain a certificate of character from a magistrate and pay an annual fee for leases. And with wool prices and property prices declining and bankruptcy increasing at that time – and with cash readily available! - Boyd could, as he himself remarked, ‘acquire an immense fortune for very little outlay.’

By 1845 Boyd had an interest in two million acres of land in the Riverina (he constructed the first building in Deniliquin – the Wanderer Inn – but then failed to renew the licence to it in 1847!; his connection to that area is perpetuated in two of the town’s road names: Boyd Street and Wanderer Street) and half a million acres on the Monaro on which he grazed 160,000 sheep and 10,000 cattle. Two years later he personally acquired another 380,000 acres on which he paid an annual licence fee of just £80.

Boyd’s good timing and good luck, however, deserted him in his attempts to provide a major shipping service in NSW. Originally he had planned to send 11 vessels to the colony and initially four were dispatched, but three of these failed to generate good financial returns – the Seahorse ran aground on a bank in the Tamar River and was eventually written off, the Juno lost a rudder off the Cape of Good Hope and was then laid up for five years, and the Cornubia lay at anchor for long periods and was finally sold in 1849. Only Velocity seems to have received some regular work.

By the time Boyd arrived in Australia most of the profitable local coastal shipping business had already been secured by the General Steamship Navigation Company and, realistically, only routes south from Sydney then remained to be developed. Boyd only discovered this after arriving in Sydney.

Boyd’s efforts to establish his own whaling industry were, for a short time, more successful. In the mid-1830s the Imlay Bros set up a rudimentary on-shore based whaling industry in Twofold Bay. By 1843 Boyd was in competition and had two boats operating. This eventually grew to nine boats and he extended his operation to include off-shore whaling.

Around the same time that Boyd’s whaling operations commenced, he visited the South Coast, ‘claimed’ an area on the shores of Twofold Bay and had it cleared. This was intended to be the site of a town which Ben Boyd, perhaps unsurprisingly, named Boydtown. It was to have a hotel, church, stores, extensive shipping facilities, cottages for up to 400 workmen, and was to be the centre of his whaling operations.

Several months later, on March 8th 1843, the land that Boyd had ‘claimed’ came up for auction. Boyd was the only bidder, purchasing 640 acres for £1 per acre. Among the major buildings he then erected over the next year or two were the Seahorse hotel, several stores, a wool store, a boiling down-works, a church and a 400-foot long wharf. 45 miles of road leading into the Boydtown port were also constructed.

Threats to Boyd realizing his dreams of developing a successful business empire came from a number of directions. His Boydtown and whaling operations were mismanaged; general economic conditions at the time in NSW were unfavourable (Sir George Gipps, the Governor of the time, reputedly advised Boyd ‘you have arrived at a bad time economically’); his shipping plans were thwarted by well-established competition; whale numbers were in decline; the Government was introducing measures to limit the size of pastoral properties and to increase Government revenue from settlers (in an attempt to protect his extensive interests, Boyd nominated for and briefly served as the Member for Port Phillip in the NSW Legislative Council in 1845 and 1846); and, following the end of convict transportation to NSW, he experienced difficulties finding sufficient labour for all of his enterprises.

In 1847 the Royal Bank of Australia collapsed and - with seven disastrous years behind him - Boyd left the Colony in October 1849 leaving behind a debt of over £400,000. As the Wanderer was leaving Sydney Harbour it accidentally lost its best bow anchor on a reef. This was, Boyd wrote, ’a parting legacy to the colony in which I had hoped for so much, and though in part succeeded, yet in the main failed through little of my own fault'.

Boyd’s next gamble was to seek gold in California. He was again unsuccessful. Ironically, a decade later gold was discovered near Kiandra and a goldrush ensued. Twofold Bay became a major entry point for would-be miners, Eden’s population swelled to around 4,000, and the local economy boomed.

In June 1851, Boyd and the Wanderer left San Francisco. On October 15th Boyd was shot dead by natives on Guadalcanal Island in the Solomons. His body was never recovered. The Wanderer was then headed back to Australia but was wrecked in a gale off Port Macquarie on 12th November 1851.

Sources: Substantial information generously provided by Peter Ayling; Dictionary of Sydney; Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Image: Benjamin Boyd. State Library of Victoria, H38849/448