"Fortunes Earned and Fortunes Lost" .... John EALES was born at Ashburton in England on 28th March, 1799. He traveled to NSW having spent a short time in Hobart Town where he arrived in August 1823, and with introductory letters to the Governor was granted 2,100 acres of land near Morpeth where he established the property known as Berry Park, becoming one of the first settlers on the Hunter River. He became known as the 'One-man Settler' as he had only one servant, a free man who had come with him from England. EALES worked tirelessly to build up his property, clearing 200 acres and planting it with wheat. The estate became one of the finest in the district, by 1831 yielding 10,000 bushels. He built giant iron tanks to store the grain and to overcome problems of rats, they being possibly one of the first silos in the colony. He consequently was able to buy grain at low prices, store it and then sell it when the market was high. He became interested in grazing and increased his holdings by purchase and squattage and gradually became the owner of a number of stations on the Liverpool Plains, stocking them from his now prime flock on Berry Park. By the end of the 1830's he had realised the importance of shipping to the burgeoning district because of the poor reliabilty of the then available transport, and in 1839 he called a meeting of influential businessmen at the old Royal Hotel in Sydney. As a result, the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company was established with capital of £40,000 and EALES as one of the principal shareholders and a director. A year later, the company was operating three small steamships, the Rose, Thistle and Shamrock, between Sydney, Morpeth and Moreton Bay. He built a dry dock on his property for use by the company's vessels. In the early 1840's he became the pioneer pastoralist in the Maryborough district of Queensland with a flock of 20,000 sheep, planning to settle this area and form a station. This was a setback for EALES, his losses in stock and men from altercations with the Aborigines and difficulties with supplies making him abandon this undertaking. In the 1840's, when the demand for meat was low, he established a boiling down works on his property, the first of its type privately owned. He sold only the amount of tallow required to cover expenses, storing the balance in his own warehouses. He cashed in on the demand created by the Crimean War, selling tallow to the British Government for £87 a ton. Against the prevailing feelings of the colony at the time, he supported the promotion of immigration, bringing out a number of Chinese to work on his estate and promoting the immigration of Indian labourers to the colony. He had purchased property at Minmi, much to the concerns of his friends, as it appeared to have no value as grazing country and they foresaw another catastrophe like his foray into Queensland, however he had purchased one of the richest coal seams in the Newcastle district and proceeded to exploit it, in defiance of the Australian Agricultural Company's monopoly on coal mining at the time, the coal mines being known as the Duckenfield Collieries. He built an officially sanctioned railway line from the mines to the great Northern Trunk line at Hexham to service them, from there the coal was tipped into Eales' own steamers and sent to Sydney. About 1859, Eales sold the mine and railway to James and Alexander BROWN, bringing him great wealth and setting the BROWN's up as the largest private coal mine owners in the colony. By the early 1850's he had acquired over 16,000 acres of freehold land in the Maitland district, and owned over 27 stations in various parts of the colony, but in 1853-54 sold many of these properties and began to build the mansion, Duckenfield Park House, on the property purchased for £2,000, adjoining Berry Park. Prior to this he had constructed a number of other dwellings, one being originally for his brother, known as "Berry Pomeroy House". This remained in the Eales family for more than 100 years and today is known as "Berry House". John Eales never aspired to public life as did so many of his contemporary landowners, E.C. CLOSE having him removed from the local Council for not attending meetings. John EALES died at Duckenfield in April, 1871, one of the wealthiest men in New South Wales, passing his property to his eldest son, John EALES Jnr. He was actively interested in horse racing and in 1833 organised the first race meeting to be held in the Hunter River district. A hunt club was also sponsored by him and he built a private racecourse and bred blood stock on the property, owning some of the best racehorses in the colony, the estate becoming well known as a stud under his son's management. [Maitland Tourism : July 1997] We, the undersigned, Tenants of the late John EALES Esq. of Duckenfield, wish hereby to testify our esteem for him as a kind and generous landlord, and to record our high appreciation of his ready assistance to us in times of distress, more especially in flood times. His forgiveness to his tenants of a years rent after the flood of 1867 will ever be remembered with gratitude. In expressing our thankfulness for his kindness to us, we sympathise with his family in the loss they have sustained - a loss which we also, as his tenants, feel deeply. [Maitland Mercury, 11th April, 1871] ... to be continued Diane