Fisher, Thomas

Born:

free settler, agent and manager for Wylde and Palmer, Wellington Valley

Career Highlights

Thomas Fisher, an `agriculturalist', arrived in the colony as a free settler on the Mary in 1822. He was employed by Reverend Thomas Hassall and sent to Bathurst to manage stock stations on O'Connell Plains. Fisher was in charge during disturbances between settlers and Aborigines south of Bathurst in May-July 1824, when some of the Hassall family's stock had to be withdrawn. A year later, when 13 runaway convicts from Wellington Valley were seen in the O'Connell Plains region, Fisher was among a team of local overseers who pursued, recaptured and delivered them to the detachment at Cox's River.
Shortly after he arrived in NSW, Fisher applied for his own land to farm in the Bathurst region, receiving no response until 1825, when he had accumulated £600 worth of stock and £200 cash. On the recommendation of Hassall and Redell, he obtained a promise of 300 acres shortly before Governor Brisbane left the colony. In 1828, still in the employ of Hassall, he had 800 acres of his own and over two thousand sheep and cattle.
When the missionaries arrived at Wellington Valley in 1832, Thomas Fisher was apparently acting as agent to John Wylde and George Thomas Palmer. Stationed at Wylde's Gobolion, he was responsible for numerous remote stations on the Macquarie River below Wellington Valley. From Gobolion to Berjere, most of the stations were attended by "Fisher's men". The missionaries indicate that Fisher was married, and that Mrs Fisher resided at Gobolion, but her identity has not been established. Fisher last appears in the missionary journals in November 1834, at which time he has returned to work after an accident six months earlier. What became of Fisher after 1834 is not known, though he was listed in the General Post Office Directory of 1839 as still residing on the Macquarie River, Wellington Valley.