Meander Valley Who's Who
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Distinguished and Famous people from Meander Valley
🏛️ Sir Richard Dry
Richard Dry inherited Quamby in 1843 and devoted himself to farming the property near Hagley. His public career developed alongside that rural base. In 1845 he joined the six unofficial Legislative Council members who resigned over government expenditure and the convict system, an episode that helped link representative government with the campaign against transportation. He later became Speaker and premier. The Quamby connection places a prominent colonial politician within the Meander Valley’s estate landscape. His political popularity was substantial, but the biography also begins with the practical responsibilities of an inherited working property.
🏛️ Thomas Reibey
Thomas Reibey was born at Entally House in Hadspen in 1821, the grandson of Mary Reibey. His career moved through farming, the Anglican ministry and politics. At Carrick he provided land, a church and a rectory; later he represented Westbury in parliament and served as premier in 1876–77. Horse racing was another substantial interest, including ownership of Malua before the horse’s Melbourne Cup victory. Reibey died at Entally in 1912. His life therefore connects several recognisable places in the valley with a public career that was energetic, sometimes controversial and never confined to one occupation.
🌾 John Gosman Allwright
Farmer John Gosman Allwright developed livestock and intensive cropping at his Westbury properties, Roxford and Exton House. He combined practical agriculture with business ventures ranging from produce and seed exports to a butchery. Among Tasmania’s early licensed poppy growers, he helped establish links with pharmaceutical processing. His wider farming work also included pioneering improved pastures on the central plateau. Allwright later led the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association and the National Farmers’ Federation, promoting research, education and economic reform. The national roles grew from a career spent working with crops, livestock and the problems of making agricultural enterprises succeed.
