‘They came to Glengallan’ traces the heritage of the eight families, including the Lees and Pointons, who were closely involved in the settlement of the Kilcoy region, Darling Downs and western Queensland. Many of them went on to become magistrates, bankers and well-established community leaders.

For families such as the Lees, Deuchars and Allans, Australia offered new challenges, as well as the promise of great wealth and adventure. Financed by wealthy Scottish financiers and riding high on the early wealth generated from the wool industry, they established new stations throughout the region. These were the families who came to Glengallan, near Warwick in Queensland, and the site of many significant family events during the mid-late 19th century.

For others, this was a transition to wealth in a single generation. Families such as the Whites and Pointons had left situations of poverty and starvation in Staffordshire in the mid-19th century, looking for a new life and fresh opportunities. With little money and large families, they joined thousands of people travelling to Australia, attracted by stories of gold, wool and wealth.

They were willing to work hard, take risks and head out to unknown areas of Queensland in search of new opportunities. And many of them succeeded. Some are recorded in the Australian Stockmen’s Hall of Fame; they were staunch supporters of separation from NSW and members of the Nationalist Party; and many became household names across the colony.

Several generations later, the wealth was gone but the legacy remained. In the early 1950s, Ruth Lee, a trained mothercraft nurse, was instantly drawn to work in western Queensland. In her own words, Ruth tells how she met Eric Swann, and their own life together is the story of a new generation of pioneers, as they went on to establish a huge sheep station in Western Australia.