Death of an Australian Pioneer, Thomas Boyd

From Our Own Correspondent

The Sydney Morning Herald

29 June 1885

Death of an Australian Pioneer. By Telegraph Tumut, Saturday.

Thomas Boyd, the first man who crossed the Murray, and the last surviving member of Hume and Hovell's exploring party, died last night.

The deceased, who was a native of Dublin, was once a prosperous grazier, but through unavoidable misfortunes he lost everything.

Some time since he received a gratuity of £50 from the New South Wales Government, but never received the amount promised by the Victorian Minister at the Albury banquet, on the occasion of the opening of the inter colonial railway.

Boyd died in a miserable bark hut, attended by a married daughter, and a friend here guaranteed his funeral expenses.

Boyd was an honourable man, and a good specimen of the old Australian pioneer. He had resided at Gilmore, in this neighbourhood, for the last 67 years, and at the time of his death was in his 88th year.