Patrick Francis "PF" HANRAN

Patrick Francis ("PF") Hanran and His Wife Mary Ann (Ogle)

Limerick City in Ireland was the birthplace of Patrick Francis Hanran who was born on 16 September 1831. PF, as he was popularly known in adult life, was one of five children—three boys and two girls. At the age of three years, PF, accompanied by his parents Francis and Bridget, two older brothers Michael and John, and a younger sister Ellen, arrived in Australia in 1835 aboard the convict transport Norfolk. As mentioned earlier, his soldier father was assigned as the guard to escort prisoners to Van Diemen’s Land and later to take charge of convicts in New South Wales. After returning to England with his parents in 1840, PF re-entered Australia as an 11 years-old bounty immigrant. The family arrived from Liverpool, England on the William Sharples on 29 January 1842 after a sea voyage of 95 days.

Australia’s Oldest Catholic School

PF received his early education from Sydney’s Christian Brothers who, from 1843 to 1847, were in charge of St Brigid’s school in Kent Street North and Argyle Street with Bro. Francis Larkin as principal. The complex still stands in the inner city suburb of Miller’s Point and is promoted today as Australia’s oldest operating Catholic church and school. Photo above.

PF Joins the Goldrushes

When his father died in 1849, PF took over the administrative reins of the family’s commission agency in Sussex Street, Sydney but this arrangement lasted only a couple of years before he abandoned the business eager to join in the rush to seek gold. In August 1851, only a month short of turning 20, PF was attracted to the Turon goldfields before moving on to Macquarie, Louisa Creek and Dirt Hole Creek in New South Wales. Not long afterwards significant finds were discovered in Victoria and PF went in search of fortune at the new diggings the following year. Michael, his eldest brother who married in Sydney in 1853, also headed for the Victorian goldfields shortly after but was only there for a brief time before he died in 1855. After the death of his brother, PF remained in Victoria until 1858 during which time he visited every working goldfield from Mount Ararat to the Ovens River and was also present at the historic Eureka Stockade affray. When gold was discovered in New Zealand, PF crossed the Tasman to be among the early prospectors at Gabriel’s Gully near Dunedin, Tuapeka, and other Westland finds in the Gray and Buller Rivers.

Mine Host at Woolloomooloo

After six years in New Zealand, PF returned to Sydney where he married Mary Ann Ogle (1840-1912) in the Scots Presbyterian church, Elizabeth Street, on 17 September 1864. Mary Ann was the daughter of William Ogle and Anna Maria, née Buller, who came from the parish of Tullyallen in Drogheda, county Louth, Ireland. The family arrived from Liverpool aboard the Champion in 1840, settling in Sydney. It was while the newly married couple were managing the Nelson hotel at the corner of 130 William Street and Duke Street¹ (renamed McElhone in 1922), Woolloomooloo in 1865 that PF’s mother died and his first child, Catherine Jane (‘Kitty’) was born. Shortly after these events, PF and his family left Sydney en route to Townsville.

Sailed On the Boomerang

PF and Mary Ann visited Ipswich for a brief stay-over at the North Star hotel with brother, John, and his wife, Jane, who was Mary Ann’s sister. It was at the hotel that PF and Mary Ann are believed to have obtained a Catholic blessing on their marriage before continuing northward to Townsville aboard the old steamer, Boomerang. With their infant daughter, Kitty in arms, the couple arrived in the northern ‘capital’ just eclipsing 16 February 1866, the day the town was proclaimed a municipality. Flinders Street was in a very primitive state: mud, mangroves and rocks being conspicuously its principal characteristics. No accommodation being available in the east end of town, they had to walk to what is still known today as the West End to find temporary lodgings at Mr Hamilton’s hotel. During the walk along Flinders Street, Mary Ann lost one of her shoes in the sticky black mud. In those days the greater part of town was without form: there were several short gullies running from the creek into Melton Hill up which boats could be rowed at high tide and the remainder of town was devoid of habitation.

The Pioneers of the North

To the newly arrived Mary Ann it was a disheartening, dreary place, having little to recommend it to the unthinking commercial man, and nothing whatever to those who expected comfort or to enjoy the ordinary pleasures of life. Not so to the enterprising PF whose estimation of the place was one of promise. He was determined to cast in his lot with the rest of the pioneers and very soon accepted a full and active share of the development of the resources of the district.

By a measure of good chance, he had brought with him a stock of goods valued at £250 ($500) with which, as a nucleus, he opened for business as a general storekeeper, trading as P.F. Hanran, Grocer & General Merchant. His stock comprised a very miscellaneous assortment that required continual replenishment, as the trade that he did was brisk for those days. An advertisement in the Cleveland Bay Express of September 1866 stated that the store ‘Always [had] a stock of onions and potatoes on hand’.

In the following April, PF tendered for and obtained a contract from the Municipal Council to remove a belt of rocks that obstructed Flinders Street near the Tattersall’s hotel. To accommodate his expanding business, he also re-developed buildings that were destroyed by cyclone a month earlier.

Partner’s Share Bought Out

After conducting a steadily accumulating trade for five years, during which time he took an active interest in all public matters, PF Hanran bought a share in Mr K. Coleman’s business, a transaction of no less than £5,000 ($10,000) including legal transfer of the joint concern; (stock was valued at £3,000 ($6,000)). The partnership continued for about 14 months, after which time Mr Coleman took ill and died. PF then purchased for a large sum his deceased partner’s interest following which he conducted a highly successful business for about 20 months—his turnover then amounting to £100,000 ($200,000) per annum.

Days of Boom and Bust

With the discovery of gold on the Palmer River, PF Hanran was one of the first to take advantage of the splendid opportunities for making money. He promptly chartered a schooner, the Countess of Belmore, loaded it with goods from his stores and despatched the boat to Cooktown. John Hanran, his brother, accompanied the goods and he had the satisfaction of landing the first cargo at the newly opened port. A store was hastily built and within two months one-third of the stock had been sold for a sum covering the goods’ value and the superintendent’s expenses. Then followed a grave mistake. The management of the Cooktown business, which was being kept re-stocked from the Townsville headquarters, was transferred to a person who had no interest in trade beyond a salary, and business rapidly declined. Through the indifferent management of Hanran’s representative, within 12 months the Cooktown store sustained a loss to PF of around £4,000 ($8,000) when the remaining stock was sold at a great sacrifice and the store was closed. This trading loss crippled PF's financial situation very seriously.

But he stuck determinedly to the Townsville business, taking advantage of every chance of increasing trade to recoup his Cooktown losses. When gold was found on the Etheridge River in 1873, the business made rapid advances, as PF was always a popular and pushing man. He supplied large quantities of goods to the Etheridge (a distance of 415 kms south-west of Cairns) and with the tidal change of speculators to new discoveries at Charters Towers, Hanran supplied a very considerable proportion of the local storekeepers with goods, besides doing extensive private business. Unfortunately, Hanran’s creditors took advantage of his well-known generosity and took their time to pay him for goods supplied.

Judged Insolvent

In the closing months of 1874, PF Hanran was judged insolvent on his own petition and trustees were appointed to administer the estate, offering for sale a store and wharf in August of the following year. As an act of generosity in his own troubled times, he had thrown open his late stores two months earlier to accommodate Irish married couples and single girls who were recently arrived immigrants on board the barque Naval Brigade.

The Phoenix Rises Again

Just as the phoenix rose from the ashes, so too did PF Hanran after he was discharged from insolvency in December 1875. This was borne out by a later advertisement in the Cleveland Bay Express which reported that ‘P.F. Hanran would be returning on 19 April 1876 to open new premises opposite the newspaper office’.

In January 1884, Hanran won a contract to supply to the public service in Townsville, meat, wine, spirits, groceries, vegetables, milk, flour and forage.

By 1887 Hanran’s trade was principally local but he enjoyed a wide country connection—his name and ancient fame never being forgotten or disregarded by those who were his contemporaries in earlier times. PF personally controlled his extensive business which included groceries and drapery in wholesale and retail lines, ironmongery, wines, spirit and malt liquors in addition to acting as a shipping, insurance, forwarding and commission agency. Besides his Flinders Street store, he held a large bulk store in which ample reserve stocks were kept. Altogether, 11 persons were employed in the various departments.

Still in the Old Place

Advertising in the weekly Democrat newspaper (price, one penny in December 1895), the following advertisement appeared—

‘P.F. Hanran of Flinders Street, Townsville. Still in the old place and hopes to remain there for some time’. In yet another advertisement appearing about this time—‘Wholesaler and Retailer; Grocer, Wine and Spirit Merchant. Groceries from the English and Southern Markets: Crockery and glassware; Ports and Sherries; Whiskies; Table Cutlery. I am selling the whole of the above at Prices to suit the times’.

An assortment of produce was also included in the advertisement. By the turn of the century, the business was trading under the name of P.F. Hanran and Sons.

Mayor of Townsville and MP

PF Hanran was elected alderman in 1867 and holds the distinction of being Mayor of Townsville for seven terms during the years 1871/72, 1876/77, 1879, 1882, 1892/93 and 1896. Hanran Park and Hanran Street, Townsville are constant reminders of PF’s contribution to the municipality in those early pioneering days. It was from this platform that his popularity and ability to manage public affairs at the local level gave rise to Hanran entering the next level of politics and, as a member of the Ministerialist Party, he represented Townsville constituents in the Queensland Parliament from 11 March 1899 to 2 October 1909. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography—

[Hanran] had a reputation for taciturnity and newspapers dubbed him the most silent member of his day. In State politics his career was insignificant, but in a long and productive municipal career he helped to guide Townsville from a struggling settlement of about 100 people on a muddy creek to a thriving city and port with a population of about 10,000 in the 1890s. His well-documented generosity and kindness, while not conducive to commercial success, endeared him to the local citizens.

Although Hanran’s political career in the Queensland Legislative Assembly has been termed ‘insignificant’ by some, his efforts were recognised more positively many years later by the Queensland Housing Commission when it developed a new residential estate at Keperra (Brisbane) in the 1950s and named Hanran Street in his honour.

A Man of the People

A snapshot of PF’s directorships and associateships gleaned from various sources follows—

1867 One of the original shareholders in the Cleveland Bay Express newspaper and later a director; elected steward for the Christmas racing event; trustee of the church of Rome building committee
1868 Trustee of the Burdekin and Flinders turf club and later member; member of the provisional school committee to raise funds for a national school and later treasurer; patron of the primary school; member of the provincial committee; trustee of Cleveland racecourse
1869 Junior warden of the Hibernia and Albion Star masonic lodge; member of the cricket club; foundation member of the yacht club
1874 Member of the immigration board; member of the cemetery committee and later treasurer
1878 Member of the fire brigade board
1879 Trustee of the orphanage, director of Gilberton Gold Mining company; member progress committee; trustee of the building society
1880 Member of the show committee
1889 Member of the special committee to the Traffic Inspector and Assistant Inspector of Nuisances
1893 Member of the hospital board
1900 Original trustee of the Sports Reserve
1903 Member of Leonta cyclone relief committee.

Other positions held include: director, Townsville gas committee; president of the Townsville harbour board; member of the School of Arts committee; justice of the peace; member of the northern separation movement, and magistrate of the Territory. Hanran’s entrepreneurial skills caused a sensation when he sent a sample of silver from Ravenswood to the Melbourne Exhibition in 1881. By November of that year, a company was being floated in Sydney to work the Comstock Mine at the Star River in north Queensland.

Leisure Pursuits

Aside from the demands of office, Hanran’s interests included boating and horse racing. Soon after arrival in Townsville, he became the proud owner of a yacht named Kitty which competed in amateur boat races. An early disappointment at the regatta of January 1867 was soon eclipsed by the joy of a win at the New Year’s Day races of 1868. Later that year in the first race of the St Patrick’s Day boat race two crewmen drowned when the Flying Cloud capsized and sank. Hanran was acclaimed a hero when, at the helm of the Kitty he rescued the remaining two crewmen. On a lighter note, as the owner of Leisure Hour, entered in the 1870 New Year’s Day race, a local identity won first prize in a public competition with the following conundrum—

Whose yacht will win the New Year’s Day Race?

Hanran and Company’s … because they will Eclipse the Victory and Escape the Peri in a Leisure Hour.

Turfside, Hanran shared an interest in horses with his brother John, and his nephew John. At the maiden plate run at the 1875 Townsville Christmas race meeting when PF’s horse Bay Squatter came up against Quartpot (owned by Knapp, a municipal alderman) in the three heats of a mile each over hurdles for £10 ($20) per side, Bay Squatter was injured in the first heat and Hanran conceded. Lady, another horse owned by Hanran, was sold in 1885. As late as 1911, Hanran was known to be agisting horses in (heaven forbid!) Queens Park, Townsville.

Life on the Other Side

One of the many facets of PF’s personality was his philanthropic nature and he often visited the local gaol in his capacity as a Justice of the Peace to offer assistance to the needy. However, he little realised that he would one day be joining these unfortunates, as in June of 1886 he found himself ‘in the jug’ as a result of being charged with contempt of court for refusing to pay at call a claim by Colerada of Charters Towers. His defence that he had already paid was smartly proven and he was released after 2½ days. His comments on life under confinement were that—

Men are continually going about with rakes, and brooms, and buckets, and everything in the way of rubbish is picked up and cleared away. Men who do this work are generally supposed to do a sort of gaol stroke, but they’re flying about the whole day, and the place is consequently the very picture of neatness and cleanliness. But clean and pleasant as it was everywhere, I can assure you I was glad enough to get out of it.

The Oldest Resident in Townsville

Mary Ann Hanran died at her Cleveland Street, Melton Hill residence on 31 March 1912 after an illness lasting some ten weeks. Although reported to be rather plain in looks, she was remembered as having a lovely nature, and while not an overly sociable person, she gained great pleasure in her family life. PF was greatly affected by the loss of his wife and afterwards, ‘…though wonderfully active for a man of his years, he had grown very reserved and gradually failed…’ until his own death on 8 August 1916, aged 85 years. He received the last holy rites of the church from his friend, Monsignor Bourke; the Rev. Fr McLaughlin officiated at the graveside. PF, at the time of his death, was reported to be the oldest resident in Townsville.

PF and Mary Ann’s Family

Catherine Jane (‘Kitty’) (1865-1906)
Francis Patrick (1867-1938), husband of Elenor Kate Foreman (c1879-1960)
Ellen (‘Nellie’) (1868-1946)
Anne Maria (‘Annie’) (1871-1942)
Rose Mary (1873-1958)
John William (‘Johnnie’) (1876-1940), husband of Isabella Storrie (1879-1956)
Theresa Frances (1878-1943).

The Hanran Sisters...Some Anecdotes

Kitty was born in Sydney in 1865, the eldest of PF’s children. She was very pretty—tall, elegant, and had lovely hair. She went to the best schools and dressed very fashionably in up-to-the-minute clothes. She eventually fell in love with a policeman but for some unknown reason, was forbidden by her parents to marry him. It is understood that her policeman suitor later became a commissioner of police. John William was known to be very fond of his eldest sister Kitty.

Cyclone Leonta, which hit Townsville on 9 March 1903, was responsible for destroying the roof of the family home on Melton Hill behind the Custom’s House. Kitty by this time was invalided and confined to bed and had to be rescued and taken to a refuge, which was set up at the hotel. Her illness, which had begun with a cold, developed into tuberculosis of the lungs. She struggled with this illness for five years before dying in 1906, at the age of 41 years.

RETAH

The surviving sisters lived in Leichhardt Street, North Ward in a home which was named RETAH, derived from the initial letters of their four Christian names and it is ironic that they died in the reverse order of this acronym: Rose, Ellen, Theresa, Anne Hanran. They described themselves jokingly as ‘unclaimed treasures’ because not one of them ever married.

Rose Mary, born in 1873, was considered to be very clever. She held down a good office job by her ability to attract a superior clientele. She was gifted with a beautiful voice and it was said she could have been an opera singer but for her lack of confidence in facing an audience. As evidence of this, when she sang at Townsville’s Olympia (an open-air cinema with canvas seats situated on the corner of Stokes and Sturt Streets), she would sing from behind the curtain. On the home front, Rose was the driving force behind managing a boarding house for ‘bank Johnnies’ who had been transferred to Townsville. She was remembered as being a real lady.

Ellen, known as Nellie, was born in 1868. She never worked outside the home and was remembered as being a sterling worker who did the entire household ironing and mending of clothes. Some of the beautifully embroidered cloths handed down through the family, and still in existence in 2000, were the result of her handiwork.

Theresa Frances, born in 1878, occupied a highly regarded position as second-in-charge of the Queensland National Bank in Townsville, and it is claimed that she could have risen to the position of manager had she been born a male. A very clever woman, she was entrusted with the custody of all confidential banking matters. She, like her mother, was a very religious woman and of very high principles. She died rather suddenly after being admitted to Townsville’s Lister private hospital. Her estate, which comprised funds of £453.14.7d ($907.46), was administered by the Public Curator.

Anne Maria, known as Annie, was born in 1871. Deservedly or not, she was described as a real ‘battle axe’ as she tended to fight with everyone on sight. At the same time, she was reported to have a ‘heart of gold’. Unfortunately, she was afflicted with a rather large sore on her face which eventually turned cancerous and disfigured her looks. Annie is remembered as being a little tactless when, on one occasion, she referred to the visiting Italian consul as ‘Mr Spaghetti’ behind his back and was caught out when she accidentally used the expression to his face. She was also a great raconteur, a family talent that was revisited in later years by her niece, ‘Mollie’ and nephew, ‘Bert’. One anecdote recalls the occasion when Annie had a hole in her dress, which she was in the process of mending when the Catholic bishop, in company of the local parish priest, visited the home unexpectedly. In a state of panic to complete the repairs, she stitched up her pants to the dress, much to her later consternation. Her nephew, Bert, and his wife, Emma, named their daughter after Annie.

As members of the local Catholic community, all the sisters were very popular with the local Sisters of Mercy at St Joseph’s convent on The Strand. Dr Halberstater, the family medico, also family friend, attended to all their health problems for many years.

The four sisters continued their close family life, always making birthday cakes to celebrate each other’s special day. Their home was part of the social scene in Townsville as they often entertained their many friends.

Their niece, Margaret (Hanran) Nott, visited the aunts every day both before and after attending the convent school, which was situated close by. Her father dropped her off on his way to work and collected her again on his way home.

The maiden aunts had two budgerigars, Fred and Maggie, which they encouraged to talk. As a family joke, Rose taught them to say, ‘Anne, you are common!’

It has been reported that the Hanran sisters were hostile about the 1931 marriage of their niece, Mollie to Irish police constable, Jim Lucey, (Kitty’s situation revisited?) and expressed their displeasure with their brother, John William and his wife, Isabella. This episode led to a period of coolness between John and his sisters and it was not until Annie’s illness manifested itself that the two families began to communicate once again.

Other Reading: Australian Dictionary of Biography

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¹ Originally addressed as corner 130 William Street and Duke Street. Renumbering and renaming in 1922 brought about a change to corner 216-218 William Street and McElhone Street, Woolloomooloo.

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Patrick Francis "PF" HANRAN