Queensland Steam Ship Co

It was due to Sir Thomas McIlwraith, who was destined to become Premier of Queensland several times and had much to do with changing the coastal trade, that British India was introduced to the Queensland Mail service. An initial mail service had been set up in 1873 with the establishment of the Eastern and Australian Line, to carry mails to Singapore in order to connect with the P&O’s England to China service thereby speeding up the delivery of these mails. (2) With the contract coming to an end, it having lasted until 1881, McIlwraith approached BI in London and offered that company the mail contract subject to the vote in the Queensland Parliament, with a subsidy of £55,000 per year.

Subsequently McIlwraith cabled BI in London on the 12th October 1880 and invited the company to go ahead.(31) In 1881 therefore, with the assistance of BI, the Queensland Steam Ship Company had been set up, initially with £100,000 in £50 shares, with James Burns (of Burns Philp & Co) BI’s agent in Sydney, McIlwraith McEacharn (no relation to Sir Thomas) and Parbury, Lamb & Co at Brisbane and BI took out shares in the new company.(3)

It was to provide a coastal feeder service for BI’s overseas ships that were operating a mail service from Brisbane to England, the service commencing in December of that year.(4) There was an added dimension in that Queenslanders generally were prepared to support any company that was backed by the new colony’s population in opposition to outsiders, namely ASN which was, of course, a NSW concern. Though BI was not an Australian company, the fact that it set up a subsidiary with the title “Queensland” ensured that it received local support. Once again stiff competition resulted in an immediate and bitter freight and passenger fares war which lasted for some five years with both companies having fluctuating results.

By 1886 the main coastal shipping companies consisted of Adelaide Steamship Company, who ran an Adelaide to Sydney service, Huddart Parker Ltd. and Howard Smiths who ran from Sydney to ports in Queensland alongside ASN and QSS Companies ships. These companies (excluding QSS) traded in friendly competition with ASN but the latter being the more powerful, as a result of having more tonnage, was therefore able to resist any challenge that the others might make.(5) The formation of QSS however, changed all that, and led to the trade war, referred to earlier, as well as decisions by the coastal companies to increase their fleets (At this time, 1884, the fleet strength of ASN consisted of 28 ships with a total gross tonnage of 23,924 compared with QSS’s 7 ships of 6,269 gross tons).(6) QSS business had grown so strong by the second year that it was decided that an increase in funds had become necessary.

William Mackinnon, of BI and Mackinnon Mackenzie and Co, was increasingly taking an interest in his Australian business and the company secretary, Charles Leresche, was writing to him continually updating him on information being received from Brisbane. A meeting of shareholders was held in December 1882 as a result of which capital was raised to £250,000, with familiar shipping names among directors being William Mackinnon, Archibald Gray, John McIlwraith, J. McEacharn and James Burns (of Burns Philp and Co),(7) The Headquarters of the new company was at 13 Austin Friars, London. On the 4th July 1883 Leresche sent a letter to Edwyn Dawes, (of Gray, Dawes and Co) attaching a list of sixty one share holders of which forty five were fully paid up.(8) In mid 1884 Leresche was sent to Brisbane to discuss the possible changing of the company’s agent and to check QSS agency’s finances, which he found to be in something of a mess. In a letter to Mackinnon he advised that, for the time being, the agency should stay because to change it would result in a major wool shipper refusing to send even one bale of wool on any of the company’s vessels.(9)

QSS decided to become more aggressive and in order to obtain more coastal trade in Queensland, and to get the backing of the people in the colony, another new shipping company was suggested which would be operated by BI and QSS together. Accordingly on 5th May 1885 Mackinnon Mackenzie, Gray Dawes and McIlwraith McEacharn formed the British India and Queensland Agency( BI and QA). (10)

(2) William Olson, Lion of The China Sea- A History of the E & A Line, (Sydney, 1976) 3
(3)N.L.McKellar, From Derby Round to Burketown, The A.U.S.N.Story, (Queensland, 1977) 50
(4) Ibid 47
(5) Pixley, ‘The History of the A.U.S.N.Co.Ltd’ 985
6) Ibid 986
(7) N.L.McKellar, From Derby Round to Burketown, The A.U.S.N.Story, 51
(8) Charles Leresche letter to Edwyn Dawes, 4th July 1883. Sir William Mackinnon Collection PPMS 1/Corr2 Mackinnon, Misc. Commercial File 18, Box No. 120. School of Oriental and Asian Studies, London.(photocopy in Author’s possession)
(9) Leresche letter to William Mackinnon, 7th October 1884, .(photocopy in Author’s possession)
(10) Pixley, ‘The History of the A.U.S.N.Co.Ltd’, 989

The British India Steam Navigation Company was founded by William Mackinnon, a Scotsman, in Calcutta in 1856 and was originally called the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company. It was set up to carry mails between Calcutta and Rangoon on behalf of the Indian Government, at that time still the East India Company. The business rapidly expanded and as a result was re-organised and renamed the British India Steam Navigation Company. It later expanded its sphere of operations by opening up a link with Australia and by 1880 BI was operating a regular service from Brisbane to England via the Torres Strait. It is important to realise during this period that there were no coastal or interstate railways, the only rail links were to the hinterland and a rail link between Sydney and Brisbane would not become a reality until 1888. Indeed at this time the only rail lines in Queensland linked, for example, inland destinations with such local ports as Rockhampton, Townsville, and Maryborough. The two main Australian ports were Sydney and Melbourne ,and in 1861 there was only 73 miles of track in New South Wales and 114 miles of track in Victoria.(1) (1) Peter J. Rimmer, ‘The Search for Spatial Regularities in the Development of Australian Seaports 1861-1961/2’ in Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 49, No. 1 (1967) 49
It was due to Sir Thomas McIlwraith, who was destined to become Premier of Queensland several times and had much to do with changing the coastal trade, that British India was introduced to the Queensland Mail service. An initial mail service had been set up in 1873 with the establishment of the Eastern and Australian Line, to carry mails to Singapore in order to connect with the P&O’s England to China service thereby speeding up the delivery of these mails. (2) With the contract coming to an end, it having lasted until 1881, McIlwraith approached BI in London and offered that company the mail contract subject to the vote in the Queensland Parliament, with a subsidy of £55,000 per year. Subsequently McIlwraith cabled BI in London on the 12th October 1880 and invited the company to go ahead.(31) In 1881 therefore, with the assistance of BI, the Queensland Steam Ship Company had been set up, initially with £100,000 in £50 shares, with James Burns (of Burns Philp & Co) BI’s agent in Sydney, McIlwraith McEacharn (no relation to Sir Thomas) and Parbury, Lamb & Co at Brisbane and BI took out shares in the new company.(3) It was to provide a coastal feeder service for BI’s overseas ships that were operating a mail service from Brisbane to England, the service commencing in December of that year.(4) There was an added dimension in that Queenslanders generally were prepared to support any company that was backed by the new colony’s population in opposition to outsiders, namely ASN which was, of course, a NSW concern. Though BI was not an Australian company, the fact that it set up a subsidiary with the title “Queensland” ensured that it received local support. Once again stiff competition resulted in an immediate and bitter freight and passenger fares war which lasted for some five years with both companies having fluctuating results. By 1886 the main coastal shipping companies consisted of Adelaide Steamship Company, who ran an Adelaide to Sydney service, Huddart Parker Ltd. and Howard Smiths who ran from Sydney to ports in Queensland alongside ASN and QSS Companies ships. These companies (excluding QSS) traded in friendly competition with ASN but the latter being the more powerful, as a result of having more tonnage, was therefore able to resist any challenge that the others might make.(5) The formation of QSS however, changed all that, and led to the trade war, referred to earlier, as well as decisions by the coastal companies to increase their fleets (At this time, 1884, the fleet strength of ASN consisted of 28 ships with a total gross tonnage of 23,924 compared with QSS’s 7 ships of 6,269 gross tons).(6) QSS business had grown so strong by the second year that it was decided that an increase in funds had become necessary. William Mackinnon, of BI and Mackinnon Mackenzie and Co, was increasingly taking an interest in his Australian business and the company secretary, Charles Leresche, was writing to him continually updating him on information being received from Brisbane. A meeting of shareholders was held in December 1882 as a result of which capital was raised to £250,000, with familiar shipping names among directors being William Mackinnon, Archibald Gray, John McIlwraith, J. McEacharn and James Burns (of Burns Philp and Co),(7) The Headquarters of the new company was at 13 Austin Friars, London. On the 4th July 1883 Leresche sent a letter to Edwyn Dawes, (of Gray, Dawes and Co) attaching a list of sixty one share holders of which forty five were fully paid up.(8) In mid 1884 Leresche was sent to Brisbane to discuss the possible changing of the company’s agent and to check QSS agency’s finances, which he found to be in something of a mess. In a letter to Mackinnon he advised that, for the time being, the agency should stay because to change it would result in a major wool shipper refusing to send even one bale of wool on any of the company’s vessels.(9) QSS decided to become more aggressive and in order to obtain more coastal trade in Queensland, and to get the backing of the people in the colony, another new shipping company was suggested which would be operated by BI and QSS together. Accordingly on 5th May 1885 Mackinnon Mackenzie, Gray Dawes and McIlwraith McEacharn formed the British India and Queensland Agency( BI and QA). (10) (2) William Olson, Lion of The China Sea- A History of the E & A Line, (Sydney, 1976) 3 (3)N.L.McKellar, From Derby Round to Burketown, The A.U.S.N.Story, (Queensland, 1977) 50 (4) Ibid 47 (5) Pixley, ‘The History of the A.U.S.N.Co.Ltd’ 985 6) Ibid 986 (7) N.L.McKellar, From Derby Round to Burketown, The A.U.S.N.Story, 51 (8) Charles Leresche letter to Edwyn Dawes, 4th July 1883. Sir William Mackinnon Collection PPMS 1/Corr2 Mackinnon, Misc. Commercial File 18, Box No. 120. School of Oriental and Asian Studies, London.(photocopy in Author’s possession) (9) Leresche letter to William Mackinnon, 7th October 1884, .(photocopy in Author’s possession) (10) Pixley, ‘The History of the A.U.S.N.Co.Ltd’, 989
History of Macdonald, Hamilton and Co. (Introduction)	Hunter River Steam Navigation Co.
Australasian Steam Navigation Co.	Queensland Steam Navigation Co.
British India and Queensland Agency	James Lyle Mackay
Australasian United Steam Navigation Co.
The Partnership of Macdonald, Hamilton and Co.
The Partnership of Macdonald, Hamilton and Co.- page 2
Macdonald Hamilton and Co. Pty. Ltd.
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