Burnet, Thomas

BURNET, ThomasIII (1830–1890) was born in Northumberland, England, probably son of Thomas Burnet, nail maker, and Ann Elizabeth Atkinson. In 1851 he was training as a building surveyor in Newcastle. He became an early settler at Rockhampton, giving a lecture at the School of Arts in December 1861 on the impact of gold discoveries, and acquiring land there in 1862. From 21^st March 1862 until the end of the year, he was in partnership with EJ SMITH as SMITH & BURNET, but was insolvent by May 1864 when his estate, including a brick cottage in Quay Street, was offered for sale. He returned to England to marry Margaret Mathison at Gateshead, Durham in March 1867, but by May 1868 was briefly back in Queensland, working as an auctioneer in Rockhampton. Early in 1869, he retired from the Municipal Council and moved to Sydney where a daughter was born before the family returned in 1870 to England. In 1872, he attended a dinner arranged by Richard Daintree, Queensland Agent-General in London. In 1881 Burnet was listed as a civil engineer in Newcastle, Northumberland where he died in 1890.