Proby’s Grave

Hugh Proby, born on 9 April 1826 in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, was the third son of Admiral Granville Leveson Proby, the third Earl of Carysfort of Ireland, and Isabella Howard. He embarked on a journey to Australia aboard the SS Wellington, which docked at Port Adelaide on 30th May 1851.

Hugh was granted 3 pastoral leases on the 1st of July 1851, at a rental of 10 shillings per square mile. Hugh Proby went on to establish Kanyaka Cattle Station in February 1852. One fateful night, amid a violent thunderstorm that caused the cattle to stampede, Hugh and an aboriginal stockman mounted their horses to tend to the mob. Tragically, while attempting to cross the Willochra Creek during the deluge, Hugh was swept from his horse named Squatter and drowned. He was just 24 years old when he was laid to rest the following day.

Located not far from the site of his passing, Hugh Proby's grave became a poignant memorial. Six years after his untimely death, his siblings arranged for a tablet of Scottish granite to be shipped from his homeland. Weighing one and a half tons, the tablet was transported to the burial site from Port Augusta by a bullock team. In a touching gesture, his sister Lady Hamilton visited Australia at the turn of the century to pay her respects at his final resting place.

The letters penned by Hugh Proby to his family in England during 1851-52, detailing his pioneering efforts in establishing Kanyaka and managing the Mookra Range run (now Coonatto Station), were compiled and published in 1987 in a book titled 'An Earl's Son'.