Court procedings
PETERSON v. FEDERAL COMMISSIONER OF TAXATION (1960) 106 CLR 395(Extracts)
WINDEYER J. delivered the following written judgment:-
This is an appeal by Lucy Bimbah Peterson, as trustee of the estate of her mother, Lucy Elizabeth Edkins deceased, against an assessment of the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation under the Income Tax and Social Services Contribution Assessment Act 1936- 1954. Mrs Edkins died on 29th December 1954.
3. By her will Mrs Edkins appointed the appellant her executrix and trustee. ... She left her estate beneficially as to one-half to the appellant, and as to the other half to another daughter, Edwina Rosamond Brown for her life with remainder to her children. That daughter died before the testatrix.
On October 1867 at Emerald Hill. Victoria,
Edkins married Edwina Marion,
daughter of Dr Walter Huey (1797-1843) of
Launceston. Tasmania, and his wife Alethea
née Martin. With his bride, he made the
long trip from Melbourne to Burketown
where he managed Beamesbrook station for
the Scottish Australian Co. and where the
first two of his eight children died and in
1871 his wife's brother Edward, on leave
from India, was fatally speared. In 1872
Beamesbrook was abandoncd and Edkins
with his family and 12,000 cattle went to
manage Mount Cornish station, the western
lease of Bowen Downs. Under Edkins's management
the station's Shorthorn herd became
one of the best known in the colony
but drought from 1898 to 1902 reduced the
cattle from 36,000 to 1300, despite artesian
watering improvements made in 1891-96.
Deciding not to restock, the company sold
the property to the New Zealand and Australian
Land Co. and Edkins went with his
wife to Sydney, where he was pastoral inspector
for the Scottish Australian Co.
Descendants are still in the Longreach district.
In the 1880s and 1890s with Frank Hann
Edkins had taken up Lawn Hill in the
Northern Territory, and with other partners
held Roxborough, Katandra and Dunrobin.
He was a justice of the peace from
December 1869, and a member until December
1902 and six times chairman of the
Aramac Divisional Board. He named several
district features and the town of Muttaburra,
which he intended to be Mootaburra.
He died at Drummoyne, Sydney, on 14
August 1905 and was buried in the churchyard
of St Thomas's, Enfield. He was survived
by his wife and six children.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
In August 1890 Edward selected his own
property. Bimbah, near Longreach, and
lived there for the rest of his life. He soon
became president of the Mitchell Selectors'
Association and was president of the
succeeding Graziers' Association of Central and
North Queensland in 1918-22. He represented
the latter in the United Graziers'
Association of which he was vice-president
in 1920-21 and an executive officer from
1921. Frequently president of the Longreach
Pastoral and Agricultural Society, he helped
to found the Longreach Shire Council,
became its first chairman and occupied
the position many times thereafter. As his
business interests expanded. he became
chairman of Edkins, Marsh & Co. Ltd, which
owned a stock and station agency and a
chain of wool-scours and Edkins, Campbell
& Co. which controlled seven large stations
including Bimbah.
An enthusiastic sportsman, Edkins played
tennis and cricket and chaired football,
tennis and cricket clubs. His main love was
the turf and besides being president of the
Longreach Jockey Club for nearly forty
years, he founded the Longreach Amateur
Racing Club in 1912 and was its president for
many years. His Snapshot won the Queensland
Cup in 1908 and his Piastoon won the
Sydney Cup in 1927. He is credited with
having initiated the practice of positioning
judges well back from the edge of race
tracks. On 30 April 1894 at Rockhampton he
married Lucy Elizabeth Rule; they had three
children. Edkins died of cerebro-vascular
disease at Longreach on 23 June 1939 leaving
an estate valued for probate at £21 457.
He was buried in the Anglican section of
Longreach cemetery.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
For four years Edkins was president of the
Motor Traders' Association of New South
Wales. He chaired the inaugural meeting in
1920 of the National Roads Association, was
chairman of its provisional committee, and
became one of its first vice-presidents. He
negotiated for amalgamation with the
equivalent Victorian association, was a
leader of the 1923 reorganization as the
National Roads and Motorists' Association,
and was a councillor of the association until
1929. The police consulted him frequently
on traffic policy.
Edkins was frequently under stress
because of the need to pay for imported cars
before they were unloaded from ships, a
practice which often necessitated a scramble
for funds when a cargo arrived. He died
in Sydney of chronic nephritis on 23 January
1930 leaving an estate valued for probate at
£14 644. He was cremated.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Boyd Edkins' motor company was subsequently called Boyded Holden.
Published Biographies
EDKINS, EDWARD ROWLAND (1840-1905),
pastoral manager, was born on 10
January 1840 at Bridgnorth. Shropshire,
England, the youngest son of Thomas Oliver
Edkins, stationer and sometime mayor, and
his wife Louisa, née Winton. When his
father died, Edkins migrated to Victoria
with his mother and other members of the
family: they arrived in 1852. In the late
1850s Edkins began droving and about 1862
was reputed the first to take cattle across
the Burdekin River when he drove some
4000 head from New South Wales to stock
Bluff Downs, Mary Vale and Wando Vale
runs for Robert Stewart, Glen Walker
and others. In 1864 he learned in Victoria
how to inoculate cattle against pleuropneumonia
and was employed to inoculate
stock on runs near Rockhampton. In 1866
he and his brother Henry ran the boiling-down
works at Burketown for the Scottish
Australian Co. Ltd, and perfected a technique
of curing beef for markets in Batavia
and Singapore.
History - Gulf Fever:
EDKINS, EDWARD ROWLAND HUEY
(1871-1939), pastoralist, was the son of Edward Rowland
Edkins, pastoralist, and his wife Edwina
Marion, née Huey, daughter of a pioneer
Tasmanian doctor. The family had settled in the
Gulf country managing Beamsbrook station
on the Albert River, Queensland, in the early
1860s. Edward Rowland Huey was born on
30 January 1871 at Maryborough. Educated
at Launceston Grammar School, Tasmania,
and at Wesley College, Melbourne, he
learned the pastoral business chiefly as a
jackeroo on Kensington Downs, Queensland,
under John Cameron.
His brother BOYD ROBERTSON HUEY EDKINS
(1882-1930), racing driver, was born on 12
December 1882 at Mount Cornish Station,
Muttaburra. Queensland. Educated at The
King's School, Parramatta, New South
Wales, he managed the family's Malboona
briefly, but country life had little appeal for
him and he returned to Sydney about 1905.
In August 1906, in the chapel of The King's
School, he married Katherine Muriel Edwards:
they had two children. Edkins was
employed initially by Kinglec Ltd, selling
farm machinery, but about 1908 he joined
the motor dealer George Innes, agent for
Vauxhall and Humber cars. Just before
World War I he established an independent
business called Motor House in Milford
Street. After the war he floated this as a
company, Boyd Edkins Ltd. To prove the
worth of their cars, retailers often took a
leading part in races and rallies. Edkins
twice broke the speed record from
Melbourne to Sydney, in 1914 and in March
1916. He held hill-climb records in both New
South Wales and Queensland and in
December 1922 broke the record from Sydney to Brisbane.
Monumental Inscriptions
St. James Church Cemetery, Kerikeri, New Zealand
Loving memory of Beresford Harry Huey EDKINS, Dearly Loved Husband of Alfreda.
D. 8-3-1964 aged 87 years.