This is the story of one of old Sandgate’s lesser-known identities. He was not respected, successful or well-connected but, as the father of someone who was, he deserves to be remembered.
Benjamin Best was born in Somerset, arriving in Brisbane, aged about 19, in 1854. He found work as a labourer and farm worker, although when he and Jane Salisbury married in Brisbane in September 1856, they both described themselves as domestic servants. Their first child, William, was born in November.
Later, Jane said that after the marriage they had lived “five years in the bush and nine years at Sandgate” and, indeed, it was in Sandgate, in 1861, that she gave birth to their fourth child, Isaac Benjamin, reputedly the first European child to be born there.
For a while, Ben presented as a respectable citizen. In 1864, he joined other residents petitioning the authorities for a road to be built from Brisbane, and in 1869, he applied to select a homestead in Sandgate. He was granted a block, situated where Broad and Braun streets now intersect, for which he paid £2.11.6. His landholding period was brief, though. In 1875, the land was recorded as abandoned, with rent owing, and was then sold.
A Family in Decline and a Life on the Move
By 1870, the Best family was struggling. For starters, Ben had absconded to St George, where he worked droving sheep and horses. He later said that he felt more at home in the bush than in Sandgate. Jane, having been left with their now six children and no money or means of support, was forced to apply to the law. Accordingly, a warrant was issued for Ben’s arrest. It is thanks to this document, published in the Police Gazette, that we know what he looked like: “5 feet 11 inches, dark complexion, brown hair worn long, thin face, round shoulders, one higher than the other”.
He was arrested in St George (in the company of one Ellen Lewis) in 1871 and charged with desertion. Jane attributed their problems to drink. Ben was fined and imprisoned because he could not pay Jane the court-decreed 10 shillings a week. Another four children were born between 1871 and 1876, although their paternity is open to question, and Jane and Ben must eventually have divorced because she remarried in 1885.
Ben continued his peripatetic life, ending up in Bendigo, where he died in 1921. Their son, Isaac Benjamin, lived his whole life in Sandgate, a respected butcher and pillar of the community – hardly a chip off the old block.
[With thanks to the Sandgate Historical Museum (opening hours: Sunday and Wednesday, 9am to 1.30pm. Adults $5, Children $3, Membership $20/$30)]
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