Labour Australia

Peter Dobbin, 1891

Queensland State Archives, ITM341532, DR17771

Peter Joseph ‘Joe’ Dobbin (also known as Peter Joseph Dobbyn) (1868-1935) shearer and gaoled trade unionist 

Birth: 4 May 1868 in Howth, near Dublin, Ireland, son of James Dobbin (1839-1919), labourer, and Mary, née Redmond. Marriage: 30 December 1876 at Clermont, Queensland, to Mary Eite (1875-1909). They had two daughters and a son. Death: 11 October 1935 in Brisbane Hospital, Queensland.  Religion: Catholic. 

• Arrived at Rockhampton aboard the Scottish Hero with his parents and siblings on 28 November 1876.
• Charged with molesting hired servants at Peak Downs 1891. The Worker later reported ‘he had offered his horse, together with a 5 pound note, to a scab on condition that he would refrain from going to work, and when the man refused he indulged in a little abuse’. With others, he was tried before Judge George Harding at Rockhampton and sentenced on 20 May 1891 to two and a half years imprisonment (one month for molesting).
• Prison records describe him as a native of Ireland, aged 23, who could read and write, of medium build, 5 feet 5 inches (165cm) tall, with a dark complexion, brown hair and brown eyes.
• He was released on 17 June 1893.
• A labourer at Clermont in 1903-05, in Rockhampton 1909-13 & at Blair Athol in 1917, he was a selector at Capella, in 1919-22 and later lived in Brisbane and Sandgate.
• Cause of death: hyperpresis and cerebral thrombosis.

Sources
Trial, Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 1 May 1891, p.5, released from prison, Worker (Brisbane), 24 June 1893, Queensland State Archives, St Helena Penal Establishment. General Record and Description of prisoners, July 1879-April 1895, PRI 2, 7/A.