In her fight to retain and improve the property and its cattle, Mrs Duncan aimed at building up a first-class Shorthorn herd and helped to pioneer the 'baby-beef trade' in south-west Queensland. Slightly built, quiet, kindly, but efficient and determined, she advocated the right of pastoralists to market their stock where they chose. In 1917 she contested the compulsory seizure by the T. J. Ryan government of some 500 Mooraberrie cattle under the Sugar Acquisition Act of 1915, which had sweeping powers over livestock as well as raw sugar. The Mooraberrie Cattle Case (Duncan v. Queensland, Duncan v. Theodore) challenged the power of the Queensland government to overrule section 92 of the Constitution, guaranteeing the freedom of interstate trade. Although backed by the Graziers' Association and the Commonwealth government, she lost in the Queensland Supreme Court, won in the High Court of Australia, but in 1919 the Privy Council decided against her.
A stickler for justice and a generous supporter of good causes, Duncan gave her Brisbane residence, Lynne Grove, at Corinda, as a home for the orphaned and destitute children of World War I soldiers. She travelled widely in her Ford motorcar during World War I to aid the Australian Red Cross Society and other patriotic causes. A splendid horsewoman, she was a capable educator of her three daughters; her only son had died of croup in childhood. Duncan respected Aboriginal people and observed their laws and rights to the land.
On 13 September 1920 at St Aidan's Church of England, Marden, Adelaide, she married John McKenzie, a contractor. He died in 1922. In 1940 she passed the management of Mooraberrie to her daughter Laura Lothian Duncan (1903-1988)—the property was managed continuously by the two women for some eighty years. Her other daughters Alice Monkton Duncan-Kemp (1901-1988), who was the author of several books, and Beatrice Margaret Galagher (1904-1995) had both married graziers. Duncan retired to her home at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, where she died on 20 June 1955. She was cremated with Anglican rites.
Contributor: Catherine Caling (51042984)
In her fight to retain and improve the property and its cattle, Mrs Duncan aimed at building up a first-class Shorthorn herd and helped to pioneer the 'baby-beef trade' in south-west Queensland. Slightly built, quiet, kindly, but efficient and determined, she advocated the right of pastoralists to market their stock where they chose. In 1917 she contested the compulsory seizure by the T. J. Ryan government of some 500 Mooraberrie cattle under the Sugar Acquisition Act of 1915, which had sweeping powers over livestock as well as raw sugar. The Mooraberrie Cattle Case (Duncan v. Queensland, Duncan v. Theodore) challenged the power of the Queensland government to overrule section 92 of the Constitution, guaranteeing the freedom of interstate trade. Although backed by the Graziers' Association and the Commonwealth government, she lost in the Queensland Supreme Court, won in the High Court of Australia, but in 1919 the Privy Council decided against her.
A stickler for justice and a generous supporter of good causes, Duncan gave her Brisbane residence, Lynne Grove, at Corinda, as a home for the orphaned and destitute children of World War I soldiers. She travelled widely in her Ford motorcar during World War I to aid the Australian Red Cross Society and other patriotic causes. A splendid horsewoman, she was a capable educator of her three daughters; her only son had died of croup in childhood. Duncan respected Aboriginal people and observed their laws and rights to the land.
On 13 September 1920 at St Aidan's Church of England, Marden, Adelaide, she married John McKenzie, a contractor. He died in 1922. In 1940 she passed the management of Mooraberrie to her daughter Laura Lothian Duncan (1903-1988)—the property was managed continuously by the two women for some eighty years. Her other daughters Alice Monkton Duncan-Kemp (1901-1988), who was the author of several books, and Beatrice Margaret Galagher (1904-1995) had both married graziers. Duncan retired to her home at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, where she died on 20 June 1955. She was cremated with Anglican rites.
Contributor: Catherine Caling (51042984)
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