John Chapman Bolton (1905 - 1965)

Born 1905 in Hamilton, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Emily Ludovina (Roberts) Bolton — married 1936 in Victoria, Australia

Died 10 Sep 1965 at about age 60 in 'Rundle Hills', Mount Larcom, Queensland, Australia

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Biography

Jack Bolton was born in 1905 in the town of Hamilton, in the Western Districts of Victoria. His parents were Thomas Bolton and Emma Fysh. His father was an apiarist. Jack had four older siblings; Adelaise, Jasper, Geoff, and Carina.

Jack's mother died in 1924, in the town of Portland, on the south-west coast of Victoria.

In the 1927 and 1928 electoral rolls, Jack Bolton was farming at Kellalac, a rural district located near the town of Dimboola, in north-west victoria.

Jack's father died in 1928 in the city of Geelong.

In the 1931 electoral roll, Jack was working as a labourer at Bolwarra, on the outskirts of Portland. His brother Jasper was an orchardist in Portland.

In 1936, Jack married Emily Roberts. Emily was living with her widowed mother on their family farm at Allestree, which was located a few miles east from Portland and Bolwarra. Jack was around 31 years of age, and Emily was around 38 years old.

Soon after their marriage, Jack and Emily appear to have moved to Queensland, onto the Western Downs, north of Miles, in outback Queensland. Jack's brother Geoff was running cattle there, on his soldier settlement property called "Kurraba", near Guluguba. Geoff had carpentry skills and built his house with his own hands. Jack and Emily took up a farm of their own nearby, at Guluguba, and that is where they began raising their family of two sons, Bob and Graeme.

The electoral rolls of 1936, 1937, and 1943, all record Jack Bolton as a farmer at Guluguba. Emily was still being recorded on the roll at Allestree in 1936 and 1937, but it seems likely that she simply forgot to update her details with the electoral office when she moved to Queensland. She was correctly recorded attending to home duties at Guluguba in 1943.

In 1949, the electoral roll records Jack and Emily farming at Wandoan, which is a small town situated a few miles down the road from Guluguba. It is not clear whether they had actually moved to another property, or whether the change simply reflects an address alteration in the electoral roll. Jack's brother Geoff had left his farm and moved to Toowoomba by that time, after struggling with years of severe drought, and infestations of prickly pear, and Jack and Emily were also soon to leave the district, so a temporary move to Wandoan may have been the beginning of that process.

In August 1950, Jack took out a lease on "Rundle Hills", a cattle station of 16,981 acres, in the Mount Larcom district, near the coast north of Gladstone. He purchased the leasehold from Mr. H.C. Randall, along with 500 head of cattle. "Rundle Hills" was a low-lying acreage located between Mount Larcom and The Narrows, in the coastal region north of Gladstone between Rundle Range and Curtis Island.

In the 1954 and 1958 electoral rolls, Jack was recorded as a grazier at "Rundle Hills", and Emily was attending to home duties.

In the 1963 electoral roll, Jack was still a grazier at "Rundle Hills", and Emily was again recorded attending to home duties. Their eldest son Bob was recorded as a grazier on a nearby property called "Butlerville", at Mount Larcom, and their younger son Graeme was recorded as a station-hand in the Mount Larcom area, probably at "Rundle Hills".

Jack died tragically, on 10 Sep 1965, when he was 60 years of age. It is believed he had a heart attack while trying to pull one of his cattle out of boggy ground on his property.

Jack was buried in the Mount Larcom General Cemetery.

With the help of her two sons, Emily continued living at "Rundle Hills" after Jack's death. She died in 1973, at the age of 77, and was buried with Jack at Mount Larcom.

After the OPEC oil shock in 1973, probably a short time after Emily's death, the sharp increase in oil prices made extracting oil from shales a viable prospect. Exploratory drilling by the Southern Pacific Petroleum company on "Rundle Hills" revealed very large reserves of oil shales and so they purchased the property from the Bolton's sons. Southern Pacific received financial backing from Exxon in 1979, to enable the expensive processing, but the results were not satisfactory, and Exxon withdrew from the project. The company folded in 2003.

Sources

• Roberts, Perce, & Roberts, Marcus, The Roberts Family, Geelong, 2000.

• Victoria, Australia, Birth Index, 1837-1917 (Ancestry.com), [database on-line], Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.

• Victoria, Australia, Marriage Index, 1837-1950 (Ancestry.com) [database on-line], Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2018.

• Australian Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980 (Ancestry.com), [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010.

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/139112752/john-chapman-bolton : accessed 25 April 2022), memorial page for John Chapman Bolton (1905–10 Sep 1965), Find a Grave Memorial ID 139112752, citing Mount Larcom General Cemetery, Mount Larcom, Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia ; Maintained by Donald L Reid (contributor 48130349) .

• 'Shale-oil dream ends in company collapse', The Age (3 Dec 2003), https://www.theage.com.au/national/shale-oil-dream-ends-in-company-collapse-20031203-gdwuyp.html