Dunbabin Family

The Dunbabin family's first member arrived in Tasmania in 1830, when John Dunbabin, a 24-year-old farm labourer and a convict from Marchwiel, North Wales, arrived in Hobart. He was assigned to Henry Bilton, a Hobart merchant, who had property in southern Tasmania. John married Anne Eccles, also a convict, and they lived at Bilton's Bream Creek property with their six children. They later acquired the property and named it Marchwiel. Their sons John and Thomas had a grazing lease of Maria Island from 1868–75. John and Mary (née Murdoch) had three children, one of whom was Robert Leslie, professor of Classics at the University of Tasmania, 1917–39; and Thomas, his wife Sarah (née Murdoch), and their family of eleven farmed at Marchwiel and also Bangor, Dunalley.

Family members have maintained an interest in local government and community organisations. Many reside in southern Tasmania, as farmers, professionals and business people, while others have moved interstate.

Further reading: T Dunbabin, A farm at the world's end, Hobart, [1954].