Edward Curr

Edward Curr (1798–1850), company manager, and author of An Account of the Colony of Van Diemen's Land: Principally designed for the use of Emigrants, was born in Sheffield, England. A businessman in early Hobart, Curr also served in the Deputy Judge Advocate's Court and aided in the establishment of the Catholic Church.¹ Curr was appointed as chief agent of the Van Diemen's Land Company and moved his family to Circular Head in 1827 after selecting land suitable for wool production.²

Curr was a harsh manager and magistrate³ and was also complicit in the destruction of the local Aboriginal population.⁴ In the severe winter of 1830 most of the company's sheep perished in the Surrey and Hampshire Hills, obliging Curr to eventually abandon the district. With the Company facing financial ruin Curr was dismissed in 1842,⁵ and he moved to Melbourne to become a prominent supporter of the Victorian separatist movement.⁶

Further reading: E Curr, An Account of the Colony of Van Diemen's Land, London, 1824, reprinted Hobart, 1967; R Hare, The Voyage of the Caroline from England to Van Diemen's Land and Batavia, edited Ida Lee, London, 1927; G Lennox, 'The Van Diemen's Land Company and the Tasmanian Aborigines: A Reappraisal', THRAPP, 1990.

Ian McFarlane

Footnotes:
1. ADB 1, p 269.
2. A Meston, The Van Diemen's Land Company 1825–1842, Launceston, 1958, p 28.
3. J Duxbury, Colonial Servitude: Indentured and Assigned Servants of the Van Diemen's Land Company 1825–41, Clayton, 1989, p 51.
4. I McFarlane, 'Cape Grim' in R Manne (ed), Whitewash, Melbourne, 2003.
5. Cornwall Chronicle, 19 March 1842.
6. G Davison, J Hirst, S Macintyre (eds), The Oxford Companion To Australian History, Melbourne, 1998, p 167.