Dugald McPherson (sometimes Macpherson, 1820-1901) was a pioneer squatter who emigrated to Victoria in 1840 aged 20 with his brother Peter, bringing with him a trunk of Scottish regalia (ST 025294). Born in Argyllshire, Scotland, he was the son of Dugald Macpherson and Jane, daughter of Peter McKellar (the McKellars later had connections to the Western District). Dugald first settled at Ballan, north-west of Melbourne, and subsequently developed huge landholdings in north-western Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. A stalwart of the Scottish immigrant community, he became chief of the Highland Society of Ballarat and an elder of the Presbyterian Church. With other wealthy pastoralists, he later helped form the Australian Club in William Street. He was a councillor in the Ballan Shire 1864-1873. Dugald married Mary O'Cock; his brother Peter married her sister (they moved to New South Wales, where their descendants still live). Dugald and Mary had seven sons and five daughters. Dugald's second son Arthur married Annie Fawkner, a daughter of John Fawkner. In 1861, William Wills, father of William John Wills of Burke & Wills fame, stayed briefly with Dugald during the agonising wait for his missing son. Dugald's great-great-granddaughter, Hope Macpherson, says that the family remembered Dugald as very interested in his Scottish heritage and was 'land-hungry'.

References:
Paul de Serville, (1970).  Pounds and Pedigrees, p. 418
Burke's Colonial Gentry, edition, p.134
Ian Hughes, (1840). Coastal Passengers to Port Phillip
Henderson, A. Early Pioneer Families of Victoria and the Riverina, p.151
Australian Dictionary of Biography, entry for William Taylor (1818-1903)
Wills, William John, (1863). Successful Exploration through the Interior of Australia
Pers. comm., Deborah Tout-Smith with Hope Macpherson, 7/12/2009

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