Aussie historian, author & entertainer Jim Haynes joins Overnight each week for his unique knowledge of the not-so-famous characters from Australia’s history. This week Jim shines the spotlight on James Tyson – Australia’s first self-made millionaire.

James Tyson (1819-1898), pastoralist, was born on 8 April 1819 near Narellan, New South Wales.  By 1898 Tyson held 5,329,214 acres including 352,332 acres freehold. His stations included Tupra, Juanbung, Bangate, Goondublui and Mooroonowa in New South Wales; Heyfield in Victoria; and Glenormiston, Swanvale, Meteor Downs and Albinia Downs, Babbiloora, Carnarvon, Tully, Wyobie, Felton, Mount Russell and Tinnenburra in Queensland.

Tyson was a member of the Queensland Legislative Council in 1893-98 but made only one short speech. He was a magistrate on the Maude, New South Wales, and Jondaryan, Queensland, benches, and a prominent lobbyist against the building of the Queensland transcontinental railway line by overseas capitalists on the land grant system; he opposed the Victorian border stock tax and campaigned actively for the land tenure reforms embodied in the Crown Lands Acts of 1884 in New South Wales and 1885 in Queensland.

Generous to a wide range of charities, he contributed £2000 for two years to the New South Wales Sudan Contingent and variously to the building funds of the Women’s College, University of Sydney, and the Church of England at Leyburn.

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