William Henry Walsh

The Hon William Henry Walsh
W. H. Walsh about 1860
Speaker of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
In office 6 January 1874 – 20 July 1876
Preceded by	Frederick Forbes
Succeeded by	Henry King
Constituency	Warrego
Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Leichhardt
In office 15 June 1859 – 10 December 1859
Preceded by	New seat
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Maryborough
In office 1 February 1865 – 4 November 1873
Preceded by	New seat
Succeeded by	Berkeley Moreton
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Warrego
In office 4 November 1873 – 12 December 1878
Preceded by	Archibald Buchanan
Succeeded by	Ernest Stevens
Member of the Queensland Legislative Council
In office 20 February 1879 – 5 April 1888
Personal details
Born	William Henry Walsh (1823-12-18)18 December 1823 Milton, Berkshire, England
Died	5 April 1888(1888-04-05) (aged 64) Traffic accident Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Resting place	Toowong Cemetery
Nationality	English
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Brown (b.1828 m.1857 d.1913)
Children	Kathleen Maude Walsh, Eliza Walsh, Western Walsh, Alfred Degilbo Walsh, Hilda Walsh, William Walsh & Nugent Walsh
Occupation	Squatter, Investor
Religion	Church of England

William Henry Walsh (1823–1888) was an Australian pioneer pastoralist or squatter and politician in early Queensland. He was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1859 to 1860, Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1865 to 1878, and a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council, from 1879-1888. He was the Queensland Minister of the Crown from 1870 to 1873, Speaker in the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 6 January 1874 to 20 July 1876.

Walsh was supposedly born on 18 December 1823 at Milton, Berkshire, England, son of a solicitor, Charles Walsh, and his wife Elizabeth.

He migrated to Australia on the Mary Sharp arriving 11 June 1844, afterwards gaining a few years of colonial experience working for David Perrier at Bathurst. He then went north to begin a squatting career of his own. In early 1847 he set up, for his former employer, a new station on the Macintyre River in the south-eastern part of the territory of the future Queensland. Shortly thereafter he went into the northern 'unknown' with men and a large flock of sheep financed by the Sydney-based Griffith, Fanning & Co. He subsequently formed the Degilbo and Monduran stations near the present day township of Gayndah in the North Burnett.

Working still for the same company, of which he had then become a co-proprietor, Walsh went further north in July 1853. During this venture he and his men made their mark on Queensland history as the first whites to 'blaze the track' of what is now the section of Bruce Highway between Degilbo in the Burnett to the Boyne Valley at Port Curtis, now Gladstone. Here Walsh formed yet another sheep station which he named Milton, allegedly after his birthplace or childhood home.