Petrie is the name of a family of early European settlers in Australia.
Andrew Petrie
(1798-1872), a Scottish-born builder and architect, was one of the first free settlers in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Born in June 1798 in Fife, Scotland, he landed in Sydney as a free worker in 1831. After working as a clerk in the ordnance department, Petrie became clerk of works at Moreton Bay (now Brisbane) in 1837. When the convict station was removed in 1839, Petrie stayed on as a free settler. He designed and built many of the important buildings in the settlement. His journeys contributed to the knowledge of the surrounding area. Petrie was the first person to climb Mount Beerwah, in the Glasshouse Mountains. He also brought back to Brisbane the first samples of the bunya pine. In 1842, he discovered the Mary River. He died in February 1872 in Brisbane.
Thomas Petrie
(1831-1910), Andrew’s son, was particularly concerned with the Aboriginal peoples of Australia and their ways of life. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1831 and arrived in Australia with his parents the same year. His interest in Aboriginal people started in childhood and developed throughout his life. He became an authority on Aboriginal languages and customs. Petrie’s records of customs are extremely valuable, because he developed an intimacy with Aboriginal groups before association with other Europeans began to alter their ways of life. His experiences were recorded in Tom Petrie’s Reminiscences of Early Queensland (1904). In 1877, he helped organize the first Aboriginal reserve at Bribie Island, Queensland. He died on Aug. 26, 1910.
