Illuminated address presented to William Tully on his retirement as Surveyor-General of Queensland

Background

Born in Dublin in 1830, William Alcock Tully arrived in Tasmania as religious instructor on the convict transport Lord Dalhousie in 1852. After entering the Tasmanian public service he worked as a surveyor until 1863, when he moved north to Queensland to take up the position of Commissioner of Crown Lands for the pastoral districts of Kennedy and Warrego. Tully’s promotion within the Surveyor-General’s Department was rapid. He was Under Secretary for Lands in 1866 and Acting Surveyor-General in March 1875, when he initiated the first trigonometrical survey of Queensland. In 1880 he succeeded Augustus Gregory as Surveyor-General. Tully had already assisted in the drafting of two key pieces of land legislation, the Crown Lands Alienation Act (1868) and the Consolidating Crown Lands Alienation Act (1876), and perhaps had more impact on Queensland’s 19^th century land laws than any other single individual. After his appointment to the Land Board in 1889, he resigned as Surveyor-General. Tully is commemorated by the town and river bearing his name in North Queensland.

 

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