Six Ha'pennies

Sentenced to life in the Colony of New South Wales by the Essex Assizes, Abraham Braybrook’s story is unique.

On arrival in Sydney in November 1834, convict number 2480 was assigned to a powerful ex-military man and squatter as a farm hand. He worked growing fruit and vegetables at The Field of Mars district near Parramatta. 

Then in 1837, as part of a pioneering group, he was among the first to overland from Yass to Central Victoria. This made him one of the very first settlers in that area. There, at Maiden Hills Station, he was engaged as a shepherd and bootmaker. 

By the time of his premature death in 1851, Abraham was a respected small farmer and family man; but he had been on a very rough and adventurous journey.

Along the way he was central to a sensational murder trial in Melbourne, was involved in a serious incident involving Aborigines, escaped death by hanging through a stroke of well-timed good fortune and experienced first-hand the tragedy and horror of the worst bushfires in Australia white man’s history.

With the permission of the Governor he married an Irish girl in 1842 and was father to five children. He received a Conditional Pardon in 1848. 

His remains are believed to lie below the famed Queen Victoria Market, the original Melbourne Cemetery.