Blencowe/Blencoe Falls
The Blencoe Falls item in the August 2011 newsletter prompted me to investigate who lent their name to the falls.
Blencowe Falls and Blencowe Creek were named by a party, which included Robert Archdale Blencowe who traversed the range (Great Dividing Range) in August 1866.
Robert was born in London in 1833, the son of Rev William Moulton Blencowe (1804-1841) and Maynard Rochford (?-1849) of Devon, and died in Ipswich, Queensland of tropical fever on 1st November 1866.
Hopefully as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Cardwell in 2014 we can have the correct spelling reinstated.
As more pieces of the puzzle are put together I will keep you informed.
John Blinco
Cairns, Queensland
I did some digging and found that Robert came from the Chailey family that descended from Thomas, the second son of Sir John Blencowe of Marston St Lawrence. His grandfather was the lawyer and ex Eton and Oxford graduate, Robert Willis Blencowe (1766-1842) and his grandmother, Penelope, was the daughter of Sir George Robinson. Robert died intestate and his spinster sisters, Dora and Penelope inherited his estate after a court decision in their favour proved them to be the only living kin. One wonders if he was an explorer or a surveyor in the trekking party. Blencoe Falls are still rather inaccessible.