Studio portrait of William Huon, pioneer squatter in the Riverina district. Sydney, March 1866.

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 104 x 62 mm (mount); verso with imprint of ‘W. Hetzer’s Photographic Gallery, 287, George Street, Sydney, N.S.W.’, and a fully contemporary inscription in ink, identifying the sitter: ‘W. Huon Esq., Wodonga, March 1866’; both the print and mount are in fine condition.

William Huon (Campbelltown 1825 – 1907 Wodonga) was the son of Paul Huon, one of the first squatters to settle in the Murray River district in the 1830s in the wake of Hume and Hovell’s overland journey of exploration in 1824-5. William took over the Wodonga run from his father in 1846, when the Port Phillip district was still part of New South Wales.

We can locate no portrait photographs of William Huon in Australia public collections.

The following obituary for William Huon includes a great deal of information on the Huon family, their fascinating historical background, and the significant role they played in the colonisation of the Riverina. It was published in the Wodonga and Towong Sentinel, 22 November 1907:

‘DEATH OF MR WILLIAM HUON. A PIONEER SQUATTER. AN AUSTRALIAN BORN OCTOGENARIAN. In the death of Mr William Huon, of “de Kerilleau”, Wodonga, a prominent landmark in the history of the district has disappeared. Although the sad event, which took place on Saturday afternoon at 2.30, was not unexpected, and in the circumstances was a happy release, so great was the respect in which the deceased gentleman was held that expressions of regret were general. Mr Huon’s health, which throughout his long life had been most robust, commenced to fail about five years ago, when a severe operation was performed on him. About that time his hearing became more difficult, and, the trouble increasing with his advancing years, conversation became almost impossible with him for some months past. An affection of the kidneys had made serious inroads on the once powerful constitution, and six weeks ago he had to take to his room. Having leased “de Kerrilleau,” he had three years before taken up his residence temporarily in Albury, but he determined, on the expiration of the lease, to return to his old home without a moment’s delay. Having re-established himself in his old quarters, he calmly awaited the end, which he recognised was not far off. A week later he became alarmingly ill, and for several days was unconscious, save for short intervals. For three days before his death he was in a comatose state, and died without regaining consciousness. The cause of death was Bright’s disease. The deceased gentleman was the son of the late Paul Huon, an early settler at Campbelltown, near Sydney, and was born in that district in 1825. His exact age was 82 years 5 months. His father was the first squatter on the Victorian side of the Murray, which had only 10 years before been discovered by Hume and Hovell in their historic journey. Mr Paul Huon took up Wodonga Station, which embraced the whole of the area on which the town of Wodonga now stands. The management of the station was entrusted to a younger brother of the owner ; but later on he was superseded by his nephew. Originally the station was devoted to the breeding of cattle, which were sent to the South Australian market. Later on, as the property was reduced by the incoming of population, it passed into the hands of Mr William Huon, and was renamed “de Kerilleau”. The deceased has been in the district since 1845, and was one of the few surviving members of the band of spirited men who, when the whole country was wild bush, and “life on the land” involved hardship and privation and daily peril, pushed out beyond the bounds of civilisation and marked the way for those who were to come after. That wonderful bushman Charles Huon was an uncle of the deceased. This extraordinary man, who took up Baranduda in 1832, was frequently three months on a journey with cattle to South Australia ; yet he escaped molestation from the blacks. On one occasion he left Adelaide, on the way back to Wodonga, with a tomahawk for his sole equipment. Mr Paul Huon had erected his homestead of Wodonga station on a piece of high land at the back of the present site of Nurse Dunphy’s Private Hospital, and Mr William Huon continued to reside there for five years, after which he removed to a situation almost immediately below “de Kerilleau.” In 1870 he built the magnificent homestead at Huon’s Hill. It is interesting to recall the fact that the land now covered by Lake Hume—or as it is more familiarly called, “The Lagoon”—in the Wodonga Park was cultivated for barley and vegetables by the Huons from the thirties (when Charles Huon arrived) to the fifties. Mr William Huon probably put up a record as a justice, having held the commission of the peace in both Victoria and New South Wales for over half a century. For 30 years he regularly attended the Wodonga Police Court, where he rendered important service to the community. He was an absolutely fearless, painstaking, conscientious and capable magistrate. He had a very high sense of justice, and his decisions invariably commanded the respect both of the profession and of litigants. On the establishment of a County Court at Wodonga, he was generally selected as foreman in any jury case in which he served. Twenty years ago he felt that he had fairly earned a rest, and he ceased to attend. In fact, about that time he went into retirement altogether, and has since taken no active interest in public matters. Mr Huon was always fond of sport. He was a foundation member of both the Wodonga and Albury Racing Clubs, and had a number of good horses. He was also one of the first members of the Albury and Border A., H., and P. Society. Sir George Bowen, then Governor of Victoria, was the principal guest at the opening of the North-Eastern line to Wodonga in 1873, and Mr Huon had the honor of entertaining his Excellency during his visit. The deceased was twice married. His first wife was the daughter of the late Peter Stuckey, of Willie Ploma Station, Gundagai (N.S.W.) Of the family of nine children, five survive him—viz., Messrs William, Louis, George, Henry Gould (all well known residents of Wodonga), and Walter (Tarengo, N.S.W.). In 1882 he married Miss Florence Hume, a niece of Hamilton Hume, the great explorer, whose name is imperishably connected with this district. The issue of the second marriage was also nine children. Those living are :—Harold, Norman, Geoffrey, and Misses Constance, Effie, Hilda, and Jessie. It is worth recording that Mrs Armstrong, of Fiji, a daughter of the late Aimee Hume—the latter an uncle of William Huon—was the first white child born at Albury. Mr Louis Huon (Wodonga) is deceased’s brother and Mr Henry Huon (Wodonga) and Mrs J. Mitchell (Tabletop) are step-brother and step-sister respectively. Deceased was closely connected with most of the pioneer families of the border, including the Stuckeys, Mitchells, Humes, Dights, and Collinses. Mrs Huon is very seriously ill in Melbourne. It is understood that the deceased gentleman left a will in the office of a Melbourne firm of solicitors, and that Mr D. Ferguson, LL.B., of the Customs Department, is the sole executor. The history of the founder of the Huon family would make good material for an Anthony Hope romance. When the reign of terror of France was at its height, and the life of an aristocrat was not worth an hour’s purchase, Marie Gabrielle Louis Huon de Querilleau and his wife left France as political fugitives, and took refuge in England, and his subsequent history was disclosed by a writer in the Melbourne “Argus” lately and reproduced in ” The Sentinel” at the time. For the purposes of the concealment of his identity, Huon took the name of Louis Michel. In that name he enlisted as a private in the army, and some few years later joined the New South Wales corps known as the 102nd Regiment, of which John Macarthur was captain. With this regiment he embarked with the second fleet bound for Sydney in 1790, just two years after the first penal settlement had been formed. It is interesting to find that these two men were associated, considering the great influence each of them exercised in different ways upon the pastoral industry of this country. Captain Macarthur was the founder of the great fine-woolled flocks of Australia. It did not take such a shrewd man as Captain Macarthur long to discover that at least one of the men in the ranks of his regiment was out of place there. He quickly recognised that Private Louis Michel was qualified by breeding and education for better things than serving in the ranks of a penal settlement regiment, and the French refugee was given his discharge. In due course, Huon—who had assumed his real name again on arrival in the colony, but throughout his life, kept his family status and title a
secret—took up land in the Campbelltown district, and devoted himself to pastoral pursuits. Being intelligent, honorable in his dealings, and industrious he succeeded in his business, and brought up a large family. Later in life he handed his holding over to his sons, and took up new country on the South Coast. There he resided until 1829, when he disappeared in a mysterious manner. One day Huon started to walk from the Shoalhaven River district to Campbelltown to see his son and spend a day or so with him. It was not until a week later (there was no telegraphic system or mail in those days) that it was discovered that the old man had not reached his destination. Then search parties were organised, and the densely-timbered country was scoured daily for more than three weeks afterwards, but without success. The only trace of Louis Huon found from that day to this was on a tree in one of the Shoalhaven gullies, not far from the coast. On this he had carved his initials with a pocket knife. In his adopted country the French Royalist, whose fortunes had gone down with the fortunes of the Bourbons, had become a good bushman, and a successful pastoralist ; but he appears to have lost his way and his life in the course of a journey lightly undertaken on foot. Of course, he had to pass through rough, densely-timbered, wild country, and the probability, as was considered at the time, was that he died in one of the caves in the vicinity of the coast. Under the heading of ” A Melancholy Occurrence,” the ” Sydney Monitor” of 3rd February, 1829, thus refers to the disappearance of the founder :—” A very old colonist, a French gentleman, highly allied, generally understood to be a branch of the Royal family of Bourbon, has lately been missing in Argyle, and it is supposed he now lies a corpse in some part of those dreadful yawning gullies which lead to Shoalhaven.” The “Argyle” referred to is, of course, Argyle, New South Wales. The secret of this man’s identity was so well kept that it was not disclosed until nearly three quarters of a century after his death. There was at least one document in French in the family, which threw the fullest and most definite of light on the subject, but it was only discovered accidentally—adhering to the bottom of a pile of family papers—within the last few years. On being translated —a work undertaken at the Sydney University—the document was found to be a legally drawn deed of gift of the estate of his mother to Louis Huon of Uxillean. The reliability of the document has since been authenticated, and the identity of the man who died a lonely and tragic death in the Shoalhaven bush, and founded the pioneer families in Riverina, fully established as that of Huon. Descendants of his, or connections, constituted the earliest of the band of pioneers in Southern Riverina. The first of the pioneers in the Murray district, for instance, were the Huons, the Dights, and the Mitchells, and the whole of them were directly or indirectly related to the Huons ; while some branches of the family are connected with the discovery of the Murray (or Hume, as it was called)—Hamilton Hume. A son of Huon was the first man to acquire station property on the Victorian side of the Murray. While still carrying on his holding in the Campbelltown district, he became possessed of the Wodonga Station. Although the Woradgery tribe—the blacks who roamed the country between the Murray and the Murrumbidgee in thousands—were not a savage or treacherous race, and yielded readily enough to kindly and tactful treatment, they were a source of considerable trouble to the early settlers. It was found necessary to forbid them to carry firearms when visiting any of the stations ; and still the Mitchells (Thurgoona Station, now Hawksview), the Dights (Bungowannah), the Huons (Wodonga), and the Ebdens (Bonegilla Park), had to be persistently watchful and firm in dealing with the aborigines. The fine, fertile river flats were then covered in parts with a rank growth of rushes. Some of the best grazing land was cropped with rushes and reeds, which grew to a height of 8ft and 10ft. When the mood took them, the blacks would spear the stock from the cover of these rushes ; and on account of the cover afforded them, very little could be done in the way of reprisal. The last of the Woradgery tribe died out at Messrs Mitchell Bros.’ Bringenbrong Station, on the Upper Murray, where they had been treated with great kindness and consideration by the father of the present owners—Mr Thomas Mitchell. It may be noted as significant, considering the popular notion nowadays of the utter worthlessness of the blacks, that the whole of the old pioneers, the men who had come into personal contact with them when the country was almost still in it its primeval state, spoke with more or less affection of the native race. More than one of the white boys of the early days learnt the language of the tribe, and spent many days of their time hunting and fishing with them, and obtaining a knowledge of their tribal habits and rites. Probably this explains why the pioneers had such influence over them and why the early settlers suffered but little from raids by the blacks.’