John Fryer Thomas Keane - Life in Australia

Life in Australia

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According to his obituary in “The Times” from 1879 to 1883 he was a journalist in London, was sent to Indo China 1884-5 and visited America 1887 and 1890. By 1890 he had arrived in Australia. He was a member of the first Central Australia Exploration Expedition led by Alan A. Davidson which explored and prospected the Murchison Range, an area to the north and east of Alice Springs. F. J. Gillen who helped him obtain the Davidson position notes that after Keane left the expedition, he was engaged at Wire Creek Bore near Oodnadatta from where he wrote highly colourful articles about his experiences on the Davidson expedition for “The Port Augusta Dispatch” becoming editor of that newspaper for a short time. The articles titled” Four months in the Territory” appeared from 18 November 1898 to 13 January 1899. Throughout his life Keane always appeared to be short of money, a fact Gillen noted in his letter to Baldwin but he explained that once he received money he was most scrupulous about repaying his debts. By 1903 Keane was in Queensland employed at a saw mill in Mosman. He also claimed he worked as a sugarcane cane cutter to ascertain the ability of Europeans to perform hard manual labour in the Tropics. He appears to have had landholdings in the Mareeba (Carbeen) and Atherton areas (Yungarra) and by 1934 he was living in Mareeba. In his entry in “Who was Who” he claimed to have invented a form of fence wiring for the Queensland Government and noted his later life was spent residing on and improving his land to establish ownership and in agricultural experiment and criminal investigation, rod fishing and horse training. He died of senile decay 1937 aged 82 at Eventide Home for the Aged Charters Towers and is buried in the Lynd Cemetery in an unmarked grave Section 3 plot 322 grave number 8868.