Phillip Somer Phillip Somer i(A9993 works by)
Also writes as: 'Remos' ; 'P. Remos'
Born: Established: ca. 1837
c
England,
c
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United Kingdom (UK),
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Western Europe, Europe,
; Died: Ceased: 26 Jun 1876 Townsville, Townsville area, Marlborough - Mackay - Townsville area, Queensland,
Gender: Male
Arrived in Australia: ca. 1842
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BiographyHistory

Phillip Somer appears to have been the author 'Remos', who wrote the words to 'The Overlander', and a number of other bush ballads, which were first published in The Queenslanders' New Colonial Campfire Song Book (1865). He was the eldest son of Victorian pastoralist John Somer (d. 8 April, 1878), who in the 1850s managed Royal Bank station at Ulupna, on the Upper Murray, and later ran a cattle property near Lancefield, in Victoria.

Phillip Somer was one of perhaps hundreds of pastoral speculators who sought to make their fortune in the Australian colonies in the 19th century by establishing and selling sheep and cattle stations on the frontiers of European settlement. In February 1861 Somer joined an expedition led by George Elphinstone Dalrymple, which travelled overland from Rockhampton to Bowen, where he joined a smaller party, led by Edward Cunningham, which then explored the Upper Burdekin watershed in search of viable grazing land. He subsequently formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, the Victorian M.L.C. Matthew Hervey (1820-1873), and together they took up a number of pastoral leases in the Leichhardt and Upper Kennedy districts, in North Queensland. However, by about 1865, Somer and Hervey encountered financial difficulties, and their pastoral interests were placed in the hands of a receiver. Somer then appears to have spent a year or so gravitating between Melbourne and Sydney, where he briefly tried his hand as a stock and station agent, before returning to Queensland to manage St. Anne's station, inland from Bowen, which he and Hervey had established a few years previously. During the 1860s Somer also held a number of freehold properties at Bowen, and it appears that he might have used Bowen as a base for his pastoral operations, and perhaps even lived there at various points. Details of Somer's life after 1869 are unclear, however by 1876 he and his wife were living in Townsville, where he had a butchering business. According to the report of his death which appeared in the Townsville Times and North Queensland Advertiser on 30 June, 1876, Somer died following an accident at the Townsville saleyards, when the horse he was riding fell and kicked him in the head.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • The Somer/'Remos' connection was first made by historian Geoffrey Bolton (q.v.), and derives from the version of 'The Kennedy Men' which appeared in the Queenslander on 3 November, 1894. First published in The Queenslanders' New Colonial Campfire Song Book in 1865 under the name 'Remos', the 1894 Queenslander version carried an accompanying note from a Townsville contributor who stated: 'This song, I believe, was composed by 'P. Somers [sic], in the early days of Bowen, 1861.'

    More recently, other material has surfaced which places both Somer and 'Remos' at Bowen during the Queensland Governor's official visit to the town, which took place on 14-16 October 1869, and this tends to confirm the Somer/'Remos' connection - Queensland State Archives holds a letter which Somer wrote to the Queensland Colonial Secretary at Bowen on 14 October, 1869, concerning the 'past and present position of blacks in [the] Kennedy District' (QSA, COL/A134/4272); 'Remos's' Queenslander poem, 'Governor Blackall in Bowen - 1869', a humorous account of the Aboriginal welcome given to the Governor, suggests that 'Remos' witnessed the events described in the poem and hence was in Bowen at the time. Significantly, both Somer's letter and 'Remos's' poem refer to the plight of the local Aboriginal people, and both advocate the appointment of a 'black protector'.

Last amended 7 Dec 2009 16:23:48
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