Gilbert Rotherdale McMinn

McMinn was born in Newry, County Down. He was the son of a bank manager, Joseph McMinn (c. 1794 – 6 April 1874) and his wife Martha, née Hamill or Hammill (c. 1805 – 13 December 1861), who sailed with their eight children aboard the Albatross and arrived at Port Adelaide in September 1850. Upon leaving school Gilbert took up surveying.[1]

Gilbert McMinn was one of ten surveyors[2] and a support crew of around 100 men, under Surveyor-General George Goyder and Dr. Robert Peel, who left Adelaide for Port Darwin shortly after Christmas 1868[3] to survey Palmerston and regions, and most of whom returned to Adelaide on 25 November 1869.[4]

McMinn worked as a surveyor on the Overland Telegraph Line. In February 1871 he was the first European to visit Simpsons Gap, which he identified as a better route for the line.[5]

He served in various senior public service positions in the Northern Territory. He was acting Administrator of the Northern Territory from March 1883 to March 1884.[6]

McMinn left Darwin for the east coast of Australia around 1890 and settled in Hawthorn, Victoria. he died in Mary Street, St. Kilda, Victoria on 18 October 1924 after a sudden heart failure at the age of 83.[7]

• McMinn Street, a major thoroughfare in Darwin on the edge of the city, leading to the Stokes Hill Wharf, is named after him.
• Rothdale Road, Casuarina, Northern Territory was (mis)named for him.[8]

On 28 November 1874 in Port Darwin, McMinn married his first wife, Anna Gore. He married again on 15 November 1884 to Madge Fleetwood-Marsh. He had three sons and two daughters.[1]

Among their children were:

• Mary McMinn, married Alfred Turner Fry of Kapunda on 21 July 1913[9] Alfred was a son of Rev. Alfred George Fry, who officiated at the wedding.
• Gilbert Rotherdale McMinn, married Elizabeth Elsie Taylor of Middle Park, Victoria on 7 July 1915.[10] He was postmaster at Hawthorn West.
• Walter Driffield McMinn (16 July 1892 – ?) born in Hawthorn was injured during World War I.
• Beulah Rotherdale McMinn was engaged to Major Edmund Frank Lind, DADMS in 1918. She served as a nurse in France during WWI.

Two of McMinn's brothers also worked as surveyors on the Overland Telegraph Line:

• William McMinn, who later became a well-known Adelaide architect.
• Joseph McMinn (c.1846–9 February 1888), who married Charlotte Isabella "Chatty" Wells (1856– ) of Penola.[11][12]

• G. R. McMinn. "Abridged report on the Northern Territory of South Australia, Melbourne 1902". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 1 August 2016.

• "McMinn, Gilbert Rotherdale (1841–1924)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Published first in hardcopy MUP, 1974, volume 5. Australian National University. Retrieved 20 July 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)