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Tasmanian Seafarers' Memorial
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Peter Mitchelmore (1863)
The plaque reads ...
Peter Mitchelmore
Resident of Swansea, Tasmania
Born 13.10.1820, Devon, England
Family arrived V.D.L. 1833 per 'Mary Ann'.
Drowned 9.10.1863 when a whaleboat
capsized at mouth of Grey River, N.Z.
Survived by wife Frances (nee Buxton)
and family of five young children.
The following account of Peter Mitchelmore's life was prepared by his descendant, Mrs. Judith Hastie:
PETER MITCHELMORE
Peter Mitchelmore was born in Devon, England in 1820, the oldest son of Elkanah and Mary Ann Mitchelmore. When he was twelve years old the family migrated to Van Diemens Land, and Elkanah, who was a carpenter, took up land near Oyster Cove and started building small ships for the coastal trade. Peter helped sail these ships and so travelled around the colony. In 1846 he married Frances Buxton, the daughter of Thomas Buxton of Mayfield, near Swansea.
Over the next fifteen years they had six children, one of whom died in infancy. In 1849 Peter sailed with his father, two brothers and his brother-in-law Thomas Lang in the 'Union' , one of the ships belonging to the family. It was the first ship to sail from Australia to the Californian Gold Rush. All but one brother returned in 1850, and Peter saw his baby daughter Ellen for the first time when Frances met the ship in Sydney. He then went to the Goulburn gold fields and after that with others of the family to the Victorian gold fields to try his luck. Peter was the only one of his family to return to Tasmania. In 1864 he was working on the “Wild Wave”, a ship belonging to his brother-in- law, Thomas Buxton Jr. They were trading between Tasmania and the New Zealand gold rush area. They had been contracted by the Canterbury provincial government to establish a store at Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand. Since Peter ' s occupation was listed as carpenter, it is probable he built the first building in Greymouth.
The government agent in charge of the expedition, Peter, a man named Sherrin, and two Maoris were bringing the ship ' s boat back over the bar into the Greymouth River when in overturned in the surf. Peter, the agent and the Maori named Solomon clung to the boat but were washed away. Sherrin survived and the Maori Simeon swam ashore.
The graves of the three drowned men are in the Greymouth Cemetery, just behind the dunes and near where their battered bodies were washed up.
Frances Mitchelmore was widowed at the age of 38 with five children aged between fourteen and three to support. She never remarried.