Alexander MacDonell c1826, his brother Allan c1816 and sister Sarah, left Bohenie for Australia in about 1854. Alexander married Christine MacMaster c1832, from Murlaggan, Lochaber, in Australia in 1869. The family settled in Stuart Mill, St Arnaud, Victoria, where Alexander became president of Kara Kara Shire Council. Unfortunately, he lost a leg in a machinery accident. He died in 1907.
His son, Donald, b1862,one of five children, became an Australian politician. He helped on his father’s farm as a child but moved to New South Wales in 1886 and became an early member of the Australian Shearer’s Union. Donald was a leading member of the 1891 strike, during which time he was in Queensland and he helped to draft the rule for the Australian Worker’s Union in 1894, in which year he joined the Labour party. In 1901 he was elected to the New South Wales legislative Assembly as the Labour member for Cobar, serving until 1911. He was Minister for Agriculture and Colonial Secretary from 1910 until 1911 when he died in Melbourne. The headquarters of the AWU in Sydney were named MacDonell House in his honour.
Christine MacMaster MacDonell and two of her children
John MacMaster 1870
John Macmasterb 1825, brother of Christina above who married Sarah MacDonald (Macdonell) aunt of Donald MacDonell above. John McMaster and Sarah MacDonell married on the gold fields near Ballarat. They found gold and bought hundreds of acres of Land at Lake Bolac off the Crown for £1 per acre. The family home at Lake Bolac is called “Lochaber”
