Northern Midlands

Distinguished and Famous people from Northern Midlands

🎨 John Glover

John Glover arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in 1831 after an established artistic career in England. At Patterdale near Deddington, he combined farming with painting, making the surrounding Mills Plains landscape a major subject. His response to Tasmanian light and vegetation helped produce works quite distinct from his earlier European scenes. The paintings also belong to the history of colonisation, with Aboriginal people and occupied Country represented through a settler artist’s eye. Glover is buried in the grounds of Deddington’s chapel. His local legacy includes both the working property and images that continue to shape how this landscape is remembered.

🎖️ Harry Murray

Harry Murray was born near Evandale in 1880 and worked in civilian occupations before enlisting in 1914. He rose from private to lieutenant-colonel during the First World War, receiving the Victoria Cross for leadership at Stormy Trench in France in February 1917. Other awards recognised actions at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Accounts of his leadership combine personal courage with practical concern for his men, giving more substance to the familiar nickname Mad Harry. Later farming in Queensland formed another chapter of a life that began in Tasmania’s northern Midlands.