Charles Young Archive
Charles Young was the manager of Kalamia Sugar Mill, just north of Ayr in North Queensland. Kalamia's operations began in 1882 when Charles and his brother John selected a large plot of Crown Land upon which they had David Donald survey a site for the mill. John saw to the field supervision while Charles oversaw the sugar manufacturing. By 1883 Kalamia had commenced crushing and produced first class white sugar to be sold on the open market. At the Mauritius Exhibition of 1885 Kalamia's white sugar was awarded first prize. From the late 1880s the mill was controlled by the Union Mortgage Company of Australia and, in 1898, Kalamia and the nearby Seaforth mill – of which Kalamia was a duplicate - amalgamated.
Charles Young arrived in Melbourne from England in 1865. From there he went to Alexander Sloane's Mulwala Station on the Murray River before moving on to Tinwell Downs in Queensland to establish a sheep station for William Sloane and Co. Following this, Young managed several stations in western Victoria before joining his brother John in purchasing Steam Plains near Conargo in the Riverina District of NSW where they remained until 1873. Charles then went back to England for two years before returning to Sydney in 1875 after which he and John bought Caid Murra Station near Mungindi, Qld, where they stayed for six years. The brothers then moved farther north and purchased Kalamia where Charles settled for nineteen years. He married Mary Lilian Futter of Beggan Beggan Station, NSW, and the couple had two children, a daughter (b. 17 July 1888, Kalamia) and son, Charles G. Young (b. 2 April 1885, Kalamia), before Mary died from typhoid on 30 November 1893 aged thirty-two. Charles was also the first Chairman of the Ayr Divisional Board when it was inaugurated in 1888. Remembered as a "tall man with a fair complexion and intellectual face, who was given a good deal to study," Young died at Ballendean, NSW, on 28 May 1914, aged sixty-eight, having survived his wife by twenty-one years and leaving behind his daughter and son.
This correspondence should be read in conjunction with Pioneer Mill Records.
Archive Location: 288RDetailed Listing
CY/LB/2 Bound copies of private letters from Charles Young, 1 April 1893 - 11 March 1900. The letters deal with issues such as the labour problems experienced, sugar production, including letters to his sister, Isabel, about her station, Cambridge Downs, and identities such as Henry Braby. There are also letters on personal topics such as ordering clothing, and also one dated 1 November 1893 about his wife having contracted typhoid.
CY/LB/1 Bound copies of letters from Charles Young to the Union Mortgage Agency, 24 December 1897 - 22 April 1899.
