Boyd Dunlop Morehead

The Honourable Boyd Dunlop Morehead
10th Premier of Queensland
In office 30 November 1888 – 12 August 1890
Preceded by	Sir Thomas McIlwraith
Succeeded by	Samuel Griffith
Constituency	Balonne
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Mitchell
In office 4 September 1871 – 30 December 1880
Preceded by	John Killeen Handy
Succeeded by	Oscar de Satge
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for Balonne
In office 5 October 1883 – 11 November 1896
Preceded by	Jacob Low
Succeeded by	George Story
Member of the Queensland Legislative Council
In office 31 December 1880 – 3 August 1883
In office 10 June 1896 – 30 October 1905
Personal details
Born	(1843-08-24)24 August 1843 Sydney, New South Wales
Died	30 October 1905(1905-10-30) (aged 62) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Resting place	Toowong Cemetery
Nationality	Australian
Party	Ministerialist
Spouse(s)	Annabella Campbell Ranken (m.1873 d.1890) Ethel Seymour (m.1895 d.1952)
Relations	P. L. Travers (niece)
Children	8

Boyd Dunlop Morehead (24 August 1843 – 30 October 1905) was a politician in Queensland, Australia. He was Premier of Queensland from November 1888 to June 1890.

Boyd Morehead was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the second son and child of two sons and two daughters (and the only son to reach full adulthood) of businessman Robert Archibald Alison Morehead and his wife Helen Buchanan, née Dunlop.

On 4 September 1871 (in the 1871 Queensland colonial election), Morehead was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for the Mitchell electorate. He successfully held the seat in the 1873 and 1878 elections but resigned on 30 December 1880 in order to be appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council on 31 December 1880.[1]

In December 1880 he joined the first Thomas McIlwraith government as Postmaster-General and as the Government's Representative in the Legislative Council, until he resigned from the Legislative Council on 3 August 1883.[1]

On 5 October 1883, Morehead was re-elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in the seat of Balonne from October 1883 to April 1896.

When McIlwraith resigned, Morehead succeeded him on 30 November 1888 as Premier of Queensland and colonial secretary. Morehead was an opponent of Women's suffrage[2] Morehead resigned 12 August 1890 and made a long visit to Europe.[1]

The 1893 financial crisis caused heavy losses for Morehead's share investments. Also in 1893 he declined the agent-generalship.

On 10 June 1896 Morehead was re-appointed to the Queensland Legislative Council.[3] He remained a member until his death on 30 October 1905.[1]

Morehead was married twice. His first wife was Annabella Campbell, née Ranken (died 1890),[4] whom he married at Lockyersleigh, Goulburn, on 4 June 1873, and with whom he had seven daughters. His second wife was Ethel, née Seymour (died 1952),[4] whom he married in Brisbane on 3 April 1895, and with whom he had one daughter.

His niece Margaret Goff (née Morehead) was the mother of Helen Lyndon Goff, who achieved fame as P. L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins.

Morehead died from a cerebral haemorrhage on 30 October 1905 at a private hospital in Gregory Terrace, Brisbane. His funeral proceeded from Valmore, the Wooloowin home of his son-in-law, Orme Darvall, to the Toowong Cemetery.[5]

He was honoured in 1993, when botanist F.M. Bailey published Bambusa moreheadiana,[6] then in 2005, it became Mullerochloa moreheadiana.[7]

• "Boyd Dunlop Morehead (1843–1905)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 5. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. 1974. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
• Serle, Percival (1949). "Morehead, Boyd Dunlop". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.

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