State Lib Qld 2 182083 Brewer and politician Patrick Perkins, 1879

Brewer and politician Patrick Perkins, 1879
Patrick Perkins was born on 10 October 1838 at Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland, second son of Thomas Perkins, farmer, and his wife Ellen, née Gooley. Educated at the local National school, he migrated to Victoria in 1855 with his family. Successful on the Ballarat and Bendigo goldfields, he and his brother Thomas (1841-1876) as partners acquired a share in the Reedy Creek mine for £8000 and later opened a store and brewing business at Castlemaine.
In 1866 Perkins visited Queensland and opened the Toowoomba Brewery in 1869. Its operations were extended to Brisbane, where 'Castlemaine XXXX' ale soon won repute and a large following. In 1876 he settled in Brisbane and became involved in real estate, mining, brewing and hotel speculations. In 1888 with McIlwraith and Morehead he floated Perkins & Co., a large brewing and hotel business. Unlike others Perkins was astute and ruthless, and disposed of most of his shares before the firm struck financial difficulties.
Retribution followed when he joined his political associates in speculating heavily in Mount Morgan shares (9104 in 1892) and hotel properties. By then his overdraft at the Queensland National Bank (£99,485) was one of the largest in the colony and the securities lodged were then worth scarcely half this debt. By 1898 he was even unable to pay an £8000 call on his 20 per cent share in R. M. Collins's and Thomas McIlwraith's North Australian Pastoral Co. In his last years he was almost impoverished.

Perkins had entered the Legislative Assembly on 1 May 1877 as member for Aubigny, a Darling Downs constituency. Unseated for election irregularities in 1884, he surprisingly won Cambooya in the Nationalist sweep of 1888. He wisely refrained from contesting that electorate in 1893 and was appointed on 23 May to the Legislative Council where he retained his seat until 1901.