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As his financial problems compounded Fisher sought help from various quarters, including the South Australian
government. In a letter to the Minister of Education, who had jurisdiction over the Northern Territory, Fisher asked
for assistance in developing a horse-breeding program on his Territory leases in order to supply thousands of horses
for the Indian Government Remount service. This did not eventuate, as the minister advised that the government
was not in the position to grant ‘favours’ to private individuals.
Fisher, even during his times of hardship, was a visionary. As early as 1884 he was responsible for the first
attempt to export beef to Singapore, Hong Kong and Batavia. Later, under Goldsbrough’s, and with H W H Stevens
managing the operation, live cattle exports were established—ironically, with a subsidy provided by the South
Australian government.
Various attempts were made by Fisher and Lyons to sell their Northern Territory leases. In 1884 the Northern
Territory Corporation of South Australia was formed in London, by Goldsbrough, to acquire ‘the properties...
selected by Messrs Fisher and Lyons [who] being large capitalists were enabled to secure a very considerable
portion of the cream of the country’. Further credit was extended to Fisher to avoid ‘his absolute financial ruin’.
Goldsbrough’s general manager, F E Stewart, in a letter to his London board, advised: ‘To us here such an event
would be of national importance: it would strike a blow at the pastoral interest which would be felt far and wide.
Hitherto considered a tower of strength, his stoppage would destroy confidence, and not only would the effects
be felt in this and neighbouring colonies, but even in England ... the consequences would be baneful in the
extreme.’
After further negotiations, the Northern Australian Territory Company Ltd was floated to acquire Fisher’s land
(May 1887), payment was effected for his Territory assets and his involvement in the Territory was brought to an
end.
Fisher’s financial problems were not entirely of his own making. Nor did they result from overcommitting
himself in the Northern Territory. Guarantees to friends in difficulty cost ‘CB’ dearly in the mid-eighties. Further
financial pressures resulting from falling wool prices, the demands of tottering banks, the failure of friends to pay
for stock: all added to Fisher’s difficulties. Thus, in February 1895, with a shortfall of 691 655 Pounds in assets
over liabilities, ‘the gallant old gentleman, in his eightieth year, had to face the sequestration of his estate’.
Fisher died at Glenelg on 6 May 1908, aged 90. He was regarded with affection throughout his life by a wide
circle of friends and nowhere more than in horseracing circles. Throughout much of his life he played an important
part in breeding and racing horses, and his memory was maintained by two of the most important events on the turf
calendar—the CB Fisher Plate in Melbourne, and the CB Fisher Stakes in Adelaide.
G Buchanan, Packhorse and Waterhole, 1933; P F Donovan, A Land Full of Possibilities: A History of South Australia’s Northern Territory,
1981; J Makin, The Big Run, 1983; G C Morphett, C B Fisher: Pastoralist, Studmaster and Sportsman; H J Scott, South Australia in 1887,
1887; W J Sowden, The Northern Territory as it is, 1882; Adelaide Observer, 9 May 1908; ‘Pastoral Pioneers of South Australia’, Adelaide
Stock and Station J, 1922; Material supplied to the writer re Fisher and Lyons, Bank of NSW Archives, 1965; Goldsbrough Mort and Company
Ltd, sundry papers re C B Fisher and Northern Australian Territory Company Ltd 188692, ANU A, 2/876, p 8; NT Papers, Correspondence
(Inwards), Office of Minister of Education and the NT, No 731, 1883.
JOCK MAKIN, Vol 1.FITZER, EILEEN MARJORY nee STYLES also GRIBBON (1902– ), nursing sister and Territory pioneer, was
born in Brock’s Creek, Northern Territory, on 29 March 1902, the youngest of five children born to Tom Styles and his
wife Eleanor, nee Tuckwell. Eleanor had been born in Palmerston, later Darwin, in 1873 to Ned and Eliza Tuckwell,
who were amongst the Territory’s first European settlers, Ned working on George Goyder’s survey gangs in 1869
and Eliza and family joining him in 1870.
Eileen spent her early years at Brock’s Creek, where her father was underground manager for the Zapopan
Mine. Eileen and her three sisters, Lillian, Gertrude and Myrtle, and brother Walter spent a great deal of time
with the Byrnes children who lived at nearby Burnside Station. The children went to school together and the two
families spent many happy hours singing and dancing. Both Tom and Eleanor were very musical and passed on
their talents to their daughters. Myrtle in particular became a well-known Territory entertainer in her adult life.
When Eileen was seven she and Myrtle went to Sydney with their mother, who was seeking medical help for
cancer. It was, though, too advanced and they returned to Palmerston, where Eleanor died in 1910 at the age of 36.
For a while Myrtle and Lillian lived with their grandmother, Eliza Tuckwell, and Eileen and Gertrude were sent
to the newly opened Darwin convent school for three years. Their brother Walter went to Queensland to work but
when the First World War broke out he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and was later killed at Gallipoli.
His death caused great sorrow amongst Eileen and her sisters, as the family had been extremely close.
Meanwhile Tom Styles had found work again at Brock’s Creek, where he took his four daughters. Later the
family moved to Pine Creek, where Tom worked as a blacksmith and on the railway and the girls continued their
schooling. Eileen helped out for a time at the Pine Creek Hotel, then run by the Weedon Brothers, whose sister,
May Brown, was one of the Territory’s most flamboyant publicans and wealthy miners.
Towards the end of the First World War, Tom decided to try peanut farming in the Katherine region and the four
Styles girls moved to Darwin where, for a short time, they set up a ‘bachelor pad’ in Smith Street near Brown’s
Mart, which belonged to their uncle, the well known auctioneer and businessman V V Brown. Eileen worked for
a while as a salesgirl at the large European store, Jollys, which was located nearby and which was managed by
Jim Fawcett, whom Myrtle Styles later married.
Eileen participated in many of the town’s social and political events, including helping to campaign for the
Territory’s first member of the federal parliament, Harold Nelson. In 1921 Eileen was among the women who
cooked meals for Nelson and other men who had voluntarily gone to jail for refusing to pay taxes until they