Dix Family

Robert Edmund Dix
Robert was born on 25 June 1818 in Bermondsey, London.  Robert first arrived in Sydney from London in 1833. In 1843, at the first Government Auction of land in Ipswich, Robert purchased three parcels of land in Brisbane, Bell and East Streets and in September 1844 he left Sydney and settled in Ipswich. 

Robert married Annie Maria (nee Elliott).  His occupation was that of a Sea Captain, he was the second captain of the PS Experiment, from December 1846 until it sank in January 1848.  Robert meanwhile had become a hotel keeper, having had hotels at ‘Limestone’ (Sovereign Hotel (?), Golden Fleece, The Traveller’s Home Hotel), North Brisbane (Sovereign Hotel), Cunningham’s Gap (The Bush Inn), Warwick (The Downs Inn), Bigges Camp, Drayton Rd (Postman’s Arms), Surat (The Surat Hotel), North Brisbane (Ship Inn, Lord Raglan) and South Brisbane (Steam Packet Hotel).  He also kept a ketch, Aurora, which he used for private charter work, and he also took on Government contracts around Moreton Bay and Brisbane River, in particular to the Dunwich Quarantine settlement.

Following the death of Annie in  March 1861 he re-married, to Ellen Scott in Bigge’s Camp in November 1861, and they had one son Robert John, born in Surat on 1 May 1864.

Robert died on 10 August 1865 in the Albion Hotel, Brisbane.

Annie Maria Dix (nee Elliott)
Annie was born on 1 February 1827 in Bristol, UK. She first arrived in Sydney from Bristol in 1842 and settled in Ipswich in 1844. She and Robert Dix were married in Sydney on 9 July 1844. Their first child, Robert Elliott Dix was born at the Golden Fleece Hotel in Ipswich in November 1845 and died at the Sovereign Hotel in Queen street Brisbane on 18 August 1846, aged 10 months. The next child Emma Louisa born 18 April 1847 at North Brisbane, then George Stalworthy in 1849 at South Brisbane, with two daughters born at The Bush Inn, Fassifern, Mary Elizabeth in 1851 and Eliza Annie on 23 September 1853.

Annie died on 16 March 1861 in Warwick, following a miscarriage.