Thomas Campbell Carey (1832 or 1833–4 September 1884) was the
surveyorSurveying or land surveying is the technique and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional space position of points and the distances and angles between them...
to whom
JohnSir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
and
Alexander ForrestAlexander Forrest CMG, was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia, as well as a politician.-Early life:Forrest was born at Picton, near Bunbury in Western Australia, the son of William and Margaret Forrest...
were apprenticed, and was later a Member of the
Western Australian Legislative CouncilThe Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
.
Thomas Carey was born in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
in 1832–33. Little is known of his youth, but he was employed as a draughtsman commanding the Engineer's Office at Chatham, and later in an Ordnance Survey as Land Agent and Surveyor.
Thomas Campbell Carey (1832 or 1833–4 September 1884) was the
surveyorSurveying or land surveying is the technique and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional space position of points and the distances and angles between them...
to whom
JohnSir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
and
Alexander ForrestAlexander Forrest CMG, was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia, as well as a politician.-Early life:Forrest was born at Picton, near Bunbury in Western Australia, the son of William and Margaret Forrest...
were apprenticed, and was later a Member of the
Western Australian Legislative CouncilThe Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
.
Thomas Carey was born in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
in 1832–33. Little is known of his youth, but he was employed as a draughtsman commanding the Engineer's Office at Chatham, and later in an Ordnance Survey as Land Agent and Surveyor. In September 1853, he married Eliza Shields Stewart.
In 1862, Carey emigrated to
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
, where he became an assistant surveyor for the
colonyIn politics and in history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their...
's Survey Department. Over the next eight years, Carey was at various times stationed at
AlbanyAlbany is located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, situated around a port on the southern coast.Its metropolitan area has a population of 25,196 as of the 2006 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state....
, Wellington and
BunburyThe port city of Bunbury is the third largest city in Western Australia after Mandurah and Perth the state capital. It is situated south of Perth's central business district...
. In November 1863, while stationed at Bunbury, Carey accepted as his apprentice a young John Forrest. Forrest graduated after two years, entering the Survey Department. In 1869 Carey apprenticed Forrest's younger brother Alex. He also became a
Justice of the PeaceA justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice and deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
in that year.
In May 1871, the new Surveyor-General of Western Australia
Malcolm FraserSir Malcolm Fraser KCMG was a powerful public servant in colonial Western Australia in the 1870s and 1880s.Malcolm Fraser was born in Gloucestershire, England in 1834. Nothing is known of his early life, except that he must have qualified as a surveyor at some stage, and that he emigrated to New...
reorganised the Survey Department, promoting John Forrest and dismissing a number of surveyors including Carey and Alex Forrest. Carey then became a contract surveyor for the department, and also ran a private practice. He also began to get involved in public affairs, becoming a member of both the Bunbury Town Trust and the Bunbury Municipal Town Council in 1871, and Chairman of both later that year. His first wife died in October 1871, and he was remarried in April 1874, to Rose Strickland.
On 25 June 1872, Carey was elected to the
Legislative CouncilThe Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
for the seat of Vasse. From 8 July 1873 until 28 October 1874, he was Chairman of Committees. He was defeated in the election of October 1874 by
Robert GaleRobert Gale is principal trombone with The Philadelphia Brass, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and a member of the pit orchestra of the Walnut Street Theatre. He has been a member of the music faculties of Swarthmore College and Valley Forge Military Academy...
, but won the seat again in a
by-electionA by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections...
in March 1878, holding it until his death in 1884. In 1874, Carey was an unsuccessful defendant in a libel case. In August 1879, he suggested in Parliament that Forrest had made improper use of crown land, then followed it up by writing a letter to the
Herald listing the land that was held by members of the Forrest family. The accusations generated much discussion, but most members of the Council supported Forrest, and no evidence of any wrongdoing was ever uncovered.
Thomas Carey died in
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. With a population of 1,650,000 , Perth ranks fourth amongst the nation's cities, with a growth rate consistently above the national average....
on 4 September 1884. He was survived by his second wife, four sons by his first marriage, and four daughters from his second.