ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collection

HMSS 0010 R H Webster Papers

Scope and Content Notes

Robert Henry Webster 20^th August 1911 – 14^th July 1994 – “The Man Who Sold Canberra”.

Born Shepparton Victoria. Intermediate Dux of Scotch Collage, Melbourne. Father, Stock and Station Agent. Bob became Stock and Station Agent in Temora NSW. He married in 1940 and joined up when Singapore fell. WW11 Flying Officer in PNG.

Mrs. Rita Webster has donated these papers in November 1994 on behalf of her deceased husband. Mr Robert H. Webster collections include poems, short stories, papers on real estate in ACT, auctions, stock and station work, rent control, the explorer Hamilton Hume and other historical figures.

Robert (Bob) Webster held a unique place in Canberra community, by virtue of his varied achievements and activities. His diaries, letters and notebooks, manuscripts, photographs document his early life and war service, travels and the early Canberra real estate trends.

Mr. Webster was President and Life Member of NSW Real Estate Institute, Stock and Station Agent, Foundation President and Life Fellow of the ACT Division of the Australian Institute of Valuers, Real Estate Auctioneer of all early Canberra land, poet, writer, painter and local historian. He was also Director/Manger of L. J. Hoooker Limited, Canberra.

In 1934 Mr. Webster and a companion travelled by boat from the headwaters of the Condamine River down the Darling to the Mouth of the Murray River. At the time of his death this remained the longest inland water journey ever undertaken in Australia.

The following publications written by Bob Webster were also donated.

1. The Ancient Art of Auction (1988)
2. Bygoo and Beyond (1956
3. A Century of Service (The Stock and Station Agents Association of NSW) (1990)
4. Currency Lad: The Story of Hamilton Hume and the Explorers (1982)
5. How to Retire Successfully (1989)
6. The Vision Realised: A History of the Organised Real Estate Profession in Canberra, 1961 – 1988 (1989)
7. The First Fifty Years of Temora
8. Autumn Muster (Manuscript)
9. Those Were the Days (Manuscript)

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