Petrie, Walter Rollo   (1875 - 1939)

Born on 11 May 1875 at Petrie, City of Moreton Bay, QLD; died on 27 May 1939 at Brisbane, QLD.

He was the eldest son of Mr. Thomas Petrie(1831-1910) (after whom the Petrie district was named), and Elizabeth Campbell.

He was was educated at the Ipswich Grammar school.

He began dairying and cane-growing on the Blackall Range, but later joined the Forestry Department.

As a forester he was stationed at Fraser Island, and Imbil (48 kilometre south-west from Gympie) on reafforestation work.

"The Queensland and pecan nuts he had grown, at his Petrie plantation are known for their fine quality through out Australia. Before his death he had been perfecting a variety, of the pecan, an American nut, which was expected to reach full development at the end of 1939. It is a soft and thin shelled nut with a distinctive flavor, and has already won wide praise."

He retired to his plantation about 1932.

Two different accounts of his death are in the records.

One, associated with his funeral and grave in May 1939, starts:

BRISBANE, May 30.- Mr. Walter Rollo Petrie, of Yebu. Petrie, eldest son of Mr. Thomas Petrie, after whom the Petrie district was named, died on Saturday, aged 65, in a private hospital, where he had been for five months. . .

Petrie Man's Death in Hospital
Walter Rollo Petrie, 73, who was found lying wounded under a hedge near his home at Petrie on Friday, with a gunshot wound in the head, died in the Brisbane Hospital on Saturday night. Petrie was missed from his home, and his son and a friend instituted a search. They came across him lying under the hedge, and found a gun nearby.

Source: Extracted from:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210524129/walter_rollo-petrie
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Petrie-1480
https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/20dfdcbc89a004fffce23ad6c9888a5d8cf151b3f75fcea63b228fd919652989
The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.) Mon 29 May 1939 Page 15 - Petrie Man's Death in Hospital
Portrait Photo: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_205093/DU272_P42_D67_1991.pdf.

Collecting localities for 'Petrie, W.R.' from AVH (2026)

Data from 262 specimens