Allan Peter Maruff

Allan Peter Maruff MRCS (14 February 1911 – 19 July 1979) was an Indian-Australian medical practitioner and businessman. He was a pioneer of the tea-growing industry in Australia, as founder of Nerada Tea.

Early life Maruff was born on 14 February 1911 in Ferozepore, Punjab Province, India. He was the son of Margaret Amy (née William) and Frederick William Maruff, an assistant civil surgeon. According to Maruff's daughter, the origins of his parents were uncertain and "might have been Armenian, Georgian, Turkish or Pakistani".

Maruff was raised at an orphanage in Calcutta following the deaths of his parents. He later moved to Queensland, Australia, initially working in Richmond and in 1952 taking up an appointment as medical superintendent of the district hospital at Tully. He settled in Innisfail in 1954. He planted 15,000 seedlings in 1960, which were eliminated in a drought, then after irrigating the property successfully replanted a drought-resistant strain. By 1968 the property of supported 2.5 million trees. In 1973, the plantation and factory were sold to Tea Estates of Australia which continued to sell the tea under the Nerada brand.

Personal life In 1936, Maruff married Dorothy Enid Haenon at St Francis Xavier's Church, Calcutta. His wife was the daughter of a German man employed by the East India Company and a Burmese mother. The couple had five children together; his daughter Maggie married federal politician John Dawkins.

Maruff died in Brisbane on 19 July 1979, aged 68, of cirrhosis of the liver. He was interred at the Pinnaroo Cemetery.