Francis Kirk

Francis Kirk was one of a number of Enrolled Pensioner Guards (EPGs) who came to the Swan River Colony between 1850 and 1868, to guard and oversee the work of the prisoners transported to Western Australia.

Early life Kirk was born at Achalive, County Tyrone around 1807. On 28 November 1823,

To Western Australia Kirk, with his wife Mary and their five-year-old son Francis, left England on 30 December 1850 on the transport . The boat carried a number of other Pensioner Guards and their families, as well as 209 convicts, including John Acton Wroth.

They arrived at Fremantle on 21 May 1851, and travelled with a number of other Pensioner Guards to the settlement of Toodyay, The road parties also worked from camps located at various points along the main roads to Guildford, Northam and Culham, to the north of Toodyay. One of the tasks was the removal of poison plants growing within , being two chains, of either side of the roads that were used to move stock. The plants, in particular the York Road poison (Gastrolobium calycinum), had been identified as the cause for the previous large loss of animals.

Death and legacy Kirk died on 22 November 1869,