Louis Hope

Louis Hope (19 October 1817 – 15 August 1894) was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Council.

Early years

Hope was born in Linlithgow, Scotland in 1817 to General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, and his wife Louisa Dorothea (née Wedderburn). After finishing his education he joined the Coldstream Guards, rising to the rank of Captain.

In 1843 he arrived in New South Wales. Hope moved to Moreton Bay in 1848 and purchased land at Ormiston in 1853 where he established his Ormiston House Estate. In 1854 he purchased land which eventually equaled 364 housing lots at Norman Park. That same year, along with Robert Ramsay, he took up Kilcoy Station, eventually becoming its sole owner in 1863.

Hope applied Melenesian labour to his twenty acres of sugar cane at Ormiston, and later on his farm near the Coomera River, which labourers had been recruited through the practice known as Blackbirding. Hope was also involved in Sugar mills, opening a mill at Ormiston. The grounds of Ormiston House have a cairn commemorating Louis Hope's contribution to the sugar industry.