Sundeep Singh

Walter C. Hume (middle), his wife, Katie (left) and an unidentified woman at their home Fairseat in Brisbane c.1890, Hume Family Collection, UQFL10, Album 6, Page 17, Fryer Library, The University of Queensland Library

Walter Cunningham Hume (1839–1921) was a British surveyor who emigrated to Australia to provide for his family. He spent almost 40 years surveying the Darling Downs region of Queensland, helping to develop land policy. He was an active photographer whose work reflected life in Australia pre-Federation.

Early life Walter Cunningham Hume was born 31 January 1839, in Hampshire, the eldest of six children of Alexander Hume, a Scottish poet and lyricist and his wife Elizabeth Scott. Her father had been an architect and commissioner of the 1851 Great Exhibition. They had eight children, five dying in early infancy. The family prospered as Hume was appointed Mineral Lands Commissioner in Stanthorpe in 1872. He undertook a geological survey of the area and the family split their time between Stanthorpe and Drayton. Hume was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands, Darling Downs District in 1875. He signed off on the establishment of the town of Texas on the Queensland and New South Wales state border. In 1876 the Humes moved to a new home “The Hermitage” outside of Toowoomba.

In 1877 Hume became a member of the Queensland Club, putting him amongst the state's most distinguished businessmen and government circle. After a year long sabbatical in England in 1883, the Humes returned to Toowoomba and built a home they called "Fairseat". He retired from civil service in 1901 and the family elected to return to England. They returned to Australia to visit in 1907.

Legacy Walter Hume died in Jersey in 1921 and was survived by his children, his wife pre-deceasing him in 1909. His 38 years of service as a surveyor as well as his contribution to Queensland's land policy and administration was remarked upon in Queensland newspapers. The family's diaries, photographs and letters, which record the growth of the state of Queensland, architecture, the 1893 floods and the social life of this era are held in the Fryer Library of the University of Queensland. The street of Hume in Rainworth, Brisbane is named for him.