Benjamin Boyd (21 August 1801 – 15 October 1851) was a Scottish entrepreneur who became a major shipowner, banker, grazier, politician and blackbirder in the British colony of New South Wales.

Boyd briefly tried his luck on the Californian goldfields before venturing to establish a Pacific union, being purportedly murdered on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

[2] Many of his business ventures involved blackbirding, the practice of coercing South Sea Islanders to work in circumstances akin to slavery.

[3] Boyd was a man of "an imposing personal appearance, fluent oratory, aristocratic connections, and a fair share of commercial acuteness".

[6] On 8 October 1840, Boyd addressed a letter to Lord John Russell, stating that he had recently dispatched a vessel entirely his own at a cost of £30,000 for "further developing the resources of Australia and its adjacent Islands".

[9] Boyd became a prominent squatter and absentee farmer, heading the Pastoral Association and operating the pro-squatter Atlas newspaper.

[7] Boyd was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council for the Electoral district of Port Phillip in September 1844, a position he held for 11 months.

[2] In 1846, Boyd and Joseph Robinson, with the assistance of William Bland, established the Spectator newspaper to promote squatters' interests, installing Richard Thompson as editor.

[11][12] A visitor, speaking of the town, mentioned its Gothic church with a spire, commodious stores, well-built brick houses, and "a splendid hotel in the Elizabethan style".

The New South Wales Legislative Council amended the Masters and Servants Act to ban importation of "the Natives of any Savage or uncivilized tribe inhabiting any Island or Country in the Pacific".

[citation needed] Rumours about Boyd's recruiting methods prompted the Aborigines’ Protection Society and the Anti-Slavery Association to call on the Colonial Office to hold an inquiry.

Concerns that the labourers were imported against their will led to an investigation by the Attorney-General, and in December 1847 Governor Sir Charles FitzRoy reported to the Colonial Office that such allegations were unsubstantiated.

In October 1840, when Boyd wrote to the Colonial Office seeking support for the Royal Bank of Australia, he also enquired about the attitude the government would hold toward a hypothetical republic in the South Seas.

Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Lord John Russell replied that he did not feel that he could "enter into any engagement on behalf of H. M. Government at present.

This was to establish a Papuan Republic or Confederation: to lay the foundation of some sort of social and politician organisation, on which the simple machinery of an independent state might afterwards be erected.

[citation needed] On 15 October 1851, on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, Boyd went ashore with a crew member to shoot game.

[citation needed] A search party later looked for Boyd, finding his boat, belt and an expended firearm cartridge.

In days following Boyd's disappearance, his crew raided and destroyed a number of villages in the area now known as Wanderer Bay before sailing for Port Macquarie.

This expedition was able to ascertain that Boyd was initially taken prisoner but was later executed in retribution for the number of villagers killed by the actions of the crew of Wanderer.

That they first slew several of the natives of the island, and it was on this account, while on an errand of peace, that Mr. Boyd himself was seized, his attendant slain, and himself tried by a tribunal of chiefs, and condemned to death.Boyd's legacy includes the buildings of Boydtown near Eden on Twofold Bay in New South Wales.

[28][29][30] George Blaikie wrote a fictionalised account of Boyd's life for his newspaper-syndicated series Our Strange Past, titled The Scot Who Would Be King (1953).

[31] An Australian animated children's television series first broadcast in 1999 entitled The Adventures of Sam features a character named Captain Ben Boyd who engages in blackbirding, and is likely inspired from the historical figure.

[citation needed] In the wake of the George Floyd protests around the world and in Australia and the Black Lives Matter movement gaining pace in May–June 2020, calls for the national park to be renamed were renewed.

The North Sydney Council resolved to install the third plaque in 2021 to provide further context about Ben Boyd, his involvement in blackbirding and his reputation.