Maitland Brown

The five-month expedition opened up large tracts of good pastoral land, but little with the potential to support agriculture.

The La Grange expedition left Fremantle in February 1865, and on 3 April it found the missing men dead.

During his time in the position, he became involved in a protracted dispute with the Governor, John Hampton, and the Colonial Secretary Frederick Barlee.

[1] Hampton was angered by Brown's repeated refusal to obey him, and by the "tone and tenor" of his letters, which he thought insolent.

The following year a number of magisterial positions were reshuffled, and Brown was appointed Resident Magistrate at Bunbury.

In September 1874, Brown was elected unopposed to the Legislative Council's Geraldton seat, on a policy platform of opposition to responsible government.

He had also nominated for the North District seat, but on his election in October 1874 chose to sit for Geraldton.

Perceiving that his standing in the community had been damaged by the trial, Brown resigned his seat in the council in March.

He had been one of the colony's staunchest opponents of responsible government, but by 1883 he had declared himself a supporter of the proposed change.

He remained in the position until his retirement from public life in 1904, nominally on grounds of ill health, but possibly due to his wife's alcoholism.