Thomas Carey

Who was Thomas Carey?

Thomas Campbell Carey was the surveyor to whom John and Alexander Forrest were apprenticed, and was later a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council.

Thomas Carey was born in Ireland in 1832–33. Little is known of his youth, but he was employed as a draughtsman commanding the Engineer's Office at Chatham, and later in an Ordnance Survey as Land Agent and Surveyor. In September 1853, he married Eliza Shields Stewart.

In 1862, Carey emigrated to Western Australia, where he became an assistant surveyor for the colony's Survey Department. Over the next eight years, Carey was at various times stationed at Albany, Wellington and Bunbury. In November 1863, while stationed at Bunbury, Carey accepted as his apprentice a young John Forrest. Forrest graduated after two years, entering the Survey Department. In 1869 Carey apprenticed Forrest's younger brother Alex. He also became a Justice of the Peace in that year.

In May 1871, the new Surveyor-General of Western Australia Malcolm Fraser reorganised the Survey Department, promoting John Forrest and dismissing a number of surveyors including Carey and Alex Forrest.