Toodyay

Distinguished and Famous people from Toodyay

🔓 Moondyne Joe

Joseph Bolitho Johns, better known as Moondyne Joe, arrived in Western Australia as a transported convict in 1853 and later worked as an animal tracker near Toodyay. His association with Moondyne Springs helped supply the name that became famous through repeated escapes and recaptures. Horse and stock offences brought further imprisonment, and his resourcefulness repeatedly embarrassed the authorities. Toodyay's annual Moondyne Festival remembers this history through a lively recreation of the colonial town. The local connection is his working and bushranging life in the district; he was not born in Toodyay, as some retellings have claimed.

🌿 James Drummond

Botanist James Drummond established his residence at Hawthornden after moving to the Toodyay district in 1838. From that base he undertook extensive plant-collecting journeys across Western Australia. His specimens contributed to botanical knowledge far beyond the colony, and many plant names commemorate his work. A trail he opened north from home in 1842 became known as Drummond's Track; parts developed into the Old Plains Road towards New Norcia. His story connects Toodyay's farming landscape with the much larger task of collecting, describing and exchanging knowledge about the state's extraordinary flora.

🏭 Daniel Connor

Daniel Connor became a powerful businessman in the district when Toodyay's present town centre was known as Newcastle. His interests included the flour mill built for him in 1870, now a museum, and a long involvement in local government. He chaired the Toodyay Road Board during much of the 1880s and early 1890s and sat on the Newcastle Municipal Council. His influence brought the nickname King of Newcastle, though contemporary criticism also accused him of putting private interests ahead of the community. The surviving mill recalls both local industry and a distinctly forceful figure in the town's public affairs.