Biography

Murchison House Station was originally taken up by Charles Von Bibra, who bred Arab horses on the lease.  Andrew James Ogilvie bought the property in 1885 and owned it until his death in 1906.

During his time on Murchison House Station, Andrew Ogilvie employed a Ticket in  of Leave cook in 1878 and a Ticket of Leave well sinker, possibly Mr John Eagan, in 1881. He visited South Australia in 1888.

In an article to the Geraldton Express in 1906, Dr Moffit, of Northampton, detailed his incredible two day journey across most inhospitable countryside to reach the Murchison House Station homestead after he received a letter at the Courthouse from Mrs Ogilvie, informing him that her husband had been drowned on the previous day,

Andrew Jameson Ogilvie died on 8 October 1906 at Watts Pool, Murchison, Western Australia, by drowning. An inquest was conducted and his death was ruled "accidental by drowning". It appeared that he had gone duck hunting, which he enjoyed, and slipped and fell into 3 feet of water which soon became 10 feet where his body was found. His wife said that he was "timid of water" and he apparently had tried to grasp an object to hold onto, but could not and drowned in the Murchison River.

Following Dr Moffit's post-mortem examination, Mr. T. A. Drage, J. P. acted as coroner, with Messrs. S. H. Mitchell, jun., J. P. Oxenham, and Best as jurymen.  Having inspected the site of the drowning, the coroner and jury sat from after lunch on Friday until 1 am on Saturday morning, and then adjourned until the following day, when the jury for the second time visited the scene of the fatality.  Finally, the jury brought in a verdict of accidental death, the only one that could be expected, after a most searching inquiry.

Mr Ogilvie's second wife,  Ada Leila Frances, was born in 1872 in Sydney.  In 1908, two years after the death of Andrew Ogilvie, she married Thomas Brougham Birkbeck.   In 1909, Ada Leila Frances was living in Melbourne. In 1916, her address was at the Villa Mirasole, 40 Boulevard D'Italie, Monte Carlo. She died there in 1949.