Upon news that Andrew Chirnside was going to Scotland, his brother Thomas requested he bring out his beloved Mary ‘any which way you can’. He returned with Mary – as his wife.

The Chirnsides were one of Victoria’s prominent pastoral families that settled in the Point Cook and Werribee area in the 1850s. Their great passion for horse breeding and horse racing was well known.

Less well known is the story of the dispute between the Chirnside brothers. Thomas was in love with a Scottish girl, Mary Begbie, and when he heard that his brother Andrew was returning to Scotland, he asked him to bring her back any way he could. In 1852 Andrew brought her back to Australia – as his wife.