Rev. Thomas Mowbray was described by his contemporaries as "a brother, kind and wise in counsel," and every record confirms the tribute.

Born in Hamilton, Scotland, he graduated at the University of Glasgow in 1834, and seven years later sailed to Australia. He remained at Port Phillip for several years, but by December 1844 he was preaching in Sydney.

The state of his health required him to seek a summer climate and to Moreton Bay he came in 1847. He was never inducted into a charge, but in the twenty years of life that were allowed to him here, he rendered a unique service, proving himself to be a good shepherd.

For several years he was the only resident Presbyterian minister in the colony. About three years after his arrival Mr. Mowbray built 'Riversdale,' a house of stone, on the southern bank of the Brisbane River on the land that is now known as Mowbray Park. There he conducted a school for some years, where pupils received a sound classical education. 'Riversdale' was the rendezvous of men and women whose minds delighted to think upon things lovely and of good report. The influence of this good man, whose wisdom was pure and peaceable, was particularly fortunate as the Church began to find ways of self-expression.

Only four years prior to Mr. Mowbray's arrival in Brisbane the Great disruption of 1843 has cleft the Church of Scotland. Ecclesiastical differences and divisions (bitterest of all divisions) are not resolved and healed by the simple expedient of crossing the sea. It was inevitable that they would be known and felt wherever men of the Established Kirk and men of the Free Kirk found themselves together. Once or twice the spirit of partisanship threatened the Queensland Church in her early years, but wise counsel and a gracious spirit prevailed. The futility of a divided company in a vast new land was apparent, and in 1863 a Union was established in which old loyalties were not denied by being directed to serve the Christian good of Queensland. In this blessed effect the gentle and gracious spirit of Thomas Mowbray had a large yet unpretentious share.

The latter years of his life, 1849-1867, covered the earliest period of the Church's history in Queensland. He acted for a time as Secretary to the Committee that organized our first Presbyterian Church in the colony; he opened the first Presbyterian Church erected in Queensland; he was an original member of Synod and the second Moderator of that Court.

The Rev. Thomas Mowbray may, with justice, be regarded as the Father of Presbyterianism in Queensland.