Sylvester John Browne, occasionally referred to as Sylvester John Browne jnr, was a mining magnate, adventurer and sportsman, whose activities spanned practically the whole of Australia. He was a brother of the well-known author Thomas Alexander Browne.
History
Browne was born in New South Wales in 1841 to Captain Sylvester John Browne and Eliza Angell Browne, née Alexander. Browne was born in Heidelberg, Victoria and presumably educated in Victoria but real information has been hard to find. He spent his early years as a grazier in Queensland, holding Sandringham and other properties. He was appointed magistrate in Gympie 1876. He was a commission agent at Hillston, New South Wales in 1884.
Horse racing
The Morphettville Racecourse had been resumed by the mortgagee in 1883 after its operator, the South Australian Jockey Club failed financially following the prohibition of the totalizator. Five years later restrictions on the totalizator were eased and Browne purchased the property and leased it, with option to purchase, to the reconstituted Club. Browne was then involved with the Victorian Racing Club, and to a lesser extent the Victorian Amateur Turf Club. In 1888 he purchased four yearlings: Carrington, Tinlander, Loch and Hartlands, which he raced with only moderate success, and appears to have quit the game in 1891.
Mining
Browne was a founder and local director of the Broken Hill Junction Silver Mining Company in 1886, and its largest shareholder, with 20,000 £1 shares. He resigned from the board in December 1892, as he had moved to Western Australia. He was also a director of the Sterling HillSilver Mining Company in 1887. He formed a company, of which he owned all but a few of the 24,000 £1 shares, to purchase the Bayley's Reward claim at Coolgardie, Western Australia from its finders Bayley and Ford. At its peak the mine was worth £480,000.
Other interests
Browne was an excellent pigeon shooter and cricketer in his younger days; in later years he was a keen golfer, and he was a prime mover behind the Royal Melbourne Golf Club's acquisition of its course at Sandringham. Browne died suddenly at "Garomna", a property he had recently purchased near Cloncurry, Queensland.
Family
Captain Sylvester John Browne was married to Eliza Angell Browne, née Alexander ;
Thomas Alexander Browne married Margaret Maria Riley in 1860.
Emma Browne married Molesworth Greene of "Greystones", Bacchus Marsh. He was chairman of directors, South Broken Hill.
