This ship was a brig, a two-masted square-rigged vessel built at the David Burns shipyard in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1853.

This ship had a registered tonnage of 213 tons (216 tonnes) and was 107 feet (32.6 metres) long.

In 1873 the Fairy Queen carried the first consignment of wheat from Port Pirie in South Australia, to Sydney under the captaincy of Magnus Thompson.

For his part, Captain Thompson was awarded a silver medal which was also donated along with the model by one of Harry's two daughters, Carol.

A native of South Ronaldshay, Orkney, Scotland, Captain Thompson went to sea around 1846 at the age of around 13 or 14 years. It was said he had run away from home.

Hearing of the fortunes to be made in Australia in gold-mining, Magnus arrived there and spent several years prospecting in New South Wales and later in New Zealand.

After returning to the sea and shipping for a time, Magnus settled on the Macleay where he married Joanna Hilliar in 1869.

He took out a clearing lease and grew maize, however the venture was unsuccessful due to a sharp fall in the price of maize and the high cost of shipping and wharfage.

Magnus took to the sea again, skippering the Fairy Queen carrying cargo along the east coast, before his history-making voyage from Port Pirie to Sydney.

Henry Ernest ('Harry') Sullivan was born on the Macleay at Smithtown in 1895 and was a great nephew of Captain Magnus Thompson.

In that same year, the family moved to Arakoon House, then owned by his great uncle. At the time, the small settlement of Arakoon was mainly inhabited by families connected with the operation of the penal settlement at Trial Bay and Harry's father was a building contractor engaged in building warden's cottages.

The family moved back to their farm at Smithtown after the closure of the Public Works Prison then to the Tweed River district in 1914.

Harry joined up with the 5th Australian Light Horse Regiment during the First World War and served in the Middle East.

Whilst with his unit in the Sinai, Harry had a remarkable escape from death. He had become very ill and was being conveyed on a camel sled to a clearing station when the Egyptian camelier became lost, unhitched the sled and deserted, leaving Harry lying in the desert.

He was discovered by an Indian patrol and taken to the military aid post. Invalided home from Egypt, Harry started up a successful cargo and passenger shipping business at Tweed Heads.

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