Please follow the links to the other Australian & New Zealand SPEAK(E) families.

In the 1850's there was a Gold Rush in Victoria State, Australia, and two Shropshire SPEAKE brothers, Warren and Thomas, sons of a successful china painter at the famous Coalport China Works, sought their fortunes there. In a photograph of 1869, one of the  brothers is surrounded by his family, looking prosperous. He was a supervisor in one of the mines, but after a fall in 1874  he died  of gangrene poisoning, and his wife died of Tuberculosis shortly after. His family was brought up by relatives,  and their descendants are still in Australia today, now mostly in the Perth area of Western Australia.

Read the account of Thomas' voyage here...Liverpool to Adelaide in 1852 and here are the family trees for this family... The origins of Thomas senior MA14 are not clear, nor those of his supposed father Richard Speake who married Ann Yates in 1751.

Many thanks to J.C Speake of Western Australia and Irene George for their contributions to this family history

Another group of SPEAK settlers of the mid nineteenth century were SPEAKS from Yorkshire, who settled near Perth , Western Australia , and are still there today.