English: MacDonald family, Bromelton House, Albert River district, 1872

The early part of William Boag's career was spent in Sydney where he was in partnership with portrait photographer Joseph Charles Milligan. (Images made by Boag are in the collection of the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society.). Boag arrived in Queensland in November 1871. He travelled around the south-east, along the foreshore of Moreton Bay and the township of Cleveland. He then moved into the Logan and Albert area where he captured images of local crushing mills and sugar plantations. While at Yatala, he took on a partner, John Henry Mills, and by the end of 1872, both men were in Stanthorpe where they remained for several months, producing views of the booming tin-mining settlement. In July 1873, after stopping off in Warwick, Boag and Mills extended their operations to Mackay, where they remained until October 1875. During this time, Boag made trips to St Lawrence and Cooktown, however his movements after this are difficult to trace. It is known that by mid 1876 he was at Copperfield and Clermont, and in February 1878, he inserted a notice in the Peak Downs Telegram announcing that he was leaving for the west. Then information ceases abruptly. It is possible that Boag never reached his destination, since his death certificate records that he died in 1878 at an unknown location. Bromelton House, near Beaudesert, was the main residence of a large run acquired by Hugh Henry Robertson Aikman in 1842 and named after his home in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Aikman later entered into partnership with the pastoralist and politician Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior. Murray-Priors daughter, the future novelist Rosa Campbell Praed was born at Bromelton. By 1872, large tracts of the property had been resumed by the Government for closer settlement, and Bromelton was in the possession of Campbell Livingstone MacDonald, in partnership with Thomas and Francis Coulsen. MacDonald and his wife Rachel raised their 14 children (including sons Macquarie, Campbell Livingstone and Hugh Livingstone) at Bromelton and it remained in the family until the beginning of World War II.

The house was constructed near a large lagoon known to local aboriginal people as 'Bungropin' (place of parrots) for the great parrot flocks that used to haunt the area. The property was largely self-sufficient (except for stores which arrived twice a year by boat from Ipswich). There was a dairy, a blacksmith, and a shop. Bread was made, meat was preserved, and fruit and vegetables were home-grown. The fence which can be seen behind family members in the photograph was covered with grapevines which reportedly were planted by the wife of T.L. Murray-Prior.