Frédéric Guillaume de Pury

De Pury was born on 15 December 1831 in Neuchâtel to Baron Edouard Charles Alexandre de Pury, a member of the Grand Council of Neuchâtel, and his second wife, Julie de Sandoz-Travers.^[1] His family had been ennobled by Frederick II of Prussia.^[1] De Pury was the granduncle of Roland de Pury.

In 1851 he moved to England to study English and agriculture.^[1] On 6 May 1852, de Pury left England for Victoria, Australia.^[1][2] He first worked tending cattle on a property in Yering that was owned by Paul de Castella.^[1] In 1855 he and Hubert de Castella purchased Dalry, a former out-station of Yering.^[1] They were joined in business by de Pury's brother, Samuel, who had recently arrived from Switzerland.^[1] In 1858 he sold Dalry and rented land near Darlot Creek to graze sheep and breed horses.^[1] In 1860 de Pury purchased land near Lilydale and named it Cooring Yering, planting a vineyard and building a house and wine cellar there.^[1] In 1863, along with George Langdon, he purchased nine-hundred acres in Yering from de Castella's creditors, which he named Yeringberg, starting a vineyard there.^[1][3] In 1869 he bought out Langdon.^[1] Yerinberg was later enlarged to 1,160 acres and produced over 90,922 litres of wine annually.^[1] The wine was exported to Europe.^[4]

De Pury was a leader of the Swiss community in Lilydale. He became a justice of the peace in 1862 and was a member of the Upper Yarra District Roads Board for twenty-one years.^[1] When the Shire of Lillydale was established in 1872, he served as one of its first councilors and later as its president.^[1] From 1875 to 1890 he served as an honorary consul for the Swiss Confederation in Melbourne.^[1]

A devout Protestant, de Pury supported the construction of an Anglican church in Lilydale.^[1] He had an interest in Aboriginal Australians and was an adviser of William Barak.^[1][5] In 1881 he served on a government inquiry into the condition of the Aboriginal station at Coranderrk.^[1]

On 2 February 1869 he married Adelaide Augusta Ibbotson at St James Cathedral.^[1] They had two sons;

• George Alphonse de Pury (1 January 1870 – 14 September 1956)
• Montague Edouard de Pury (20 March 1873 – July 1960)^[1]

He was appointed as a commissioner of the International Exhibition in Melbourne.^[1] He died on 11 November 1890 in Lausanne, Switzerland.^[1]