As you can see from the partial family tree, the Ford's (Frederick Wilbraham) arrived in Tasmania as a free settler in 1841.
Part of this early history is told in an excellent book about the NW of Tasmania, "Beyond the Ramparts", by Kerry Pink.
This is a very short excerpt from it:-

"STRUGGLE IN THE BACKBLOCKS (Beyond the Ramparts, by Kerry Pink)

Despite early independent settlement in the Black River and Montagu districts, much of the best farmland lay inside the VDL Co. grants. Development of the Circular Head district was given added impetus with the company's decision to sell its first blocks in the middle of the century. (VDL = Van Diemans Land)

The company's 'Country Conveyancing' book records the first sale of land in the Circular Head Forest in 1851. Purchasers were John Dobson, a farmer who paid £160 for 80 acres: fellow farmer Frederick Wilbraham Ford, who began a vast family land holding with a total 388 acres purchased for £708; and Circular Head identity, Henry James Emmett, described as a 'gentleman', who paid £280 for 140 acres. Little else is known of Dobson, but Ford, seen as 'a plain farmer, sometimes in blue shirt and fustian trousers, driving his own bullocks to the township', had lived a rich and colourful life before arriving at Forest.

Originally planning to enter the Church of England ministry, he instead emigrated to Tasmania, arriving in Launceston in 1841. The former student of Eton College and St John's College, Oxford, crammed the long sea voyage, a shipwreck en route to Sydney, an attack by bushrangers, and marriage into the space of about a year, showing a liking for excitement and an energetic disposition. He married Ellen Eliza King, the daughter of Inglis River pioneer settler John King. At 23 she was two years older than Ford. The couple spent four years at Table Cape, then moved to Circular Head where Ford became a VDL Co. tenant in 1845.

After buying the property at Forest, Ford extended his influence across the North of the State, leasing Highfield in 1857. At Stanley he ran a large produce and commission business which gradually spread to other North-West centres. He also grazed large numbers of sheep and cattle on islands off Circular Head and later acquired land at Marrawah, an important district because it lay on the stock route to the West Coast.

After his death in 1893, his son Henry Flinders Ford carried on grazing at the Green Hills property, which he purchased in 1917. Youngest son, William Wilbraham, opened the Dovecote butter and cheese factory about a mile from Stanley in 1893 and established a reputation for quality products. William also farmed at Marrawah where his daughter, Mrs Connie McDonald, still lives. She was the first woman to drive a car from Stanley to Hobart, completing the journey in 1917 at the age of 17.

Ford's eldest son, Frederick, was alleged to be the North-West Coast's largest man. Farming at Marrawah on a grandscale, he gained gargantuan proportions after a fall off his horse left him unable to walk any distance.

He had a special team of bullocks to pull him around on a sledge, which had a chair fitted to it. He was over six feet tall and weighed in the vicinity of 40 stone with a chest measurement of 75 inches.

Ford was, in fact, 38 stone when he died on 14 January 1912.

Whereas Ford Sen. had moved into the district from Table Cape to take up land at Forest, Emmett was already a prominent figure at Circular Head when he bought his block. A well respected official who had worked originally as the VDL Co. clerk and storekeeper, Emmett left their employ after nine years. He was a coroner in 1855, was acting police magistrate for a short period ending in 1856 and was later a member of the Circular Head Marine Board.

Emmett named his property Monateric a derivation of the aboriginal name for the Nut which dominated the view from his house across the Eastern Inlet. The track from Table Cape was only a few yards from his door so he did not have to cope with the utter solitude of many pioneer farmers and at least saw the mailman as he passed by on his regular treks to and from Stanley.

Two years after Emmett's purchase, the company recorded the names of 15 further buyers, most of them described as farmers. It is not clear, however, how many occupied their land in 1853 and some, like the surgeon, Dr Andrew Mowbray, and cleric, Rev.T.N. Grigg, would have seen it as an investment. Denis Carroll, who bought 80 acres, was one of the early Forest settlers, as were Samuel Atkins and John Richard Lucas. Other farmers who bought land were Thomas Gray, Henry Webb, William Smedley, Thomas Brugh, William Coventry and John Robinson."