Robert Gawn was born and lived on a farm in Halftown beside where Nancy Gawn lived before she married Tom McConnell. He was a second cousin of the McConnell family and was very friendly with them before he emigrated to Victoria, Australia in August 1857 on the ship Ben Nevis at the age of twenty-one. It is told that he had formed a close relationship with one of the McConnell girls near to his own age. This may have been Elizabeth Mary who was born in 1836, the same year as Robert. It was agreed that if Robert was successful in Australia that she would go out and marry him. Robert became a Wagoner to the goldfields in Melbourne and prospered. After two years or more he felt that he was in a position where he could support a wife and he again asked Elizabeth Mary if she would come and be his wife. By this time she had met John Smith and decided not to accept Robert's offer. However, in her refusal to Robert she indicated that her older sister Martha Ann was willing to take her place. Robert agreed and Martha Ann went to Australia and they got married in Hotham Church on December 26th, 1860.
 

It is interesting to note that one of the witnesses at the marriage ceremony was James McConnell, brother to Martha Ann. James later returned to Co. Antrim and married.