Jimmy Read is believed to have arrived in the New South Wales Southern Highlands town of Bowral in about 1871. Read was reputedly of West Indian origin, and a Crimean War veteran.

Newspaper reports at the time of his death in 1895 noted that Read had made a meagre living, meeting trains at the stations with a blue wheelbarrow. Read would offer to carry parcels from the train to local destinations. His barrow was painted with the slogan ‘Lily of the South’, while placard fixed to it proclaimed. ‘Our old friend Jimmy Read carries parcels with electric speed!’