Bjelke-Petersen family

Bjelke-Petersen is the name of an Australian family of Danish descent. The common ancestors of the Australian family are Georg Peter Bjelke-Petersen (born c. 1845), a Danish farmer and master-builder, and his wife Caroline Vilhelmine (maiden name Hansen) (born c. 1845). They came to Australia with their children in 1891. Born just Petersen, Georg hyphenated his name with the Danish word for wooden beam, some time in the 1860s.