Hi
It certainly is extraordinarily difficult to pin this man down.
I get the impression that the family might have stayed in the Majorca/Maryborough area, but I can see that Ararat is not too far away.
Having said that, the 1887 death looks somewhat iffy in the light of the probate stuff, and from what Thommo said was on the death certificate.
There was a Joseph Mason of similar age in Maryborough, apparently a farmer, and there are a few online trees that have him and his family, he seems to be the chap who died there in 1890. But he doesn't really look like the man in the hospital records?
Could Thommo ever get to see those records, I wonder.
The other thing that has passed through my head a few times is that just possibly Mary Ann born 1858 might not have been the daughter of Joseph, and that her mother Sarah named him as such for propriety's sake. But as I really have no idea, I don't want to open up a can of worms about that!
John