Early Days in North Queensland

by Edward Palmer

Onward and westward went the movement of stock. The principal topic of conversation turned always upon new country, the latest discoveries of good grazing lands, and the men who were following with sheep and cattle. The way out west in those first days led up the Cape River through poor country, with a good deal of spinifex grass and patches of poison bush. On the flat tableland dividing the Gulf waters from those flowing towards the Thomson, were a series of large shallow swamps, known as Billy Webb’s Lake, a kind of halting place for stock. Between this and the Flinders waters lies a tract of country nearly two hundred miles in width, called the Desert—and the name is a well-deserved one. The Desert consists of spinifex ridges and sandy sterile country, covered in large patches with the desert poison shrub botanically known as “Gastrolobium grandiflora.” This dangerous plant grows to a height of six to eight feet in separate bushes, and exhibits a bluish-silvery sheen conspicuous afar off. It bears a scarlet blossom like a vetch, and the leaf is indented at the outer end. Its poisonous nature was soon proved by the first stock that attempted the passage. Many of the early drovers lost large numbers of both cattle and sheep from its deadly effects. In one camp, Halloran’s and Alexander’s, as many as 1,500 sheep died in one night from eating it. All the stock passing through this belt of desert country paid some tribute to its evil properties. This poison plant is peculiar to the strip of desert country that extends along the dividing watershed for many hundreds of miles, from the Alice River reaching north as far as the Lynd.

The symptoms of poisoning from this plant are a kind of madness, causing animals to rush about furiously, and then, becoming paralysed, to fall helpless to the ground, and soon expire. There are but one or two varieties of the plant in Queensland, though in Western Australia twelve or fourteen varieties of Gastrolobium are found.

Besides the destructive poison plant, there is the evil-smelling repellant spinifex growing through this strip of vile country, as well as a low, close scrub, through all of which stock has to be got before the open plain country is reached. A great scarcity of surface water, and low stony ridges with heavy patches of red sand, are characteristic of poison country. Glad indeed were the pioneers to leave it behind, and with great satisfaction to stand on the rocky eminence that bounded it on the western side, whence they looked down the open valley of the Jardine, and beheld the downs and the grassy plains of the Flinders spreading out before them for many miles. The sight came as a surprise and relief after so much disagreeable travelling through the worst portion of North Queensland, especially should a thunderstorm have passed over the country recently and caused a spring in the herbage. The Flinders River flowing to the west and north-west towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, through most extensive plains and downs, traverses a different geological formation to that which the pioneers crossed when coming from the east coast. The edge of the great cretaceous formation which forms the major portion of the western country, is here entered on for the first time, and a new strange world seems to open up. A new fauna and flora is evident on the very first entrance into the new region; the birds are different and more numerous; galas, parrots, and pigeons abound, and assure the newcomer that he has found a new pastoral country, the grasses and herbage of which are more permanent, enduring and nutritive than those he has hitherto met with. The downs, covered with the Mitchell grass, with scarcely a bush or shrub to break the monotony, stretch away as far as the eye can see; while the heavy timber along the creeks and rivers indicates their course. A dreary monotony prevails on the western rivers, the same everlasting plains, the same great grassy waste of downs like an ocean without its interesting motion. Far ahead can be seen the river timber winding through the brown plains, so that the traveller can see a whole day’s stage ahead. For over a hundred of miles along the north-eastern, or right bank of the Flinders River, is a tableland of basaltic formation, near which the river winds its course; a dark fringe of rocks rises abruptly, broken here and there by indentations through which flow creeks to join the main channel. The cone of eruption for this vast overflow of lava is said to be somewhere about Mount Sturgeon, to the eastward. The lava has flowed over the original sandstone formation, and formed a level tableland now broken and covered with black, porous blocks of lava of every size. It is utilised for pasture purposes, notwithstanding its forbidding aspect.

Some time after Rule and Lacy stocked the Aramac, Mr. Hodgson arrived on it with sheep and took up and stocked Rodney Downs; he crossed the spinifex country from the Belyando to the Alice River, and lost about six thousand sheep on this track by poison bush, the Gastrolobium grandiflora. Mr. Meredith arrived in May of the same year on the Thomson, and took up and stocked Tower Hill station. During June of this year the Thomson and Aramac Creek were in high flood; Rule and Lacy were flooded out of their first camp, and removed to where Aramac station now is. Some stockmen looking after the company’s cattle on an anabranch of Cornish Creek, were surrounded by water, and lived on jerked beef for a month. About July the head station was shifted up to Cornish Creek, taking the name of Bowen Downs with it, which name it has since retained. In 1872 the cattle station was formed into a separate establishment under the management of Mr. E. R. Edkins, who called it Mount Cornish, in honor of the late E. B. Cornish, of Sydney. This year wound up with a wet Christmas. Wages in those days were very high, stockmen getting as much as 40s. a week, and cooks 30s.; any old horse would bring £25. The year 1864 may be styled the year of Hegira or flight of stock outwards to settle new country; they came from all parts, and helped to fill the land everywhere with the beginning of civilisation. A boom had set in for pastoral occupation; the reports of recent explorations told of enormous tracts of grand open country waiting for stock to utilise it, and each one was anxious to be the first to secure some of it for his sheep or cattle. The head of the Flinders River was occupied by a few settlers, and two lots of sheep passed Bowen Downs, en route to the Flinders. They belonged to Kirk and Sutherland, and Mr. J. L. Ranken, and came from Fort Cooper way, losing heavily in crossing the range between Bully Creek and Lake Buchanan, between eight and ten thousand sheep perishing through eating the desert poison bush. They discovered what was the cause of such losses by feeding some sheep on the suspected plant when they died with all the symptoms of the victims in the desert track. The first white man known to have been killed by the blacks on the Thomson was one of the shepherds with Kirk and Sutherland’s sheep. He was killed on Duck Pond Creek, a tributary of Cornish Creek. After he was buried, the blacks dug the body up at night and drove a stake through it, pinning it to the ground. Kirk and Sutherland must have reached the Flinders about April, and then occupied and stocked Marathon. Mr. J. L. Ranken occupied Afton Downs, but was dried out the following year, and he lost a number of his sheep in consequence of having to remove them lower down the Flinders. In March of this year Mr. Meredith, of Tower Hill, formed a station on the east side of Landsborough Creek, naming it Eversleigh, and stocked it with cattle. In March also Bowen Downs sent cattle up the Landsborough for the purpose of stocking the west side of the creek. The men with the cattle had a very rough trip, as there was incessant rain, and the country became one vast quagmire; all their rations and ammunition were spoilt, and they had to live on young calf, “staggering bob,” as they called it. Mr. E. H. Butler was in charge, and after leaving the cattle, started for home at the Mud Hut, when a thunderstorm occurred that put out their fire and wet all their matches. The river branches were flooded, and during the next two days they had nothing to eat, and no fire, and were drenched to the skin by thunderstorms; their pack-horse with all their blankets had knocked up, and they passed the night without sleep, being wet and cold and hungry; next morning they had to swim the main branch of the river, and then walk four miles to the station, leaving behind one of their mates knocked up on an island in the river. About September of this year (1864), Bowen Downs despatched about fifteen hundred head of cattle in charge of Mr. Donald McGlashen to the Gulf of Carpentaria for the purpose of taking up country and stocking it. These cattle travelled up the Landsborough, crossed the watershed on to Walker’s Creek, followed it down to the Flinders, and down that river to the turn off to Sackey’s Lagoon, and down the Alexandra to the Leichhardt, then across by Miller’s Waterhole to Beame’s Brook, where the first station was formed called the Brook, about sixteen miles above where Burketown now stands; they arrived there before the end of 1864, and were the first stock to occupy the Gulf country. When Mr. Landsborough left the Albert River on his trip in search of Burke and Wills, he left a four hundred gallon tank there with a lot of rations in it for the use of any distressed explorers or others, and fastened the lid in such a way that he thought the blacks would be unable to open it; but when Mr. McGlashen found the tank, he discovered that the blacks had solved the problem, and the rations were not there. When they were mustering these cattle before starting, the boss, Mr. A. Scott Holmes, riding along with a stockman, met a blackfellow whose gin had two half-caste children with her, aged about nine and seven years; the blackfellow evidently wanted them to see the children, as he kept pointing to them. Some years after this it was reported that two half-castes were with the blacks out to the west of the Thomson, but nothing more was heard of them.

It was during this year of 1864 that the first settlers found their way to the Barcoo, although the fame of its pastures had been known years before from the reports of Sir Thomas Mitchell and others explorers. Among the first to settle there was J. T. Allen, who took up Enniskillen in 1862, and who still resides there. Bell and Dutton took up Tambo station, close to where the township of the same name sprang up afterwards. Govett and Parsons took up Terrick, and Yaldwyn occupied Ravensbourne, while Moor and Reid held Moorsland, now called Lorne. Henry Edwards, from the Burnett, took up Malvern, which was sold the same year to the Ellis Bros., who then occupied Portland.

In 1865, C. Lumley Hill, with Allen and Holberton, took up Isis Downs. Then a pause ensued in occupying new runs, and progress was checked; but after the passing of the Pastoral Leases Act of 1869, which gave greater facilities for the occupation of new country, and more liberal terms, many runs were occupied; among them, Mr. Hill held Westlands. A. B. Buchanan took up Wellshot, while Welford took up Welford Downs, and was killed by the blacks in 1872. Among the runs opened in those days were Tocal, Bimerah, Mount Marlow, and Louisa Downs. The stock to occupy all these runs in those early days mainly came from the Darling Downs and Burnett, as in the first days of the Queensland Parliament an Act was passed excluding New South Wales stock. Mr. Hill, in 1874, sold Isis Downs, which was divided into three runs called Albilbah, Ruthven, and Isis Downs. A great deal of the western plain country was occupied during the years between 1865 and 1870, and a great deal of interest and energy was exhibited in taking up and selling large blocks of fine pastoral country. Sheep for stocking country rose to high prices, but when the crisis occurred, there was a collapse in values, and many abandoned a good deal of the country and disappeared from the scene.

Berkelman and Lambert discovered and settled Elizabeth Creek and Listowel Downs. Mr. H. E. King was the first Land Commissioner, and superintended the laying out of Tambo, the first town on the Barcoo. The price of carriage for supplies in those day was £46 per ton. Cameron and Crombie took up Barcaldine in 1864 with sheep from New England, and, in conjunction with Mr. Allen, they also took up Home Creek, Enniskillen, Minnie Downs, Vergemont, and Evesham. They brought their stock by the Burnett, the Dawson, and Springsure, over the Expedition Range. There was the usual trouble with the blacks after settling down. The natives killed the shepherds and robbed the huts of rations and cooking utensils that were very difficult to replace in those days. The Peak Downs was first reported on by Dr. Leichhardt, but many years elapsed before occupation set in. Among those who were prominent in the opening up and early settlement of the fine tableland of Peak Downs, with its rich soil, were De Satge and Milford, of Wolfang; Mackay, of Huntley; Gordon Sandeman, of Gordon Downs; Hood, of Hood and Manning; and Lamb and Black, of Yamala.

As the character of the new country became known, many other runs near Hughenden were occupied by overlanders struggling along with stock, among them was Fairlight, on the basalt ridge, held with sheep by Henry Betts. Afton Downs, as has already been mentioned, was taken up with sheep by Mr. Ranken, who deserted it later with a considerable loss of stock owing to drought. Kirk and Sutherland, who had come from Suttor Creek with sheep in 1863 were also dried out from Marathon, and suffered great losses. Both of these runs now possess flowing streams in every direction, formed by artesian bores. Notable among the early settlers was the family of the Annings, father and sons, from Victoria. They held Reedy Springs, on the head waters of the Flinders, Charlotte Plains, and several other stations formed by their enterprise; the sons still occupy the same country, and have grown gray in pioneering. Another Victorian firm, Muirson, Jamieson and Thompson, occupied Mount Emu with sheep in 1862, after much travelling about in search of suitable country. Mrs. Thompson, with a young family, accompanied her husband in those early pioneering days of roughness and privation, and lived at Mount Emu for many years, where her large family grew up, and her sons are now occupying runs throughout the district. The hospitality of Mount Emu was proverbial, and the refinement that prevailed in all the arrangements at the head station gave additional value to the welcome that was extended to all travellers. On the Burdekin country, the family of the Hanns, father and sons, possessed themselves of Maryvale, a splendid piece of country.

The farthest outstation north in 1860-61 was that of W. Stenhouse, on the Clarke, a tributary of the Burdekin. Seventy miles nearer Bowen, was the station of Allingham Bros., and thirty-five miles still nearer port were located the Messrs Cunningham. Ernest Henry very early took up Mount McConnel, at the junction of the Suttor and Selheim Rivers; this is one of the old landmarks of Leichhardt when on his trip to Port Essington in 1844-45. Stock were taken there from Baroondah, on the Dawson, in 1860; and later on Hughenden station was settled with stock taken from Mount McConnel. Hughenden is situated at the beginning of the open plain country on the Flinders; it was one of the first stations settled there in 1864. The present head station is on the exact spot taken up so long ago, but is somewhat different in style to the original slab hut on the ridge in which Mr. R. R. Morrissett and his hutkeeper, old Jack Ryan, dwelt in 1864, when water for the use of the head station was drawn from the junction of the creek with the river, that being the only surface water within miles. Mr. Ernest Henry, a most energetic and indefatigable pioneer carried on a good deal of prospecting on the Cloncurry, and was the earliest discoverer of the mineral wealth of the district. A company was formed in 1868 to work the copper lodes discovered by Mr. Henry, but after expending large sums of money on smelting works, etc., they were obliged to cease operations on account of the expense of carriage and the low price of copper. H. Devilin was one of the most active and venturesome pioneers in discovering and making known to others the country on the Flinders. He opened the way for several stockowners in that extensive district, though he himself does not appear to have had much personal interest in any of the speculations.

In opening up the highway through the head of the Flinders to the far west, these pioneers were the forerunners of the great wave of settlement that followed on immediately afterwards, notwithstanding the deterrent features of the desert and the poison bush, through which they had to pass with their stock. Up to 1864 the runs that had been stocked on the Upper Flinders downs were Fairlight, by Betts and Oxley with sheep, and Telemon station by Collins and Walpole. This last property is now owned by J. L. Currie, of Melbourne, is mostly freehold, and with the discovery of artesian water, and the introduction of fine wooled sheep, has become a most valuable estate. It consists of open rolling downs, with patches of gidya, a species of acacia. Marathon, on the Upper Flinders, was taken up by R. H. Sheaffe, who for five years represented the Burke district in the Legislative Assembly. The run was sold by him to Kirk and Sutherland, who were in search of grass for their sheep. Marathon is now owned by a Melbourne firm, and by means of artesian wells, carries 200,000 sheep. After being dried out from Afton Downs, John Ranken, a member of a very old colonial family in New South Wales, eventually found his way to Barkly Tableland, where he settled for a time. Afton Downs is situated on Walker’s Creek, a tributary of the Flinders on the western side, and is of the usual open rolling downs formation. All these runs, as previously mentioned, were occupied before the discovery of artesian springs, and therefore subject to being periodically dried out. At the present day, with judicious expenditure on artesian wells, and other improvements, this run annually shears close on 100,000 sheep. Following down the Flinders through the great plain country, the next station occupied was Richmond Downs, where a struggling township named Richmond now stands; this was held in 1864 by Bundock and Hays, with cattle from the Clarence River, in New South Wales. They lost many on their way out by pleuro-pneumonia and the desert poison bush already described. Opposite to Richmond Downs, across the Flinders River, Kennedy and Macdonald took up about the same time a run which they called Cambridge Downs, now a large sheep station. All these runs on the Upper Flinders were first settled in 1864, and formed an outpost of settlement by which other pioneers directed their course lower down the river. During 1865 and the following year, another wave of occupation flowed on past these outside stations, and the new pioneers finding country further on, became in their turn a starting point for others, and still the tide flowed outwards and westwards till all available country was taken up. Those who came out during 1864 and 1865 had a serious difficulty to contend with in facing a drier season than has since been experienced up to 1897. The pioneers with their stock were compelled to follow the course of the river, as it was almost certain death to go far to the west looking for water or country. All the tributary creeks of the Flinders were dry, and those who ventured out had soon to return to the main watercourse. The native dogs crowded in on the Flinders in thousands, and the blacks themselves had also to resort to it. During that trying season, none of the rivers ran in their channels, and even most of the large waterholes in the bed of the Flinders dried up, while stages of thirty or forty miles without water were frequent. Notwithstanding these drawbacks to stockowners who were on the search for some unfrequented nook to unharness on, the crowd pressed on in the hope of better country ahead, some Canaan far beyond, where hills were always green and water abundant. These men followed each other in quick succession and took up runs on the Lower Flinders and all over the Gulf country, wherever water could be found.