Early Days in North Queensland Part 4

The party, under General Fielding's leadership, started from Roma, and went by way of Victoria Downs and Yo Yo to Biddenham, on the Nive, thence by Lansdowne and Barcaldine Downs to the Aramac, and on to Mount Cornish, delays occurring along the route for repairs to waggonettes and harness, and for the purpose of exchanging horses or buying new ones.

Following down the Upper McKinlay, they reached the Cloncurry on October 7th, and were joined there by the Government Geologist, Mr. R. L. Jack.

More delays occurred here for the want of stores, and it was not until November 1st that all the members of the expedition reached Kamilaroi station, on the Leichhardt River; Gregory Downs was reached on the 7th, and Point Parker on November 15th; the expedition having camped sixty-seven times. On the night of their arrival at Point Parker, the natives surrounded the camp at midnight. There were about a hundred of them, but they left when three shots were fired over their heads; no one was hurt on either side, and this was the only demonstration made by the aboriginals.

Point Parker is described as having a very limited area for settlement, only about 7,000 acres being available. The Government schooner "Pearl"

was waiting here, and after a careful survey of Point Parker and Point Bayley, they visited Bentinck and Sweer's Islands and Kimberley (now called Karumba), at the mouth of the Norman River. Finally, on November 13th, they sailed up the Batavia River in the "Pearl" for about forty miles, and explored it still further in the boats, thence on to Thursday Island on December 4th, 1882. In General Fielding's opinion, the country traversed on his route may be divided into sections; the first part between Mitch.e.l.l and Malvern was neither fitted for pastoral purposes nor for agricultural settlement; thick scrub, bad soil, and poor timber prevailing. Between the Ward and the Nive, and thence to the Barcoo, Thomson, and Diamantina Rivers was first-cla.s.s sheep country, requiring a good deal to be done in the way of providing water to enable the country to be fully stocked. The country between the McKinlay and Fullerton Rivers is subject to flood. Approaching the mining district of Cloncurry, the country is not so favourable for sheep, and is better adapted for raising cattle and horses. From the Cloncurry through the Gregory to the Nicholson River is all good cattle country, but the gra.s.s seed along the banks of the watercourses, and the flooded nature of parts of the country in the rainy seasons, render it unfit for profitable sheep-farming. From the Nicholson to the Gulf at Point Parker, the country is described as particularly useless. The formation is desert sandstone overlaid with nodular ironstone conglomerate; the vegetation dense, chiefly ti-tree scrubs growing upon spuey or rotten ground, together with spinifex, saltpans, and marshes. Such was General Fielding's estimate of the country through which the line was to pa.s.s.

Captain Pennefather of the "Pearl" schooner had been surveying the waters between Allan Island and Point Parker. He was very reticent as to the qualifications of the place as a port; but looking at the soundings, and the open nature of the anchorage, coupled with the utterly valueless nature of the soil surrounding the place for over one hundred miles, the less said about it as a shipping port the better.

The whole scheme was condemned by Parliament, and the general election of 1883 returned a majority against the principle of land grant railways. One of the first reform acts of the new Parliament was to repeal the Railway Companies' Preliminary Act. No doubt, had the scheme been favoured by the people of Queensland, a great impetus would have been given to settlement by the introduction of so much private capital into the colony, while the large annual payment of interest on borrowed money would have been avoided to a great extent. At all events, there is no transcontinental railway as yet, and when it does arrive, Point Parker will not be chosen as the terminus. Mr. Frank Hann, a brother of William Hann, the discoverer of the Palmer Goldfield, accompanied General Fielding as pilot. Hann is a first-cla.s.s bushman, as hard as nails and full of energy. He was for many years the owner of Lawn Hill, situated on a western tributary of the Gregory River, but ticks ruined his herd. He is now in Western Australia.

The first surveyor appointed by the Queensland Government in the Gulf was Mr. George Phillips, lately the member for Carpentaria. He surveyed and laid out Burketown, Carnarvon, on Sweer's Island, and Normanton, on the Norman River. In company with W. Landsborough, in 1866, he explored and named the Diamantina and other western rivers. The former was named after Lady Bowen, the Governor's wife, whose Christian name was Diamantina Roma. The party pa.s.sed close by the spot where Winton now stands, and by Kynuna, and from the head waters of the Diamantina they struck across via the heads of Rupert's and Alick's Creeks to Minamere (then Sheaffe's), thence to the Flinders, and on to Burketown. There were no signs of settlement between the Thomson River at Mount Cornish, and where they struck the Flinders River. Mr. Phillips and Mr.

Landsborough were the first to navigate the Norman River, and they chose the site for the township.

The writer met this party coming down the Flinders on their way to Burketown, in which place he had been laid up for several weeks with the Gulf fever; he was then on his way back to Con.o.bie, more dead than alive. This was in the early part of 1866.

CHAPTER V.

PIONEERING WORK IN QUEENSLAND.

The narrative of the pastoral industry in Queensland is almost the history of North Queensland itself. The outward flow of that restless and progressive industry can be traced from its infancy, when Mr.

Patrick Leslie, of Collaroi, in the district of Ca.s.silis, New South Wales, moved his stock northwards, and after first exploring the country by himself and a man named Peter Murphy, placed his sheep in June, 1840, and formed the first station in Queensland on the Darling Downs (discovered by Allan Cunningham 13 years before). He called this first station Toolburra, and afterwards selected Canning Downs station also.

The stock consisted of nearly 6,000 sheep, two teams of bullocks and drays, one team of horses and dray, ten saddle horses, and twenty-two men, all ticket-of-leave men, p.r.o.nounced by Mr. Leslie to be the best men he ever had in his life. The town of Warwick is built near this cla.s.sic spot, where first the pioneers of the squatting industry pitched their original camp. The next to reach the Darling Downs were Hodgson and Elliott, who occupied Etonvale in September, 1840. No white man had settled on Darling Downs previous to Patrick Leslie in 1840. After Hodgson, King and Sibley were next to hold Gowrie, and these were followed by others, until in 1844, there were thirty stations formed and occupied in that district, the stock mostly coming from the Hunter River district of New South Wales.

In 1843, the first station on the Burnett River was formed by Russell and Glover who took up Burrandowan, and they were soon followed by other settlers, occupying all the beautiful country on the Upper Burnett and Mary Rivers. Here the soil is rich, the surface water abundant, the climate equal to any in Australia; and thus a rich territory was added to the young colony.

The names of the early settlers and pioneers of this country are as well known as the stations they formed. The Healeys of Tabinga were settled not far from Burrandowan. Over the Brisbane Range, John Eales, from the Hunter, was the first settler with stock in the Wide Bay District. The Jones', of merchant fame in Sydney, were also among the first over the range at or near Nanango. The course they followed took them down Barambah Creek to Boonara station.

All the centre of the Burnett district was occupied by squatters coming by this line, while the upper, or Auburn portion, from lower down by Burrandowan. Lawless Bros. took up b.o.o.bijan; Anderson and Leslie occupied Gigoomgan; whilst McTaggart, H. C. Corfield, Perrier, Forster, Herbert W. H. Walsh, Dr. Ramsay, E. B. Uhr, and others followed soon after.

Following on this, came the occupation of the runs on the Dawson River, a tributary of the Fitzroy, and onwards to the north and far out to the great west, where the downs rolled towards the setting sun. The Fitzroy River, draining an enormous territory, equal to any river in Queensland, and surpa.s.sed by but few in Australia, was gradually and successfully occupied. Through the brigalow and mulga scrubs, dense and forbidding, over mountain ranges, stony and steep, across flooded rivers, and over or around all obstacles, the pioneers still moved on and took up and occupied runs. Westward to the Maranoa and Warrego, and northward by the Fitzroy to the Burdekin and Flinders River, and even over the South Australian borders to Port Darwin, their mission was carried on, to fill the land with the outposts of civilisation.

Before 1853, the Archer family were squatting on the Burnett River, and in that year Charles and William Archer went northward on an exploring trip during which they discovered and named the Fitzroy River, and rode over the spot where now stands the city of Rockhampton, with all its wealth, civilisation, and promise of prosperity. They started from Eidsvold, on the Burnett, simply with pack horses and two men, pa.s.sed from Dalgangal to Rawbelle, and at the foot of Mount Rannes found the establishment of the brothers Leith Hay, then the farthest out station.

They had some very troublesome country to penetrate. Besides hilly mountainous ranges, brigalow and vine scrubs surrounded the base of Mount Spencer, whose thousand feet of height they climbed, and gave to it its name. They crossed the Dee, and pa.s.sed close to the site of the famous Mount Morgan gold mine. And so on they journeyed to the top of a range, where the most astounding view lay beneath them.

Through a large and apparently open valley, bounded by table-topped, pyramidal and dominant mountains, with here and there fantastically-shaped sandstone peaks, a large river wound its way towards the sea.

They supposed this river to be the confluence of the Dawson and Mackenzie, and the sea before them to be Keppel Bay. They explored the valley of the Fitzroy, which they named after Sir Charles Fitzroy, they being the first to discover it, and then went on to Gracemere Lake, a magnificent sheet of fresh water, about two miles long and three quarters of a mile wide. They rode on till they came to tidal water in the Fitzroy, and found it a fine navigable stream, with the tide running strongly up it. Near here they came upon a large lagoon covered over with a beautiful pink water-lily (nymphoea), which they called the Pink Lily Lagoon. In the account of their journey, they described the cycas palm growing with cl.u.s.ters of round smooth nuts encircling the top as a crown, under the leaves. After inspecting the country from opposite Yaamba to what is now known as Archer's cattle station, and laying it out in blocks, they returned to the Burnett. These pioneers were looking for new country, and being perfectly satisfied with the Fitzroy and its promise of future prosperity, they returned with stock two years later, in 1855, and took legal possession. It was on August 10th of that year that they brought the first stock on to Gracemere and occupied it as a run.

In the same year, 1855, the site of the future town of Rockhampton was examined. The name of the town was chosen by Mr. Wiseman, Commissioner of Crown Lands for New South Wales, who had been sent up from Sydney to confirm the Messrs. Archer in the possession of their discovery. The rocks crossing the river situated above the present suspension bridge and forming the limit of navigation, helped to the choice of a name for the new northern town. Gracemere head station is on the south side of the Fitzroy River, and is distant seven miles from Rockhampton. Till then, Rannes had been the outer limit of occupation towards the north, in which direction settlement was extending. The Archers were a family of pioneer settlers, several brothers a.s.sisting in the enterprise of opening up country and forming new stations. They were extremely popular men of high character and attainments; and the name of Archer will be known as long as Rockhampton exists. Archibald Archer represented the town and district for many years in the Queensland a.s.sembly, and acted as Colonial Treasurer in the first McIlwraith Ministry with credit to himself and much benefit to the young colony.[B] The Archers may justly be said to be the original discoverers and actual founders of Rockhampton, for although the town took its great start on the road to importance from the time of the Canoona rush in 1858, called in those days the Port Curtis rush, the site of the town had been made known five years previously by the Archer Brothers.

Amongst the early settlers in the country about Gladstone were the Landsboroughs, at Raglan Station, James Landsborough, a brother of the explorer William, living there after taking it up. They held a run in the Wide Bay district, called Monduran, on the banks of the Kolan River, a beautiful and picturesque stream of clear flowing water, with varied patches of dark pine scrubs growing down to the water's edge.

William Young, a st.u.r.dy self-reliant old pioneer, took up a run called Mount Larcombe, and held it with sheep. Mount Larcombe can be seen from the deck of pa.s.sing steamers close to Gladstone. Mr. Young was foremost in opening the country between Gladstone and Rockhampton. He obtained a rough sketch from Mr. Charles Archer of country they had tendered for, and on going out came across a large branch of the Calliope which had not been so taken up. This he chose for his new run, and Mount Larcombe being at the head of the creek, he named the station after it. He took his sheep from the Burnett, and settled on his new country on May 29th, 1855. The reason for those of the advance guard pushing out so far was on account of the tendering system for runs then in force. By this system, those who marked out country could hold it unstocked, and unless a few hundred pounds were paid by them for the right of actual occupation, the pioneers in search of land had to go out further.

Prospecting thus for new country without any intention of stocking it, but merely of selling the information and the claim to the country to any one in search of a run for their stock, became a regular speculation.

[Footnote B: Mr. Archibald Archer died early in 1902, in London, at the age of 82. Mr. Alexander Archer and his wife (a daughter of the late Sir R. R. Mackenzie) were both lost in the "Quetta," which foundered near Cape York.]

The Wide Bay district only extended as far as Little's station at Baffle's Creek, and on to Blackman's. When separation took place, and a new district was declared, those who had tendered for new country for the purpose of reselling, had nine months allowed them to stock their country in. Otherwise they were called upon to forfeit it. Mr. Young had a great deal of trouble from the blacks; they made a raid on his shepherds, killing several, but afterwards he found them very useful for minding sheep, etc. At that time, two small trading vessels handled the trade to Sydney, and from this port Mr. Young had to get his rations, as well as shepherds. Many of the latter sent to him were found useless for bush life.[C]

[Sidenote: Rockhill, No. 3.]

[Sidenote: Bugulban, No. 1.]

[Sidenote: Gunyah, No. 2.]

[Sidenote: Borroran, No. 4.]

No. 55117.

Crown Lands Office, Sydney, 29th January, 1855.

Nos. 2, 5, 11 and 12 of December.

Gentlemen,

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your tenders (opened on the 4th ultimo), for new runs of Crown Lands in the district of Port Curtis, named in the margin, and I beg to inform you, that the same now await the report of the Commissioner of the district, in accordance with the Regulations of the 1st January, 1848.

I have the honor to be, Gentlemen,

Your most obedient servant, GEO. BARNEY.

Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands.

Messrs. R. & F. BLACKMAN, Maryborough, Wide Bay.

This copy of the letter from Colonel Barney to the Messrs. Blackman regarding the tenders of their runs shows that they were early in the Port Curtis district, and occupied a run called Warrah, still held by Mr. F. A. Blackman in 1897. The whole of the Wide Bay district had become settled with stations, and the necessity for an outlet for produce and receipt of supplies led to the port of Gladstone being opened. Among the first to establish a business there was Richard E.

Palmer, who built a wharf and a large wool shed, so that the wool from Rannes and other stations lately formed could be shipped away. He then took up Targieni station, near Mount Larcombe, and lived there for many years. Among the early settlers in the district about Gladstone were the Bells of Stowe, father and sons, Mrs. Graham on the Calliope; and Charles Clarke, James Landsborough, John Forsyth. Edwin Bloomfield held Miriam Vale; Robinson and Wood had taken up Caliungal; William Elliott pa.s.sed Gracemere with sheep, and took up Tilpal in 1857. Ramsay and Gaden held Canoona run when the gold rush took place in 1858. Mr. A. J.

Callan, for some years member of the Legislative a.s.sembly for Fitzroy, took up Columbra run. All the surrounding country became parcelled out among the early arrivals, and settlement began to spread itself into far-away districts to the north and north-west. Civilisation was p.r.o.nounced enough when ladies followed their husbands on many of the new stations. Raglan was famous for its hospitality as early as 1860, when Mrs. James Landsborough presided, and her numerous family grew up there.

[Footnote C: Mr. Young ended his days peacefully in Sandgate in 1899, at an advanced age.]

From Marlborough, a small village on the outward stock route, the track led out west towards Peak Downs, a beautiful tableland discovered by Leichhardt. Mr. Stuart, known as Peak Downs Stuart, took up one of the first runs in 1861 with sheep brought from Victoria. These sheep were destroyed by order on account of scab breaking out among them. Mr. P. F.

Macdonald and Sydney Davis were among the earliest settlers on Peak Downs. Mr. William Kilman, whose name is so well known in the central districts, was one of the enterprising pioneers of the north. In 1854, when he was twenty-five years old, he set out on an exploring trip along the Queensland coast. On that journey, he came to the river on which Rockhampton now stands, and, pa.s.sing up the coast, went as far as Cleveland Bay, where Townsville was founded some years later. He returned to New South Wales from Cleveland Bay, and in 1856 took up a large tract of country on the upper waters of the Dawson. It would thus appear that Mr. Kilman visited the locality of Townsville ten years before Mr. Andrew Ball came down from Woodstock station to explore the country.

Captain John Mackay, explorer and pioneer settler, as well as navigator, discovered Port Mackay in 1860. The history of the discovery and settlement of the district and town of Mackay is of interest, showing what individual effort in conjunction with large experience and great physical fort.i.tude and endurance can accomplish. Captain Mackay left Armidale on January 16th, 1860, with a party of seven men and twenty-eight horses, to explore the north country for runs for stocking purposes; they travelled by Tenterfield, Darling Downs, Gayndah, and Rockhampton. After recruiting and refitting here, they started again on March 16th, pa.s.sed Yaamba and Princhester, on to Marlborough, where Mr.

Henning was forming a station. They left civilisation behind them when leaving this place, and bearing to the north-west over the range, which was very rugged and broken, followed the Isaacs and travelled on towards the Burdekin. Returning towards the coast, they found a river they called the Mackay, traced it to the coast, and having marked trees along its course, they decided to return south, having been successful in the object of their expedition.

The party now fell sick of fever and ague, a most prostrating malady, and were reduced to the utmost extremity for want of provisions, for the sick men were for some time unable to travel. In suffering and pain, hungry and thirsty, and utterly weary, they started again for civilised parts. The blackboy, their faithful companion, died on the journey, while some of the others could scarcely manage to ride. On returning, they met Mr. Connor, who was forming Collaroy station; here they remained a few days recruiting, then crossing the Broadsound Range, they camped with Mr. John Allingham, who was travelling with stock looking for country, pa.s.sed Mr. Macartney at Waverley, and arrived at Rockhampton after an absence of four months. They tendered for the country discovered in accordance with the Crown Lands Regulations, and the tenders were accepted by the Queensland Government, from which date they were allowed nine months for stocking, failing which, any person putting stock in, could legally claim the country. In order to obtain some compensation for the discovery they had made, Captain Mackay got cattle on terms, and started from Armidale on July 26th, 1861, with 1,200 cattle, fifty horses and two teams of bullocks. The stock travelled by Dalby to the Burnett and Dawson, pa.s.sing Banana and Rannes, and thence to Rockhampton on October 27th, where supplies were waiting for them from Sydney. They then pa.s.sed northwards through the Broadsound country, where several stations were then forming, and arrived at the foot of the coast range, when by double-banking the teams, that is, putting two teams on to one dray with only a part of a load on, they managed, after several days' hard work, to get the loads and stock across the terrible barrier. After great trouble in forcing a way through ranges, scrubs, and other obstacles, the stock arrived at the spot selected for the head station on the Mackay River, now called the Pioneer, on January 11th, 1862. The station was named Green Mount, and having turned their weary stock loose on the well-gra.s.sed plains, the party set to work to form a station hut and yards. All their stores were exhausted, and after waiting long months for the vessel that was to have come from Rockhampton, they at last discovered that she was below Cape Palmerston at anchor; she was brought up the river four miles west of where the town now stands, and landed the stores on the south bank.

Captain Mackay then chartered the vessel at the rate of 8 per day, and spent a few days in taking soundings, bearings, etc.; having made a rough chart of the river and adjacent coast line, it was sent with the correct lat.i.tude and longitude to the Crown Lands Office, Brisbane, on which report the Mackay River was declared a port of entry. The name of the river was changed to the Pioneer, as Commodore Burnett (afterwards lost in H.M.S. "Orpheus" on the Manakau Bar in New Zealand), had, in 1863, named a stream flowing into Rockingham Bay, the Mackay, and recommended the new discovery should be called after H.M.S. "Pioneer,"

which he commanded. The Queensland Government not wishing to detract from the merit of discovery, named the town Mackay. There can be no manner of doubt but that the honor of discovering the Pioneer River and the Port of Mackay, and making that discovery public information, so as to be of service in opening up the district, rests entirely with Captain John Mackay.[D]

The discovery of the fine pastoral country in the Barcoo by the Mitch.e.l.l expedition was soon followed by occupation. On October 12th, 1862, the first mob of cattle arrived on the Thomson River, for Mount Cornish and Bowen Downs. The Thomson River was at that time supposed to be the Barcoo, but Mr. N. Buchanan found out that it was the same river that had been named the Thomson by Kennedy in 1847. The first station was named Bowen Downs, and the first stock to arrive on these waters were the cattle started from Fort Cooper, where they had been depasturing for some time. The mob consisted of five thousand head, and the route followed was by Lake Elphinstone on to Suttor Creek, down that creek to the Belyando, following that river up a short distance, then across by Bully Creek, crossing the range at the Tanks by Lake Buchanan on to Cornish Creek, and down that creek to their destination.

[Footnote D: Captain Mackay, in 1902, succeeded the late Captain Almond as Harbour Master at Brisbane.]