Keminiscences of North Queensland, 1862-1878

81 Keminiscences of North Queensland, 1862-1878. BY W. H. CORFIELD. '{Read at a Meeting of the Society on ISth August, 1920). To say that in the year 1862 Queensland was an unexplored country, gives but a slight idea of what was unknown of the great outside. In this year, I landed in the New Colony, and took employment with my uncle, who held some pastoral country a little to the S.W. of what in later years became known as the Isis Scrub, one of the great sugar districts of this State. The country held by him was known as Stanton Harcourt, and on it he was running sheep and cattle. On my arrival at the station, I found he was absent seeking country to which he might remove the sheep. These were dying in numbers from foot-rot, grass-seed, and other causes. In this search he was unsuccessful, but a later period he bought some country in the Bourke district, to which the sheep were removed in 1864. With these sheep, after I had a short training on the station, I went as second-in-charge. It is on this trip I would like to commence this paper. Our route was from Stanton Harcourt, through Gayndah, where Mr. John Connolly, lately deceased at an age well over a hundred years, was already in business, thence through Hawkwood and Taroom, Springsure and Clermont. At this last-mentioned place, we had the first shearing on the road, the wool being sent to, as it was called. Port Mackay. We started after shearing, slowly running Mistake Creek down to its junction with the Belyando River, where we had a second shearing, this wool being sent to Bowen. Thence following the Belyando down to its junction with the Suttor, thence running westerly up the Cape River. At about where the township of Torren's Creek now is, we found a large number of dead sheep, and heard later that about 10,000 had been poisoned by the pea-bush. Fortunately, we got through with a loss of 40 in one night. Probably it was because 82 we passed when the bush was not in bloom. When it is in flower the plant is very poisonous, and great care must be taken when passing through it. At this time, however, its dangerous character against stock was not realised. Finally, we reached our destination on the FUnders River, where we immediately set ourselves towards erecting th& improvements necessary for the carrying-on of a sheep station. It will be perceived that on the whole of our trip we were skirting on the eastern side of what is known as the Desert. We did not dare to enter it, and it was not until we had struck the Downs about the locality of what is known as " Jardine Valley," that we realised what good sheep country meant. Some of this country was partially settled ; Hughenden, Marathon, Telemon, and other runs were being stocked with sheep. Even then we did not realise what magnificent country lay for hundreds of miles to the southward of our route. Rain had not fallen for some time, and few men had the temerity to venture into the waterless country to seek the unknown, and the impression existed that the whole country south, with the exception of a strip along the FUnders River, was a Desert. Some years afterwards I met a carrier in Townsville, who told me that in the year 1866, when searching for lost horses, he was many miles south of the Flinders, and a& far as he could see, it was the same country of rolling open downs, brown loamy soil, and heavily grassed. Shortly afterwards he went in a generally southern direction, and struck a large river coming from the north. He there marked his initials on a tree. In 1881, I found the tree, with his initial " C." This was at a spot on the Diamantina River, between Dagworth and Kynuna stations. Had he struck the river a few miles above the latter place, he would have found it coming from the west. If he had been on official explorations, he might then have reported the river as flowing due east, and made a mistake similar to that made by Major Mitchell in regard to the Barcoo River, or, as he called it, the Victoria River. This man was evidently on the river some time in 1866, but did not think it was of much importance to say what the country was, or give any information about it. ' Messrs. William Landsborough and George PhilUps (who is still amongst us*), left Bowen in January, 1866, and going a little south of west through the desert country, came on Bowen Downs, which was then being stocked. Still going west, towards the end of February following, * Mr. George Phillips died on 2nd June, 1921. 83 they struck the head of a river which they ran down in a westerly direction until it junctioned with a large river coming from the north, to which they gave the name of Diamantina. They ran this river up in a northerly direction for some distance, when they left it to continue their northerly route to Burketown. This would take them across magnificent, although to a certainty, almost waterless plains between the Diamantina and Flinders Rivers. This, my friend the carrier, probably in the same year, had struck further north. I have not read Mr. PhiUips' official report, so I cannot say if he realised the magnificent country through which he had passed. I should expect, from what I know of his ability, that he would have noted the country, but in a series of letters published in the Brisbane Telegraph a year or so ago, he aUudes to his discovery of the Western and Diamantina Rivers in quite a casual way. Perhaps after travelUng through such an area of similar country, he took the result of his work as just an every-day occurrence. The settlement of this portion of Western Queensland was effected by southern and central investors, rather than from the north. It was many years before the great waterless country, from the course of the Flinders towards the south, was opened up. This was not done until immense sums of public and private money were spent in water development. Even the gradual extension northwards from Blackall and Tambo did not open the eyes of seekers for country to what existed ; and it is related that when Mr. J. F. Barry, who first took up grazing country on the head of the Western River, described what he had seen, his information was laughed at and scorned. This country, which is now held as one of the finest sheep properties in Western Queensland, he called " Vindex," and his reports were proved to be quite true. I would like to quote what an American scientist, writing of deserts, in a book called " Polar and Tropical Worlds," published in 1877, says :—" Perhaps the most absolute desert tract on the face of the globe, is that which occupies the interior of the great Island, or, as it may not improperly be styled. Continent of Australia. The Island has an area of something more than 3,000,000 of square miles, nearly equal in extent to Europe. For the greater part of its circumference it is bounded by a continuous range of mountains or highlands, nowhere rising to a great height and for long distances, consisting of plateaux or tablelands. There is, however, a continuous range of water shed which is never broken 84 through, and which never recedes any great distance irom the coast. The habitable portions of Australia are limited to the slopes of the mountains and the narrow space between them and the sea. The interior, as far as is •inown, or can be inferred from physical geography, is an immense depressed plain, more hopelessly barren ahd uninhabitable. than the great desert of Sahara." These authorities say niore on this imaginary description. This quotation is sufficient to show that even scientists do not know everything, although one might believe that they did. Now these statements were published 10 years after Mr. PhiUips had been some bundreds of miles inland from the narrow habitable strip which was supposed to exist along the coast. Owing to its geographica-l position, TownsviUe, which did so little for the development of Western Queensland, draws a considerable portion of the trade of that country through it, and Rockhampton, which did so much, gets but little of it. I mean that part, of Queensland north and west of the central railway, and out to the western border of the State. After a year or two on my relation's property, I became dissatisfied with my position, and as I was suffering from malaria in a bad foi-m, I decided to return to England, and left the station •with a man from Canobie, the adjoining property. I started for TownsviUe, more famUiarly known as " The Bay." The Cape River diggings meanwhile having broken out, we decided to try our luck, and search for gold. This we struck fairly rich . in a claim which we had taken up at a depth of 100 feet. We then decided taking up a second claim which I should work. This •was much shaUower in depth, but after getting on good gold, I found it was too much for one man. We took an old hand as a third partner in this -claim, but I found that "while to the eye the dirt was exactly the same, yet when the final eleaning-up was done, there was considerably less gold.

Load more