Pioneering Days: Thrilling Incidents

Few of the early pioneers of Western and North-Western Queensland are
now in the land of the living, and to collate any reminiscences of the
distant past, of men and matters--the dangers and hardships they
underwent through, droughts and floods, savage blacks, hunger and
thirst, &c., &c.--may be of interest to many readers of the present day
and to certain extent illustrate the hard conditions of life in the wild
regions at that period.

The aim of our party was to buy sheep and start with them in quest of
new country. At that time there was a big rush for runs if the quality
of the country was at all favourable. When two or more discovered the
same piece of country a race took place between them to Brisbane, as the
first applicant's tender secured the country. It was no joke to ride
hundreds of miles and then a slow boat trip, perhaps, to Brisbane, but
the hot fever of securing runs was rampant and traveling magnificent
distances no object so long as the land was safely secured.

Alas! Sad to relate that a few years after the rush and a crash came, a
depression previously unequalled in Queensland, when stock and wool
dropped to zero, causing ruination to thousands of graziers, in all
parts of the colony, and especially to those far inland. Bad enough to
have to endure the hard and dangerous life even if a fortune was in
sight; but to struggle on from year to year and then have to bow to the
inevitable--after all their pluck, energy and endurance--was intensely
crude and galling.

By the people of the present generation there is not much thought given
towards the old explorers and pioneers. To them it is oblivious old
times, and may say, "What fools they were to risk life and limb to
penetrate the wild wilderness; was it not with the view of advancing
their own interest." Yes for a certain extent just as the gold digger
tramps out beyond civilization in the hope of discovering a new Eldorado
or like the mariner voyaging away into unknown seas hoping for his
adventures to drop across a new and profitable land. The world to-day
would be much poorer only for those brave adventurers by land or sea.



II


In the later end of '63 our boss bought some 8000 sheep in the vicinity
of Rockhampton: horses, drays, stores, &c.--a general outfit--and a
start made Northwards, across Connor's Range, by Colloray and Nebo and
thence on to Suttor Creek Station. This run was owned then by Kirk and
Sutherland and carried a few thousand sheep, having been stocked some
two years previously. Here a halt was made to lamb and shear and cart
the wool down to Port Mackay, some 130 miles distant. Nothing eventful
happened between Rockhampton and Suttor Creek, the country intervening
being pretty well occupied right through. The writer afterwards came
over from Melbourne to join the party, and landed in Rockhampton in the
beginning of the big '64 flood. Rockhampton was then but a small hamlet,
and owing to the heavy rain the streets and roads were in a fearful
condition. Bullock teams from Peak Downs and Springsure way were bogged
in rows in the streets, and the whip cracking and lurid language of the
"bullockies" made the township a little inferno. Then the drinking and
rowdiness made night hideous.