ATLAS OFBUND ALEER PLAINS AND TAT AL A

T? T \/r P n T T T P P V

Just why Frederick Montague Rothery drew the Atlas o f Banda leer Plains and Tat ala is uncertain. But he has left a record of a huge nineteenth-century Queensland pastoral holding that is charming, possibly unique, and of real interest and value.

Each of the maps is an attractive watercolour, its delicate brushwork and fine lettering showing in meticulous detail the area depicted: its soil, vegetation, buildings, fences, and dams.

Rothery’s mapmaking is a fascinating blend of the medieval and the modern cartographer’s art: in part perspective drawing, in part planimetrically exact.

The record Rothery has left, apart from its intrinsic artistic merit, is also valuable as evidence of pastoral and economic development in the nineteenth century; in addition, modern scientists have been able to identify in the Atlas a prior-stream course of practical use for present-day developments such as the locating of underground water and of gravel for roadmaking.

This book should find a ready audience not only among economic historians, geographers, and cartographers but also among all those attracted by unusual Australiana.

Price in Australia $ 10.00

This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991.

This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press.

This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to

a global audience under its open-access policy.

ATLAS OF B U N D A L E E R PLAI NS AND TATALA

ATLAS OF B U N D A L E E R P LAI NS AND TATALA

b y F. M. ROTHERY

I N T R O D U C T I O N BY

N. G. B U T L I N AND J. N. J E N N I N G S

Business Archives Australian National University

in association with

A U S T R A L I A N N A T I O N A L U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S SC A N B E R R A

1970

©Australian National University 1970

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Inquiries should be made to the publisher.

Text filmset in 'Monophoto' Times New Roman by Craftsmen Type-Setters Pty I.id, Sydney and printed by Simmons Ltd, Sydney

sun 7081 0067 8

Library of Congress Catalog Card no. Map 68-14

National Library of Australia reg. no. aus 67-896

P R E F A C E

as yet no one has full enough knowledge of the archival materials of this country to claim that the Atlas o f Bundaleer Plains and Tatala is a unique record from Australia’s past. But it seems indisputable that it has an individual quality and a richness of content which warrants making it generally accessible. The Atlas has a wide and varied appeal as a picture of a huge pastoral holding close to the zenith of its fluctuating history, as a business device, as a piece of cartography, as an appraisal of the geographical character of a substantial area of Australia, even as a sample of water-colour brushwork. Some facets of this appeal are discussed in the introduction, which, however, is devoted as much to outlining its context as to evaluating its intrinsic nature. Indeed, the Atlas can in large measure be left to speak for itself and to prompt others, it is hoped, to challenge the implication of uniqueness, to search out and bring to notice other documents of this kind equally fascinating to all those interested in the making of Australia.

We owe a debt, first, to the Squatting Investment Company, which preserved this Atlas long after the Company’s active interest in the Bundaleer Plains property had ceased. It was rediscovered by one of us in a crate in Melbourne in 1955 and transferred to the Australian National University Business Archives. We also acknowledge with gratitude the great amount of help received from Mrs Olga Rothery of Vaucluse, Sydney, and the Cliefden Rotherys who also contributed valuable documents and material. Comments on the introduction by Mr G. A. Manning were greatly appreciated. Thanks are also due to an assistant, Mr M. A. Jones, who showed himself to be a good historical detective.

Canberra N. G. ButlinAugust 1969 J. N. Jennings

v

CONTENTS

Preface v

Introduction N. G. Butlin and J. N. JenningsFrederick Montague Rothery ixThe History of Bundaleer Plains as a Pastoral Holding xiiiThe Land and the Atlas xix

A N ote on the Editing of the Atlas

Atlas o f Bundaleer Plains and Tat (da

xxiv

I N T R O D U C T I O N

F R E D E R I C K M O N T A G U E ROT HE RY

F r e d e r i c k Mo n t a g u e r o t h e r y , station manager, draftsman, artist, poet, cartoonist, and animal lover, deployed more than merely artistic talent when between April 1877 and April 1878 he produced the Atlas of Bundaleer Plains} He was then aged between thirty-two and thirty-three, having behind him an extensive pastoral and artistic appreciation of the area within which Bundaleer Plains lay. When he registered his signature at the Bank of New South Wales in St George, Queensland, in April 1877 and entered himself on the electoral rolls, he may have planned to stay longer in the Queensland that he knew best and was now re-visiting. By April 1878, however, he had transferred to Brisbane.

This brief return visit to the Warrego-Maranoa region nevertheless produced thq Atlas. But already, for perhaps a decade during 1863-73, Rothery had known the area intimately and had sketched and painted scenes in the Warrego district. Already, too, he had written ballads and other verse of outback life. In the Atlas he combined artistic and drafting skills with an intimate knowledge and deep love of the country that he was to portray by this combination of cartographical and artistic techniques. Nor was the portrayal of Aborigines in the second of the full-page paintings accidental; Rothery had developed in the locality and elsewhere a considerable respect and affection for natives.

Rothery’s early experience with the area began when he came, in 1863 or 1864, as book-keeper on the one-million acre Whyenbah station which lay almost beside Thurulgunnia. He subsequently became manager of Whyenbah, a position he held until 1873. His employment as station book-keeper at the age of eighteen, advantageous as it then appeared, was a considerable step below the expectations that the boy Rothery may have entertained until his

1 This brief memoir has drawn heavily on family sources, particularly those of F. M. Rothery's daughter, Mrs Olga Rothery, of Vaucluse, and also of the Rothery family at Clicfden, and grateful acknowledgment is made for access to and use of these records. Early family history is given in Journal o f the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. XVII, pt. IV, 1931.

fifteenth year. The death of his father, Frederick John Rothery, at the age of fifty-five, on 16 January 1860, was a severe blow to the family of six children and to the way of life of the eldest son, Frederick Montague. The father’s death followed that of the boy’s mother Emily (nee Chenery) in 1852. His death was due to a chill contracted after a garden party, attended by the children, at the famous house of their close friends, Thomas and Theresa Mort of Greenoaks. The Morts were to become the guardians of Frederick Montague after his father’s death, though this guardianship was not destined to sustain the boy’s fortunes. Theresa Mort was attached to the young Frederick and attentive to the normal healthy appetite of a young schoolboy. Even an unexpected delay in delivering a promised cake to the thirteen-year-old Frederick in 1858 prompted a hasty and affectionate apology and a promise of immediate relief.

Greenoaks Sydney 1858

My dear Freddy,I am most disappointed that you have not yet received your cake. I intended

leaving it at the railway on Saturday but was obliged to make all haste home to avoid a heavy storm. However Mr H[enry] Mort tells me he intends sending a parcel to Macquarie Fields tomorrow and I take the opportunity of forwarding your cake at the same time. Give my love to Mrs W. Mort and Wally and Charley, and with a share for yourself.

Believe meYour affect Friend

Theresa Mort.Tell Mrs McArthur that Loni and Stanley are here now, and are very well.Tues: Afternoon 4 o’c.

Befitting the eldest son of a prominent citizen of Sydney, Frederick Montague was enrolled in and a boarder at the school in Macquarie Fields

X

conducted by the Reverend George Fairfowl MacArthur, and remained at Macquarie Fields until the time of his father’s death when the boy was fourteen years old. Frederick Montague’s formal education was about the best that his father could devise in the colony of the time. Much later, in 1890, the man was to remember the boy’s debt to his old schoolmaster and, when the Reverend George MacArthur died on 6 June 1890, Rothery was one of a group of thirty- four who jointly subscribed £12.15s. to purchase and affix a memorial plate for their old teacher in St Mark’s Church, Darling Point. Certainly this educational advantage was to stand him in good stead in coping with later vicissitudes.

Frederick John, the boy’s father, may have had much higher educational ambitions for his intelligent eldest son. He himself, the son of a Royal Navy purser who had seen action under Nelson’s direct command, had been educated at Winchester College and had been admitted to the English Bar. His legal career was interrupted when Thomas Icely, who had first visited New South Wales in 1819, had decided to settle and invest in the new colony, and had amassed a considerable fortune, married his sister Charlotte in 1830. The Icelys, Frederick, and his younger brother William Montagu, travelled to New South Wales together on the Sovereign, arriving in Sydney in February 1831. The Rothery brothers both received grants of 2,460 acres in the Carcoar district, near Orange, New South Wales, Frederick naming his grant “Cliefden Springs” , William adopting merely “Cliefden” . While William settled on and expanded his property, Frederick was more attracted by the commercial and professional world of Sydney. Frederick, moreover, was less committed to New South Wales. Two return visits to Britain in the thirties were followed by a third trip in 1841, after which Frederick remained in Britain for the next decade. Here he married Emily Chenery and in Dover, on 2 July 1845, their third child and first son, Frederick Montague, was born. The family migrated after the discovery of gold, arriving in Sydney in 1852.

Frederick John turned his attention to the commercial and mining activities of Sydney, and thus became associated with T. S. Mort and Theresa. Both families lived near Double Bay in Sydney and came to be on terms of intimate

Introduction

friendship F. J. Rothery soon became a pioneer promoter of copper deposits in the Orange district and of iron ore deposits at Mittagong. He became Chairman of Directors in the original prospectus of the Fitzroy Iron and Coal Mining Company in 1854, a token of his standing in the business community of the time. Nevertheless, his fortunes suffered a serious blow in the ill-fated Fitzroy venture, which was wound up in 1856.

Whether Frederick Montague was intended to receive higher educational training or to enter into the excitement of the commercial world of Sydney became irrelevant on Frederick John's death in 1860 and the dispersal of his six children to William Montagu Rothery and to the Icely properties. William Montagu acquired Cliefden Springs and the fifteen-year-old boy Frederick Montague went from Macquarie Fields to the Icely property, Coombing. Here he learnt the practical life of the squatting station, an apprenticeship that continued until he was eighteen. Then, signifying his now lowly station in life, he secured employment, in 1863, as book-keeper on the Queensland property of Whyenbah. According to family recollection, his promotion to manager followed shortly after.

Over the decade of F. M. Rothery’s stay at Whyenbah, Bundaleer Plains did not exist, the area being the least attractive, for pastoral purposes, in the locality. One may speculate about the care and devotion to detail that Rothery gave to the Atlas. Was it due to his artistic and drafting talent and a love of the country? Was there then, five years after his departure from Whyenbah, a sense of excitement at the changes that had occurred? Certainly, in the years 1863-73, Rothery did more than manage Whyenbah. His job took him many times over the one million acres and its surrounding areas and already he was expressing his interest in the land and his personality in sketches and verse. No sketches of this period remain. If his subsequent paintings, drawings, and etchings are indicative, one would anticipate that the earlier sketches may also have followed the strongly romantic and impressionistic representation that imbues his later artistic efforts. This romantic quality was typical of his generation. Yet it contrasts so sharply with the accurate realism of the Atlas that it deserves comment. The later impressionistic artist nevertheless

F. M. Roth cry

showed an extraordinary mastery of fine line drawing that rescues his sketches and etchings from the dominant impressionism and it is this mastery that is displayed strongly, without impressionistic overtones, in the Atlas.

There is no evidence that this mastery was acquired at Macquarie Fields. An innate capability had, by 1878, been brought to a high point by long experience in fine drawing. Painting and sketching ran in the family. Frederick John was a painter of no mean order and one portrait of his that remains has considerable merit. Further back, Nicholas Philip Rothery, ex-Royal Navy purser and father of Frederick John and William Montagu, sketched in fine line drawings and painted. The Rotherys of Cliefden possess attractive drawings and paintings of Sydney that were produced by joint family effort, sketches being made in Sydney and sent back to the old purser who completed the painting. The only direct evidence we have of conscious efforts to develop Frederick Montague’s skill is in careful reproduction of an odd sketch or two from sketches in Punch magazine copied during what appears to have been a visit back to his uncle’s property, Cliefden, during 1869-70.

During these years at Whyenbah, Rothery was also attracted to the mountainous and coastal scenery of eastern Queensland. On visits to Toowoomba he met the emigre French family Douyere, and in 1873 married the seventeen-year-old daughter Jane Elizabeth Maude Eveline Douyere. The grandson of Nelson’s purser on Blenheim was now joined to a family with roots back in the French Imperial Army of pre-Napoleon days. Rothery was now aged twenty-eight. Perhaps he felt the isolation of Whyenbah to be no place for a young wife; perhaps his new wife’s delicate health encouraged a change to a cooler climate. Within a year the young couple were in New Zealand, where Rothery was manager of a property on the Waikato River. Little appears to be known of the newly-weds over the next three years, beyond family recollections of growing respect and friendship between the young Rotherys and the Maoris.

Rothery left New Zealand after perhaps three years, almost certainly in early 1877. It was not until 2 April 1878 that his skill in drawing and his ability to reproduce fine detail was officially recognised in his appointment as

draftsman in the Queensland Department of Public Works, at a salary often shillings per day. Then and for the next ten years his official work testified to a highly developed drafting skill.

But in the meantime this skill was utilised between April 1877 and April 1878 in the production of the Atlas. Perhaps he used the association with his former station to return from New Zealand, although the ownership of the property had changed in 1874; perhaps he was waiting opportunity for official employment. At all events, the thirty-two-year-old Rothery appeared at the Bank of New South Wales in St George not merely as manager but as the manager with control over and drawing rights on his old station of Whyenbah. The scale and detail of the Atlas suggest that he did not, on this occasion, devote all his time to the duties of his office, a fact for which we may now well be grateful. Story has it that excessive love of the bottle had made his new employer more remote than merely an absentee owner normally was.

In the Atlas Rothery shows a remarkable, if not quite perfect, accuracy in surveying the large area of Bundaleer, and the block scales and proportions leave little cause for criticism. He has represented physical features in their varying character, size, and relationship with each other with great skill. Details of trees and shrubs, both in area and type of vegetation, are laid out faithfully. Improvements are shown accurately but with an extraordinary inattention to perspective. It may be that this was deliberate; certainly the representation brings the character and function of the improvements clearly to life. The result is an artist-surveyor presentation which conveys partly, as it were, an aerial view of the entire property, partly a ground level picture, and partly one with disjointed planes. The total effect is the production of an invaluable as well as attractive document from which prospective buyers of Bundaleer would have been able to go far towards a realistic and accurate assessment of its potential as a pastoral property.

There is no romanticism in this picture. Even the painting of ‘A View on Bundaleer Plains’ conveys some of the starkness, heat, and isolation that Kennedy must have felt in 1847.

Nostalgic sentiment in much later life could not completely obliterate

XU

the realistic appreciation of the young man. In 1912, in The Old Swagman,2 written and illustrated by Rothery, and dedicated to Lord Denman, he was to recall

The plain’s wild waste before him, on he wends,Where mirage cheats the thirsty traveler's sight,As distant hills, and cooling river bends,Appear in turn then vanish out o f sight.

Whether Rothery did in fact prepare the Atlas on contract for G. H. Davenport and C. B. Fisher, the holders of the blocks, is unknown. It seems improbable that they expected to receive a document of the quality that actually came into their hands.

Rothery’s appointment to the Department of Public Works in April 1878 brought a further shift in location, and for the next five years he was occupied in the drafting of plans for railway development in Northern Queensland. Here his appetite for exact and fine drawings was fully whetted and not even sketches of paling fences remained untouched by his increasing interest in minute etching work. Rothery was, by now, in a secure and comfortable appointment, though still at the lower levels of professional salaries. He was, however, acquiring some substance and, perhaps more important, a knowledge of opportunities for investment in new undeveloped lands. In July 1883 he resigned from his official position and purchased a small block of land at Emu Park near Rockhampton. This quickly turned to profit and he re-sold at considerable advantage in 1884. Then, with perhaps a little capital behind him, he was persuaded to return to official work, this time as draftsman in the Rockhampton office at a salary of £250. From this appointment he rose to be Chief Draftsman in the Public Works Department on 1 July 1885, at the substantial salary of £350 a year.

At least one book of Rothery's plans remains in the family possession. Rothery’s active mind was not concerned only with drafting work and he contributed two inventions to the general survey work of the Queensland railways. Again, in 1888, he resigned, now aged forty-three. By this time his2 W. A. Pepperday and Co., Sydney, 1913.

Introduction

financial status had greatly improved. He remained in Toowoomba for a short period where his only child, Olga, had been born in 1887. Illness afflicted the family, particularly Rothery’s wife, Jane, and the family resolved to move once again to a cooler climate, this time to Sydney.

Rothery’s experience with financial security was to turn out unfortunately brief and his hardly-won fortunes were lost with the onset of the financial crisis and particularly the difficulties besetting the Queensland National Bank. Plans for establishing a residence in Sydney were shattered. The family tried a brief experimental stay in Tasmania, when Rothery was employed as draftsman for the Tasmanian government, and here Rothery was able, for a time, to sketch and paint, and to have a painting hung in the Hobart Gallery. But the nineties were not a period of security and stability. Once again the family returned to Sydney. Rothery was able to secure a job as manager of an outback station in New South Wales. This could scarcely have been more ill-timed. Growing financial strain on western properties and severe drought not only increased the insecurity of his position; heat and drought led to severe illness for his wife and daughter, and yet again the family returned to Sydney.

Here Rothery turned to different pursuits and in February 1896 obtained an appointment as Secretary of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later to have the “ Royal” prefix). This appointment he was to hold until September 1912, during which he was active in the care of animals in Sydney. He continued some painting but etching became a more impelling interest. During World War I he became active as a cartoonist and contributed some patriotic verse to the Sydney papers. In 1915 his daughter Olga married, choosing as husband Surtees Rothery, who was not connected with the Australian Rotherys. Yet father and daughter remained close, a relationship perhaps assisted rather than hindered by Surtees’ absences in his profession as master mariner. Rothery’s increasing age and infirmity required Olga’s close care, and by 1924 he was virtually a bedridden invalid. He died on 4 August 1928 at the age of eighty-three.

THE HISTORY OF BU N DALE ER PLAINS AS A PASTORAL HOLDING

the story of bundaleer plains, as shown in this hand-painted Atlas by F. M. Rothery, is not easy to tell. Most large pastoral stations of the nineteenth century were made up of changing parcels of leasehold and their continuity was affected by different terms and dates of component leases, by resumptions and the entry of selectors or small graziers, by the intervention of financial interests, and by changing business associations. Bundaleer was no exception. Indeed the name, with the area defined in the Atlas, persisted for perhaps as few as seven years, probably during 1876-83, as describing a separate pastoral entity. But even during this period Bundaleer was carried on in close association with, perhaps as the less important adjunct of, the neighbouring property, Thurulgunnia or, as it was becoming known, Thurulgoona. In 1883 Bundaleer was formally combined with Thurulgoona as one enterprise, and though the name persisted the two properties came jointly under the name of Thurulgoona. The combination of the two yielded a very large estate of some 2,500 square miles, of which Bundaleer contributed some 1,176 square miles.

It is simpler and more meaningful to sketch what is known of the early history of the joint properties, Thurulgoona-Bundaleer. As Fig. 1 shows, the combined area stretched from the banks of the Warrego in the west to straddle Nebine Creek in the east. Excluding Tatala, which was not part of the Queensland leases, the New South Wales-Queensland boundary formed the southern border. Within this area the individual blocks of Thurulgunnia and Thurulgunnia North, East, and South were the central part of the original Thurulgunnia, or Thurulgoona, Run, while, in Bundaleer, the Bundaleer and Macclesfield blocks were the key units. The general area along and east of the Warrego was first occupied in the years 1858-65 and the Thurulgoona-Bundaleer Plains stations spread out from the old Thurulgunnia blocks. East of these blocks and in Bundaleer, settlement was delayed. In the seventies, Thurulgoona- Bundaleer was surrounded by stations and pastoralists famous in Australian pastoral history. Tyson held land along the Warrego, and Cobb and Co. in the north-west; the property of Belalie lay to the south-west.

This was not pastoral country for small men, limited capital, or narrow ambitions. Nor was it one to which developers were attracted by glowing accounts. Mitchell explored a little east of Bundaleer in 1845 and moderated his normal optimism in Tropical Australia to the sentence that “excellent grasses clothed the plains over which we passed during the past two days” . In his wake, Kennedy travelled over the actual area of Thurulgoona-Bundaleer in his return dash for water from the Warrego to the Culgoa in 1847. Starting with “ poor and badly grassed country” Kennedy fought against extreme heat, bushfires, and thirst, and could acknowledge crossing only “a wretched country”, “desolate, terrific-looking country presented itself on all sides” with “ herbless ridges of red sand bearing nothing but a few stunted iron-bark scrub, and patches of spinifex; these with a brush of poison-wood were in flames all around, adding intensity to a hot wind almost intolerable” . In the heat, Kennedy played patience waiting for his horses to recover; then, when torrential rain fell, “the steam caused by the heavy rain on the heated soil was almost sufficient to Suffocate” . The rain came down in torrents and, unable to move, Kennedy found solace in reading Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution. The artist’s “ View on Bundaleer Plains” in this Atlas has not entirely failed to conjure up Kennedy’s experience. Small wonder that after this crisis the explorers searched keenly for the first signs of their return to “civilisation” ; appropriate, too, that their first fully tangible sign was an abandoned pint pot! A third explorer, Gregory, passed to the north of the locality, but his conclusion was widely applicable and designed to restrain: describing the area between the Dawson and Warrego rivers in 1858, he saw it as

generally that of grassy forest, with ridges of dense brigalow scrub. A great portion is available for pastoral purposes, but not well-watered; and the soil being sandy, the grass would soon be destroyed if too heavily stocked.

Thurulgoona-Bundaleer were, in due course, to ignore and to vindicate Gregory’s warning on overstocking. The occupation of the stations’ blocks

xi i i

XIV

THURULGOONA-BUNDALEER PLAINS ABOUT 1878

0 1 2 3 4 5 10 15 20M I L E S

BUNDALEER IDALIANO. 3

X

CHANDOS

BUNDALEER NO. 5

BOUNDARY

- / ^ W S O U ’H " “ ^

Fig. I Bundaleer Plains from the Atlas o f Bundaleer Plains and Tatala by F. M. Rothery, dated 1878; Thurulgoona from a slightly later but undated manuscript map from Squatting Investment Company records, possibly o f 1886

Bundaleer Plains as a Pastoral Holding

illustrates a definite pattern of evolution in outback settlement. Early pioneers formed rudimentary runs. These were taken over and amalgamated into big holdings by New South Wales pastoralists with large leases elsewhere. In their turn, they were succeeded by southern developers and financiers, in this case from South Australia; and financial commitment to the area increased as South Australian funds turned away from that colony in the seventies. Increasing capital requirements drew in corporate financial support, leading to property mortgages to banks. In due course, all were supplanted by the incorporation of the Squatting Investment Company in 1882, under the stimulus of Richard Goldsbrough, the company acquiring Thurulgoona-Bundaleer in 1883.

In view of the uncertainties of pioneering, it would be rash to be categorical about who was the first occupant of these blocks. T. C. Dangar was already on the Warrego in 1861, holding estates that passed, in the sixties, to Tyson. J. W. Collip is the first recorded lessee, formally leasing Thurulgunnia and Thurulgunnia East on 1 January 1862, but he, too, had been in the area in 1861. He was joined, at the end of 1863 (23 December) by W. McKenzie leasing Thurulgunnia North; and John Rutherford applied for the lease of Thurulgunnia South (see Fig. 1) during 1863, becoming the lessee on 1 January 1864. Already, however, the shape of these pioneering enterprises was changing and big New South Wales interests were moving up in the wake of the pioneers. Perhaps the largest New South Wales holder, William Forlonge acquired Thurulgunnia and Thurulgunnia East in 1863 and here he was joined by A. Stuart and R. Towns as partners. This group obtained the lease of Thurulgunnia South from Rutherford at the end of 1865 and then added Thurulgunnia North to their holdings in 1866. At the end of the sixties, they were joined by another New South Wales identity, Charles Cowper.

This was the group responsible for the first substantial development of Thurulgunnia. Bundaleer was still ignored as a formal lease, though one can only speculate on the possible informal use of this area. Death removed Forlonge from the scene. This and the withdrawal of enterprise from South Australian pastoral expansion brought the next phase in which the Bundaleer of the Atlas took shape. Two South Australians operated closely together.

xv

G. H. Davenport, who took up much of the Bundaleer area and imported some of its South Australian block names to Queensland, had been active in Queensland pastoral activities in the sixties and even more active in Queensland law courts defending himself against charges of dummying. Davenport moved into the Warrego-Maranoa area in 1874 along with C. B. Fisher, a descendant of the elite Adelaide Fishers with whom the Davenport family had been closely associated. To Fisher fell six of the Thurulgunnia blocks and a new name, Thurulgoona. These blocks had no precise area definition and it illustrates both the uncertainties of boundaries and the attitudes of pastoralists that the “ two kings in grass castles” , Tyson and Fisher, should abrogate the rights of the Queensland government in 1875 and reach a gentlemen’s agreement on boundaries. In a document appropriately labelled “Agreement on Tyson's country” they recite:

Referring to the above Memo we hereby agree for ourselves, our heirs, executors and assigns that we and they while occupying these runs shall do so in accordance with the provisional boundaries therein described notwithstanding the absence of official recognition by the Crown Lands authorities of Queensland

(A.N.U. Business Archives 3/19).

In the process, they swapped blocks and extended boundaries to make the geographical arrangement simpler.

In the mean time, Fisher also took up, in 1874, and named for old family runs in South Australia, Bundaleer 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9 as shown in the Atlas. To these he added Idalia in 1876. On the day the Bundaleer leases were taken up, Davenport leased, and also named for his family’s South Australian pastoral properties, Macclesfield 1,2, 3, and 4. Simultaneously with Fisher’s extension to Idalia in 1876, Davenport became the lessee of Puck, Ups and Downs, and Astrakan. The main shape of Bundaleer Plains in the Atlas had emerged.

Here, then, was a joint enterprise in which the two men, with Fisher the dominant partner, held title to defined sections. Fisher retained his interest in Thurulgoona separate from Davenport, but growing capital commitments led the two men to seek private and corporate financial support. Until the latter seventies, Thurulgoona, like many early Queensland properties, had been a

XVI

cattle station, partly because of smaller capital requirements, partly because of transport difficulties, and partly because cattle physically opened up scrub country for sheep. In 1877 Thurulgoona ran a total of 5,487 cattle and 75 horses. John Hay, of Sydney, first supported Fisher and, in 1877, a debt was due to him of £32,000 on the security of Thurulgoona alone. In addition, he held mortgage rights over the adjoining Bundaleer blocks (7, 8, and 9, as shown in the Atlas) as from 1 July 1876. Davenport had found his financial support in the English, Scottish and Australian Bank for an unspecified sum and Fisher also looked to this bank in extending to Idalia.

The two South Australians sought and found larger financial support from other family connections in Adelaide when they were joined, about the time of the production of the Atlas, in 1878, by the Morphett trio, Charles Edward, James Hurtle, and Hurtle Willoughby Morphett. By 1880 the Morphetts appear to have become so deeply involved as to regard themselves as the main partners in the enterprises which, nonetheless, remained mortgaged to Hay and the E.S. and A. Bank. In 1881 debts on Thurulgoona-Bundaleer were compounded into a single mortgage to the E.S. and A. Bank for £43,954. This increase from 1877 had been accompanied by the almost complete disappearance of cattle from the runs; in their place, a total of 160,000 sheep grazed over the combined stations.

The five South Australians had acted as major developers. The transition from cattle to sheep had occasioned very large outlays and a total of some £63,000 had been laid out in fixed assets alone, £37,897 on Thurulgoona, £24,940 on Bundaleer. In the Atlas Rothery has been at some pains to display these improvements. On both runs, fencing absorbed the lion’s share, £21,526 on Thurulgoona, £16,800 on Bundaleer, even though, in New South Wales terms, this Queensland fencing produced limited paddock subdivisions. Slight though it was on New South Wales standards, it had imposed a major task and, above all, a major transport undertaking. The 375 miles of 5-7 strand wire fences on Thurulgoona incorporated 377 tons of wire; and the 300 miles on Bundaleer, at £56 per mile, required only a little less in wire tonnage transported and placed in position. Cattle could not be effectively enclosed without barbed

Introduction

wire, as Americans had found. “ Gliddon’s Barb” was not needed for sheep. But sheep grazed in very large areas required effective water supplies. Thurulgoona and Bundaleer were early to experiment with artesian wells. Nevertheless, natural rivers and creeks made it possible to rely primarily on dams, as shown in the Atlas. Water development was the second most important asset, accounting for £10,400 on Thurulgoona and £5,800 on Bundaleer. Buildings had much less significance. On Thurulgoona they had absorbed a total of £5,031 and on Bundaleer only £2,340 by 1881. On both stations the head station residence appears to have been the major item. On Thurulgoona a considerable 12-room residence had been provided, surrounded by overseer’s quarters, kitchen, two stores, a blacksmith’s shop, stables, cart sheds, harness room, and butcher’s shop. Buildings on Bundaleer were less pretentious. Nevertheless, the handsome building shown in the Atlas contained ten rooms, set adjacent to overseer’s quarters, store, office, kitchen, and huts.

One can only speculate on the reasons why the Atlas was produced. It is highly improbable, to say the least, than any of these South Australians regarded themselves as deeply committed to these back blocks; still less that they had a deep sentimental attachment to leases that had been the last to be taken up in the locality. Their purpose was to develop and sell for gain. Unfortunately, local inquiry has thrown no light on Rothery’s direct connection with Bundaleer. It seems possible that the Atlas was produced as an advertising aid, either by Fisher and Davenport to attract the financial aid of the Morphetts or by the five to dispose of the station. Some slight preference for the latter interpretation might be felt from the fact that the Atlas passed into the hands of the Squatting Investment Company in 1883. Certainly, whatever fee Rothery may have received for his considerable cartographic and indeed artistic effort, it is unlikely to have absorbed much of the handsome gain secured when the whole Thurulgoona-Bundaleer properties were sold in 1883 for £380,000.

Bundaleer itself had been a new lease, requiring no capital costs of entry. Fisher had incurred a debt for Thurulgoona of a little over £30,000. Adding this to the cost of fixed assets and excluding any possible stock losses or gains, including the initial stock purchases, it seems probable that this South Australian

Bundaleer Plains as a Pastoral Holding

THURULG OONA -BUNDALEER ACCOUNT, 1883-93

XVII

YearSheep on

station (December)

Calculated cost of

improvements by company

Woolproduced

Net wool proceeds

Workingexpenses Rent Interest

Cash balance on wool proceeds

Sheepsales

Sheeppurchases

Net cash balance

after sheep transactions

£ bales £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £

1883 286,742 14,485 3,735 53,161 15,523 1,208 295 + 36,135 4,843 40,9781884 125,589 18,520 1,787 22,173 9,899 1,287 8,632 +2,355 15,810 18,1651885 114,667 35,100 1,090 14,288 15,903 1,274 13,741 16,630 1,305 15,3251886 168,298 41,111 1,205 14,361 7,582 1,281 11,629 6,131 8,212 16,318 14,2371887 258,140 93,387 2,432 29,879 11,891 2,369 13,673 +1,946 2,751 9,619 4,9221888 222,433 99,735 3,405 50,707 13,777 2,018 11,473 + 23,439 482 1,260 + 22,6611889 261,868 105,231 2,858 37,419 20,972 2,122 14,205 + 120 1,034 — +1,154

1890 336,388 112,231 4,193 44,032 15,978 2,065 13,266 + 12,723 2,029 1,267 + 13,4851891 361,297 123,376 5,005 54,337 18,486 1,986 15,360 + 18,505 18,171 2,250 + 34,4261892 436,452 129,229 4,202 46,112 19,774 1,986 16,855 + 7,497 3,329 — + 10,8261893 368,041 134,496 3,899 49,239 16,674 1,976 19,463 + 11,126 21,088 — + 32,214

XV111

contribution to Queensland pastoral development had yielded a money capital gain in the region of £300,000 —no mean feat. With the sale to the Squatting Investment Company the properties passed into the hands of a corporate owner who held large parts of them for the succeeding sixty years. This transfer marked the recognition of two needs. First, large-scale corporate effort might be most effective in this difficult area. Second, new forms of pastoral outlets were needed for spreading Victorian financial interests. Certainly, the single-handed enterprise of C. B. Fisher had, by now, been eclipsed. This eclipse is dramatised in the note of sale, originally made out to C. B. Fisher. His name was firmly scratched out and, as a register of the controlling interests, a heavily-inked “ Morphetts” over-written.

The sale, in 1883, prescribed £50,000 cash down, £50,000 in three months, and the balance spread in six-monthly instalments during 1883-8. Behind the purchasing company’s name stood that of Richard Goldsbrough, then the outstanding single Victorian financier. The Squatting Investment Company provided the newly-formed R. Goldsbrough and Co. outlets for pastoral funds subject to direct operating control and subject also to corporate control through interlocking directorates, including Richard Goldsbrough himself.

In the next three years, the company pushed farther the pastoral transformation of the runs now described jointly as Thurulgoona. In the process, like most pastoralists of the time, it ignored and vindicated Gregory’s warning of two decades before. Already, under South Australian management, the runs were overstocked. Official judgment of their stocking capacity in 1886 set a maximum of 105,500 sheep, but already in 1881 the area ran 160,000. The dry years brought an early lesson and substantial cash deficits for the new owner. Fencing received much less attention, only about seventy additional miles being built by 1886. Water was given top priority and every effort in this direction made to sustain and enlarge carrying capacity. By 1886 an additional 300,000 cubic yards capacity, with local reticulation, had been provided, leaving only three blocks without artificial water supply.

Introduction

By the early nineties the company had succeeded in grossly overstocking the Thurulgoona-Bundaleer runs and had achieved an impressive figure over four times above the official capacity recommended in 1886. Even during this period of expansion, the financial success of the enterprise was problematical. The affairs of the station between 1883 and 1893 are summarised in the table on page xvii.

The company had invested heavily, adding £134,000 in improvements to the original purchase of £380,000, an investment achieved by a large ncrease in indebtedness and rise in interest obligations. If we omit interest payments, the return on capital outlays averages, during the eighties, less than the rate of interest on bank deposits, a little better than the return on New South Wales government bonds, the “Colonial Consols” of the day. In fact, the first year of company operations yielded its second highest year of wool income, the peak being reached in 1891. Based on wool alone, the station’s fortunes fluctuated greatly, zig-zagging between deficits of £16,630 and surpluses of £36,135. The enterprise achieved the appearance of greater financial stability by the sale of sheep. But the significance of these sales lay not merely in the addition to current income. Indeed, their main contributions showed in the final few years covered by the table, when the company was belatedly and inadequately cutting down its stocking rate. Income was then helped by asset reduction. The sales in the early nineties were, in fact, precursors to a sustained decline in sheep numbers, gradual until 1898 and then catastrophic. An all-time low was reached when numbers were slashed by drought and overstocking to a mere 63,487 in 1901. Then a new appraisal of stocking policy was undertaken, in the process of which areas were redefined and the Bundaleer Plains of the Atlas changed in structure and ownership in the first decade of the century to such an extent that it soon ceased to bear much relationship to the picture presented by Rothery in 1878. Today it is dispersed into small holdings, cut up by resumption and purchase. The pictured homestead remains as a relic of pioneering enterprise.

THE LAND

a g o o d d e a l o f t h e a t t r a c t i v e n e s s of the hand-painted maps of the Atlas undoubtedly stems from their sturdy anachronism in cartographic style. Medieval land maps, as opposed to seamen’s charts, seem to have originated as landscape sketches by eye from vantage points such as towers or hill tops. Then for a long time there was a combination of plan and profile representation in maps. In Britain this persisted longest with estate plans, most comparable with the Atlas, despite disparities of areas involved. However, by the second half of the eighteenth century, “ Everything was shown in plan with the exception of ‘seats’ and ‘churches’, which remained in ‘prospect’, probably to attract subscriptions from the squire and parson” .3 The nineteenth century saw even these exceptions disappear, and the Atlas was drawn in the heyday of planimetric accuracy when everything was plotted strictly according to its horizontal dimensions. The Ordnance Survey maps of Britain can be taken as paradigms of mapmaking for the times, and on them the only semblance of profile left was in the geometricised symbols for churches, windmills, and lighthouses and in the regular pattern of symbols used to indicate forested areas.

But Rothery reverts to an almost medieval genre in his Atlas. For the map of each run he imagined himself at a high point overlooking the run from the south and drew the scene with its woodlands, patches of scrub, and low ridges in perspective. As a result he falls into the same trap as did medieval mapmakers, squeezing features up in the assumed direction of view so they become elongated in the transverse direction. This is most evident if the dispositions of scrub and plain on either side of run boundaries are compared in the few cases where the assumed viewpoint is on the east, not on the south. Features are displaced and do not fit exactly along these boundaries as a result.

Nevertheless, the boundaries of the runs are drawn correctly in plan and the watercourses also. There are some errors but the intention is clearly exact planimetry in these matters. Rothery vacillated over the improvements. Some of the tanks and the yards or outstations are shown planimetrically, even with

3 E. Lynam, British Maps and Mapmakers (London, 1944), p. 38.

THE A T L A S

the split log fence or post-and-wire fence drawn as if laid out flat on the ground all around. Some, however, are drawn completely in perspective, whereas yet others have their shape correct and their fencing in perspective. The homestead buildings on Bundaleer No. 2 and the well with its bough shelter and horse whin in Bundaleer No. 3, though minute, are all shown with meticulous realism in perspective.

It would be interesting to know whether this reversion in style was unconscious and part of the persistence of earlier cultural traits in the colony found in other spheres such as architecture or whether Rothery adopted the method deliberately with an eye to possible purchasers who might be unfamiliar with the modern mode of mapmaking. Today the bird’s eye view is commonplace, so we can scarcely apprehend the imaginative feat it was before the days of the aeroplane to conceive of looking down vertically on the land from above.

Anachronistic though the cartographic style may be, the run plans in the Atlas have an amazing wealth of content and validity in their depiction of the character of the land. The whole of the property lies in the flat, alluvial inland plains of Australia, country which at first sight might be regarded as monotonously uniform. By chance it even misses the tabular, laterite-capped ranges, the “hard, red country” , residual patches of which are found even farther down the drainage basin towards Bourke and which jump suddenly out of the plains even though they rise only a few score feet in height. However, with skilful use of colour and evocative brushwork Rothery has depicted many types of country differing in relief (minor though the landforms may be), in soil, and in vegetation. Descriptive phrases accompany the painting here and there and act as a legend to the symbolism, which though not completely uniform throughout the Atlas is sufficiently so for the type of country to be identified over most of the property (Fig. 2). Already pastoralists had begun to realise the advantage of having different kinds of land on the one property and no doubt the careful work in the Atlas was prompted by recognition of this.

xix

Fig. 2 Terrain types, generalised from the Atlas of Bundaleer Plains and Tata/a by F. M. Rothery

BUNDALEER PLAINS1878

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A S T R A K A N

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I I B A R L E Y G R A S S A N D B L U E G R A S S F L A T S S O M E S A L T B U S H

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46

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The Land and the Atlas

The most valuable country in the estimation of the men of the time was the open grassland, and in the Atlas this is usually indicated by plain yellow wash and described as “blue grass plains” or “barley grass plains” . This corresponds with the Mitchell Grass Grassland plant association of the modern ecologist, with Mitchell grass (Astrehla lappacea), never-fail (Eragrostis setifolia), and Queensland blue grass (Dichanthium sericeum) as dominants.4 5 “ Barley grass” has been used for various grasses in eastern Australia; in the Atlas it certainly is not the exotic Hordeum, which even now does not reach to Bundaleer Plains, but is probably “barley Mitchell grass” , A. pectinata.5 These grasslands occupy the low ground liable to flooding and carry cracking and self-mulching clay soils (grey soils of heavy texture). Crabholes, or gilgais, alone interrupt the levelness of these “black soil” plains.

Closely associated with the yellow wash of the open grassland plains are the areas of scattered “box” and “coolabar” [sic], shown by distinctively shaped and light green tree symbols with the ground between coloured blue-grey or yellow. These areas correspond with the Coolibah (Eucalyptus microtheca) and Black Box (E. largiflorens) Woodland associations, nearly always found on black soil plains also. The grasses already mentioned occupy the ground between these trees, and the Atlas associates barley grass and blue grass by name with “open box flats” a number of times; saltbush is also cited as accompanying these eucalyptus woodlands.

Along a part of Widgegoarra Creek on Bundaleer No. 5, an area of “swamp” is shown by green reed symbols like those used on modern topographical maps, and a similar small area is mapped where Ningingubber Creek (now Warrambah Creek) nears Nebine Creek on Ups and Downs run. These are clearly Cane Grass (Eragrostis australasica) Swamps on more compact grey clay soils than those of the kind of black soil plain so far discussed.

It was these kinds of country, mainly along the river courses of the area —

4 J. W. James, “Erosion Survey of the Paroo-Upper Darling Region”, Part III, Journal of the Soil Conservation Service of New South Wales, vol. 16, 1960, pp. 185-206.

5 J. N. Whittet, Pastures (Farmer’s Handbook Series, Department of Agriculture of New South Wales,Sydney, n.d.). We are indebted to Dr D. McVean and to Dr T. M. Perry for this information.

XXI

the Balonne, the Warrego, and their anabranches —which first attracted pastoralists to this part of Australia.6 The Atlas shows that Bundaleer Plains included less than 50 per cent of its area in black soil plain; this helps to explain why these parts were taken up a good many years later than the land to either side.

The rest of the property comprises “soft, red country” in modern parlance, and the surface colours in the Atlas here are appropriately red-brown or brown, with several kinds of vegetation and minor landform distinguished. Most extensive of these are the areas of “Scrub” and “Scrubby ridges” , nearly always covered with densely packed, blue-green or purplish-blue bushes. Particular patches are named “ Gidya” and “ Brigalow” and the purplish-blue colour seems to belong to Brigalow only. These areas comprise the Gidgee (Acacia camhagei), Brigalow (A. harpophylla), and Gidgee-Belah (Casuarina stricto) associations of dry forest formation recognised today by ecologists in this area. They occur chiefly on the solonised brown soils and red-brown earths of slightly higher country not so subject to floods as the black soil plains. James suggests that this country may be developed on older alluvium than the black soil plains and on blanketing spreads of fine-grained, wind-blown deposits or “parna” .7 Small aeolian sandhills with brown soils of light texture also carry these vegetation types, as is clear from the Atlas drafting. These acacia scrubs are not everywhere in continuous compact areas but in parts enclose numerous “Small plains” left white, often with “Old man saltbush” designated on them. This also conforms in broad terms to modern ecological description, though other species also contribute to the natural pastures of modest nutritive value provided by these vegetation associations.

The Atlas also distinguishes “ Mulga ridges” with light blue-grey foliage and more open stand than the gidgee and brigalow scrub. The additional tag of “ rich herbage” accompanies one such area, probably woolly butt pasture. In all the mulga areas short sandridges are shown running from west to east,

6 R. L. Heathcote, Back o f Bourke (Melbourne, 1965).7 “Erosion Survey of the Paroo-Upper Darling R.egion”, Part I, Journal o f the Soil Conservation Service

o f New South Wales, vol. 15, 1959, pp. 315-25.

XXII

though this trend may be a product of the perspective mapping. This type of country comprises the Mulga (A. aneura) and Belah-Mulga Woodland associations recognised today, and they occur chiefly on landforms due to former aeolian activity and with brown soils of light texture.

The most prominent sandhills depicted in the Atlas are coloured red-brown, carry dark-green, needle-leaved trees, and are labelled “ Pine ridges” . Though a few are found amid black soil plains, they are chiefly associated with acacia scrubland. These areas are White Pine (Callitrisglauca) Woodlands with brown soils of light texture; with an important exception to be mentioned later, they consist of wind-blown sand dunes now fixed.

The Atlas lists the extent of “available” and “unavailable” land in the different runs separately on the individual plans and gathered into a table at the beginning. Rentals were levied on the available land only, which generally amounted to about 50 per cent. There can be little doubt but that the dense acacia scrubs and the sandy higher country lacking surface water constituted the “unavailable” half. The distribution of camps and stations on Bundaleer Plains reveals that the lands in most use were the grasslands, the box and coolibah woodlands along the Widgegoarra Creek and in a belt lying between that creek and Ningingubber Creek traversed by the Cunnamulla-Culgoa travelling stock route. The tanks and wells made to supplement the natural waterholes and lakes had nearly all been dug in the latter belt.

However, the “soft, red country” with its more pervious soils and often denser cover had already proved its usefulness for standby feed in times of drought —elsewhere in the Warrego country, if not on Bundaleer Plains, which had only been leased during the good years of the seventies. The lighter country also responds more quickly with growth when rains break a drought and the higher sandhills provide refuges for stock in times of flood. So a scatter of black soil plains amongst red country came to be appreciated, especially later when subdivision took place. Shortly after the Atlas was devised, artesian bores reduced one of the disadvantages of the sandier red country, namely lack of water, but its native pastures were fundamentally less rich and rents remained only about half those on the black soils.8

Introduction

The pioneer needs an “eye for country” , and it is clear that the pastoralists in the Warrego country as elsewhere in Australia had early acquired a practical capacity to evaluate the potential of the different units in the landscape. However, this matching comparison of the Atlas with modern scientific appraisal suggests, perhaps, that for its time it gives an exceptionally good representation of the make-up of part of the inland plains.

The limitations of this early appreciation of land character can, nevertheless, be brought home by reference to the most remarkable landform portrayed on the run plans of the Atlas. This is the high, broad pine ridge which extends from where it enters the northern boundary of the property on Macclesfield No. 4 through Macclesfield Nos. 1 and 2, and then across Bundaleer No. 1 into the northern part of Idalia where it digitates into four prongs and dies out. Its length within the Bundaleer Plains property is some thirty-six miles and its width is one mile or more (Fig. 2). To anyone familiar with recent work on the landforms and soils of the Riverine Plain, this feature is recognisable immediately as a prior-stream course;9 some of these end in digitate inland deltas as does this on Bundaleer Plains. Field work confirms that here we have the channel and levees of a “prior-Warrego” river, probably of Pleistocene age.

There is still debate on what difference in climate from today’s is implied by the prior streams, but it is clear that the deposition of this great sandridge in this part of the inland plains requires a river of greater peak discharge than the present Warrego to the west, which is no longer building such sand levees in this part of the plains. In times of flood the Warrego still branches over a wide area to feed a number of distributaries such as Thurulgunnia, Noorama, Widgegoarra, and possibly Warrambah creeks. Rarely do these divergent streams reach the Culgoa and flow through to the Darling, however; they flow over black soil plains to which they add little sediment.

8 Heathcote, op. cit.

9 B. E. Butler, “ A Theory of Prior Streams as a Causal Factor of Soil Occurrence in the Riverine Plain of South-eastern Australia” , Australian Journal o f Agricultural Research, vol. I, 1950, pp. 231-52; and T. Langford-Smith, “The Dead River Systems of the Murrumbidgee”, Geographical Review, vol. 50, 1950, pp. 368-89.

The Lund and the Atlas

In these respects the Warrego country closely resembles the Murray- Murrumbidgee Plains. On these Plains it has been recognised that the geographical distribution of the different soils depends on the pattern of prior streams, rather than on that of present streams, which merely flow through or are incised into the black soil plains. The latter are indeed the backplains of the former rivers, which deposited fine-grained overbank sediments in these depressed areas between their distributary levee systems. Such an understanding of the genesis of the mosaic of land types within the Riverine Plain makes for more rapid and effective soil mapping; soil salinities, important in relation to planning irrigated land use, have also been shown to be related to the prior stream patterns. The mapping of prior streams from air photographs has also

XXlll

proved valuable in this stoneless country for the location of gravel for road metal. Moreover, shallow groundwater (as opposed to artesian water) moves out into the plain beneath these prior stream levees, which overlie deep channels filled with sand and gravel, so mapping the prior streams helps in the investigation of water resources.

Geomorphological and palaeohydrological studies of a similar nature in the Warrego country are also likely to have a practical value there, promoting more informed land use. Nevertheless, our greater scientific understanding of such country should not diminish our respect for the powers of observation of the pioneers who quickly seized on so many of the attributes of the new lands they were entering.

A N O T E ON T H E E D I T I N G OF T H E A T L A S

rothery’s Atlas o f Bundaleer Plains and Tatala is a large volume measuring \6l2" x 13" in which each map, accompanied by a handwritten description of the area, occupies an entire page.

In this volume, to preserve the artist’s fine lettering and delicate brushwork, each map is reproduced in the same size as in the original, but its description has been transferred to the facing page. The position of the accompanying compass rose has also been altered when to have left the rose as originally disposed would have necessitated reduction in the size of the map.

Below the descriptions from the Atlas we have included entries from a closely allied but undated document from the records of the Squatting Investment Company. This schedule and valuation of improvements probably dates from 1886 and was consequent on the 1884-5 Land Act. The picture that emerges from the maps and their related assessment shows the increasing availability of the runs and the improvements —mainly new tanks and wells that were responsible. Where there is no simple relationship between map and assessment

for example in Astrakan and Kieta, because of boundary changes between 1878 and 1886 no close comparisons are possible. The remainder of the schedule, which relates to Thurulgoona, the mother station from which Bundaleer Plains cannot be dissociated historically, is printed at the end of the volume.

Throughout the Atlas, descriptions and assessments, capitalisation, spelling, and punctuation are as in the originals; in the Introduction it was only the obduracy of our publishers that seduced us from the charm of Astracan or the several variants of Thurulgoona to standardised versions, including (except in quotations) those specified by CSIRO for common and botanical plant names.10

10 CSIRO Bull. No. 272. Standardized Plant Names (Melbourne, 1953).

X X I V

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T A T AS H O W I N G THE R U N S

OF MESS- DAVEN PORT AND FISHER IN MARANOA DISTRICT QUEENSLAND

ANDWARAGO DISTRICT N.S.WALES

1878

I N D E X

TO B UN DAL E E R & TATALA RUNS

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P la n o f B u n d a le e r & T a ta la — — 9

“ M accles fie ld ” N ° 1....................................... £ 1 1 . 5 45 45 90 57600 10

D it to — N ° 2 ........................................ 8 .1 5 . 35 35 70 44800 12

D it to :— N ° 3 ........................................ 11. 5 45 45 90 57600 14

D itto .— N " 4 ....................................... 6 . 5 30 30 60 38400 16

“ B u n d a le e r” N ° 1............................................ 1 2 .1 0 50 50 100 64000 18

D itto .— N" 2 ............................................ 10. 0 40 40 80 51200 20

View on B unda leer B lum s — — 23

D itto .— N ° 3 ............................................ 1 2 .1 0 50 50 100 64000 24

D itto .— N ° 5 ............................................ 10. 40 40 80 51200 26

D itto .— N ° 7 ............................................ 65 25 25 50 32000 28

D itto .— N ° 8 ............................................ 65 25 25 50 32000 30D itto .— N ° 9 ............................................ 65 25 25 50 32000 32

“ A s tra c a n ” .......................................................... £ 1 0 . 40 39 79 50560 34

“ U p s a n d D o w n s .” ........................................ 12. 10 50 50 100 64000 36

“ C h a n d o s ” ......................................................... 7 .1 0 30 30 60 38400 38“ Id a lia ” ................................................................. 8 .1 5 35 30 65 41600 40“ P u c k ” ................................................................. 10. 0 40 40 80 51200 42

“ K ic ta ” ................................................................. 42 30 72 46080 44

“ T a la ” ................................................................... 60 22 82 . 52480 46

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Macclesfield N° 2.10. S. Miles

Commencing at the S.E. corner of ''Macclesfield N°. I ”. Run, thence W. 14. miles along the S. boundary o f said Run, thence S. 5. mites, thence E. 14. miles, thence 5 miles to point o f commencement.

Available a r e a ...................35 S MUnavailable ,, ..................35

Total area...................... 70

License Date............................................14: Oct: 1874.License N°. 5 7.District of Maranoa Queensland License granted to G.H. Davenport.

Jimmy Browns Tank........................................ 2030 Yds.

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a v a i l a b le C o u n t r yI m p r o v e m e n t s C a p a b i l i t i e s

D e s c r ip t i o n o f C o u n t r y W a te rper

s q u a r emile

p e r b lo ck D e s c r ip t io n R a te V a lu ep e r

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M acc le s f i e ld No . 2 62i 56 61 1 6 8 74 13 4 33 miles 5 wi re F e n c e £40 1320S h e e p

160S h e e p

8960 O p e n M it che ll & Blue g ras s P la in s W a t e r e d by T a n k s a n d Well . T h e r e51 „ . 7 „ „O u t s t a t i o n H u t 2 r o o m s

T a n k 1200 c u b ic y a rd s 1 \ miles 6 wi re F e n c e

T a n k 2000 c u b ic y a r d s Well t im b e r s u p p ly T a n k W h in P u m p

& T r o u g h i n g — T h i s Well h as a specia l va lu e as it is the o n ly Well where g o o d S to c k w a t e r h a s been f o u n d o n th e S t a t i o n .

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o p e n C o o l i b a h F la ts , C l u m p s & be lt s o f D i lg ah , M u lg a h , h eav y Pine S a n d -h il ls , S a n d a l w o o d a n d B r ig a lo w

are g o o d facil i t ie s fo r c o n s e r v i n g w a te r by T a n k s N o t a n y n a tu r a l w a te r - h o le s to last m o re t h a n th re e m o n th s .

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Macclesfield N° 3.90. S. Miles

Commencing at the boundary o f “Boanbirra ” Run N° 2. thence W. 10. miles; to Macclesfield N°. 1. thence 9. miles to S. corner o f Macclesfield Run No?. 2. thence E. for 10. miles; to the S. W. corner o f Boanbirra Run N? 2. and from thence 9 miles N. to point o f commencement.

Available a r e a .................. 45. S M.Unavailable ,, ..................45

Total area ......................90

License Date............................................ 14: O ct: 1874.License N? 58District, Maranoa Queensland.License granted to G.H. Davenport.

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M acc le sfie ld N o 3 90 80 10 1 5 . 100 . . 28 m iles 5 w ire F en ce £40 1120 150 I 12,000 B ro k e n P la in s , C lu m p s & b e lts o f W a te re d by T a n k s & D a m s . T h e re3 6 .. £45 135 G id y a h , M u lg a h , P ine , B rig alo w a re g o o d fac ilit ie s fo r c o n s e rv in g

O u ts ta t io n h o u se 4 ro o m s 165 . . a n d S a n d a lw o o d w ith o p e n W a te r by T a n k s , N o t a n y n a tu ra lK itc h e n w ith 2 ro o m s 80 . . C o o l ib a h F la ts W a te rh o le s .T a n k 2000 c u b ic y a rd s 1/3 125 . .

d o 20000 .. 1/3 1250 . .1/3 75 . .

D ra f t in g Y a rd s 100 . .

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Macclesfield N°. 4.60. S. Miles

Commencing at the N.IV. corner o f “Glen Tate’’ Run thence W. 6. miles, thence S. 10 miles to the N. W. boundary o f “Macclesfield’’ Run N°. 1. thence 6 miles along the E. boundary o f said Run, thence 10. miles North to point o f commencement.

A vailable a r e a .................. 30 S.MUnavailable ,, ..................30

Total area ......................60

License D ate ............................................ 14: Oct: 1874.License N°. 62.District o f Maranoa Queensland License granted to G.H. Davenport.

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M acc le sfie ld N o . 4 14 14 - 1 3 4 16 16 8 N ilS h e e p

140S h e e p

1960 S m all P la in s M itch e ll g ra s s C o t to n a n d S a ltb u s h o p e n C o o l ib a h a n d B rig a lo w fla ts b e lts o f G id y a h , M u lg a h , B ox a n d sm a ll S c ru b

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B u n d a l e e r N ° 1 .

100 . S . M ile sC o m m e n c in g a t th e S . b o u n d a r y o f “M a c c le s f ie ld " N°. 3. R u n th e n c e W es t 10 m ile s , th e n c e S . 10. m ile s , th e n c e E . 10. m ile s , th e n c e N . 10 m ile s to th e p o in t o f c o m m e n c e m e n t.

A va ila b /e a re a . . . . U n a v a ila b le ..................

T o ta l a r e a .................

............. 5 0 S . M

............. 5 0 ,,

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L ic e n se D a t e ...............................................................L ic e n se N°. 59 .D is tr ic t o f M a ra n o a Q u e e n s la n d L ic e n se g r a n te d to C .B . F ish er

. . . 1 4 : O c t 1874

C a w e ll T a n k ............................................................D r a in s ...............................................................................Y e w ilc o o n a ..................................................................D u g a n d in d i ..................................................................

..................... 5 5 7 2 . Yds

......................1 2 00 . Y ds

..................... 2 3 8 0 . r 7*

..................... 5 3 5 9 . Y ds

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@B u n d a l e e r N o . 1 100 80 20 1 1 8 86 . . T a n k 23 ,000 c u b ic y a r d s 1/3 1437 10 . 130 10,400 B r o k e n sm a l l p la in s w i th th ick be lts W a t e r e d b y T a n k s . T h e r e is n o t a n y

d o 15,000 „ 1/3 937 10 . o f G i d y a h . M u lg a h , B r ig a lo w a n d n a tu r a l w a t e r o n the b lo c k t h a t willd o 20 ,000 „ 1/3 1250 . . S m a l l S c r u b S a n d y p ine ridges & last o v e r t h r e e o r f o u r m o n th s . T h e r ed o 2,000 „ 1/3 125 . . C o o l ib a h flats p o o r c o u n t r y a re s o m e f o u r c a tc h e s fo r T a n k s .

Well no t c o m p l e t e d o n N o r t h b o u n d a r y

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20

B unda leer N ° 2 .80. S.M

Commeneing at S. W. boundary o f Bundaleer N”. 1, run tlienee running 8 miles Available area . . . . ...........40. S.M License Date ............................................. . . . .14: Oct: 1874.W. and tlienee 10 miles in a N. direction, and tlienee E. 8 miles, and thence S. Unavailable ,, . . . . ...........40 ,, License N°. 60.10. miles to point o f commencement.

Total area ............. ...........80 S.MDistrict o f Maranoa License granted to C.B. Fisher

Jimmy Brown Tank.........................................................2030 YlfHome Tank (with drains) ....................................27000 ,,Ear oka Tank ..................................................................... 6135 ,,Drains......................................................................................1600 ,,House Reservor...................................................................106 ,,

Name of Run

Bundaleer No. 2

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Commissioners Estimate of fair Rental for available Country

Improvements Capabilities

per persquare per block Description Rate Value square per block

mile mile

Sheep Sheep1 5 . 100 . . Home Station with good house 10 750 . . 1 50 12,000

rooms well finishedQuarters Store & Office 50 . .Kitchen & Outbuildings 350 . .Yards 50 . . ̂mile 2 rail Fence (a 60 . .

ta n k 2000 cubic yards 1/3 125 . .Well & Whin 30 . .Two horse Paddocks 10 miles 6 Wire

Fence £40 400 .36 miles 5 Wire Fence £35 1260 . .New Woolshed, Yards. Huts. Tanks,

& Horse Paddock 2,500 . .Tank 11000 yards 1/3 687 10 .

do 2000 yards 1/3 125 . .2 1 anks 6000 yards 1/3 375 . .Well 220 ft. Supply Tank & I roughing 350 . .Old Woolshed Huts & Yards 100 . .

Description of Country

Open Mitchell Grass, Cotton, butt bush plains with open Coolibah flats, thick belts of Gidyah, Mulgah, Pine, Brigalow, and small Scrub distributed all over the block.

Water

Watered by Tanks and Well. Not any natural water to last over three months. There arc good catches for Tanks.

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24

“ Bundaleer ” N° 3.100. S. Miles

Commencing at S. boundary o f Bundaleer N°. 1 Run thence running 10. miles W. and thence 10 miles in a S. direction; thence 10 miles E. thence 10 miles N. to point o f commencement.

Available a r e a ...................50 S.M.Unavailable .......................50

Total area .................... 100

License Date............................................14: Oct: 1874.License N°. 61.District o f Maranoa Queensland.License granted to C.B. Fisher.

W e ll ................................................................... 270 FeetRed T a n k ...........................................................4500 Yds.

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B u n d a le e r N o . 3 (p a r t .) 80 60 16 1 1 8 65 . . 22 m iles 5 W ire F en ce £ 3 7 .1 0 / . 825 . .S h e e p

130S h e e p7,800 M itc h e ll g rass C o t to n & S a lt b u sh W a te re d b y T a n k s & D a m s. T h e re is

B u n d a le e r N o . 3 ( re m a in d e r) 20 16 4 1 1 8 21 13 14

T a n k 10.000 c u b ic y a rd s(«1/3 625 . .

130 2,600

p la in s o p e n C o o l ib a h fla ts b e lts a n d C lu m p s o f th ic k G id y a h , P ine , M u lg a h B rig a lo w a n d sm a ll S c ru b .

n o n a tu ra l w a te r th a t la s ts o v e r th re e m o n th s . T h e W id g e e g o a ra C re e k p asses th ro u g h th e b lo ck b u t is o f l it tle v a lu e .

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Bun da leer N?. 5.80. S. Miles.

Commencing at the S.E. corner o f “Bandoleer” Run N°. 3. thence running W. Available a r e a ................. 40.S.M9. miles; thence Southerly direction for 10. miles; thence running E. fo r 7 ; Unavailable ,, ................. 40miles, and thence 10 miles N. to point o f starting.

Total area .....................80

License Date............................................15: O ct: 1874.License N°. 63.District o f Maranoa Queensland License granted to C. B. Fisher

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B u n d a l c e r N o . 5 7 6 1 /4 6 6 1 0 1 /4 1 1 8 71 10 . 12 m ile s n e w 6 W ir e F e n c e £ 4 8 5 7 6 130 8 5 8 0 S m a ll p l a in s , o p e n C o o l ib a h N il . T h e r e a r c s o m e g o o d C a n e g r a s s

T a n k 1 6 0 0 y a r d s@1/3 100

th ic k b e l t s o l G i d y a h , P in e B r ig a lo w & s m a l l S c r u b s c a t t e r e d a ll o v e r th e b lo c k .

S w a m p s , g o o d c a t c h e s f o r T a n k s b u t I w o u ld n o t c o n s id e r t h e f a c i l i t ie s f o r c o n s e r v i n g W a te r g o o d .

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Bundaleer N° 7.50. S Miles

Commencing at the N. W. corner o f Bundaleer N° 2 Run and hounded thence on the North hv a W. line 5. miles; thence on the West by a S. line 10 miles, thence on the S. by an E. line 5 miles and thence on the East by the W. boundary of Bundaleer N° 2 Run N. 10. miles to point o f commencement.

Available a r e a ................... 25 S.MUnavailable ....................... 25

Total area ....................... 50 S.M

License D a te ............................................ 15. Oct: 1874.License N°. 65.District of Maranoa License granted to C.B. Lisher

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B u n d a l e e r N o . 7 50 4 5 5 1 6 8 6 0 T a n k 1600 c u b ic y a r d s d o 1200 „

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1 /3 1 0 0 0 . .1 /3 75 . .£ 5 0 3 5 0 . .£ 4 5 9 0 . .£ 4 0 2 0 0 . .

S h e e p160

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f la t s , w i th b e l t s o f G i d y a h .M u lg a h P in e , a n d B r ig a lo w .S m a l l S c r u b .

W a te r e d b y T a n k s . T h e W id g e e g o a r a C r e e k p a s s e s t h r o u g h th e b lo c k b u t it is a f la t s h a l l o w W a te r c o u r s e t h a t s e ld o m r u n s .

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B u n d a leer N?. 8.50 . S .M

C om m encing, a t th e N .E . co rn e r o f B u n d a leer N°. 3 . R un, a n d h o u n d ed th en ce A va ila b /e a re a . . . . ...................2 5 S . M . L ic e n se D a t e ................................................................................. . . . . 1 5 : O c t 1874on th e N . b y th e S . h o u n d a ry o f B u n d a leer N°. 7 R un. W es t 5 m ile s , T h en ce on U n a v a i la b l e ........................ ...................2 5 ,, L icen se N°. 69 .th e W. b y a S . lin e 10. m ile s , on th e S . b y an E , lin e 5 . m ile s to th e S. W corn er o f B u n d a leer N°. 3 Run a n d th en ce on th e E. b y th e W. b o u n d a ry o f th a t run T o ta l a r e a ....................... ...................5 0 S .M

D is tr ic t o f M a ra n o a L ic e n se g r a n te d to C. B. F isher.

b e a r in g N . 10 m ile s to th e p o in t o f co m m e n c e m e n t

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N i l . T h e r e a r e s o m e g o o d c a t c h e s f o r T a n k s . T h e r e i s a W e l l a b o u t 7 0 f t . d e e p b u t t h e w a t e r i s S a l t . T h e L e s s e e s a r c n o w b o r i n g f o r w a t e r w i t h C a l i f o r n i a O i l b o r e r

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B u n d a leer N°. 950. S M .

C o m m en c in g a t th e N . W . corner o f B undaleer N°. 5 R un a n d h o u n d ed thence on the N . b y p a r ts o f the S . boundaries o f B unda leer N°. 3 a n d N° 8. runs, bearing W. 5 m iles, thence on th e [Vest b y a S . line 10 m iles, thence on the S. by an E. line 5 m : to the S . W . corner o f B unda leer N°. 5, a n d th en ce on th e E. b y th e W. b o u n d a ry o f th a t run bearing N . 10 m ile s to the p o in t o f co m m en cem en t.

A vail able area . . . . U navailable ....................

T o ta l area ...................

................ 2 5 S .M .

................ 25 ,,

................ 50 ,,

L icense D a te ....................................................L icen se N°. 70.D istr ic t o f M a ra n o a L icen se g ra n te d to C .B . F isher

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