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We duly reached Sydney in August, 1886, and after spending a week there, I sailed for Rockhampton, and proceeded to Peak Downs Station, which my brother-in-law, Edmund Casey, was then managing for the Messrs. Fairbairn. I found he had broken in to harness for me two Arab ponies which would trot their 12 miles an hour.
Landsborough, its leader, was conveyed in the Victoria steamer to the gulf, and followed the Albert almost to its source, in hopes that Burke and Wills might be dwelling with the natives on that stream. Walker was sent to cross from Rockhampton to the Gulf of Carpentaria; he succeeded in reaching the Flinders River, where Burke and Wills had been; but, of course, he saw nothing of them.
They were apparently oblivious to the fact that the coast line north from Brisbane trended in a north-westerly direction, and owing to this trend Winton was 185 miles nearer Townsville than Rockhampton. The Minister for Railways accepted the majority report, proposed the building of this section, and then followed an acrimonious debate, which resulted in an all-night sitting.
In about six months after the first order was given, the whole 14 teams with the Rockhampton and Townsville goods arrived on the same day at Winton, and I was called upon to pay £2,000 cash down for carriage alone; while our summer goods arrived in the middle of winter. Fortunately we were able to meet our liabilities. In 1882, we had a visit and the first from a clergyman of any denomination.
Some, however, in the extremity of the famine, had selected portions of the fertile land on the banks of the river, and had begun to cultivate them as farms. They were pleased with the district, and, having settled down on their land, founded what is now the thriving city of Rockhampton. A great amount of success, however, attended a subsequent effort in 1867.
One visitor who had arrived from Rockhampton the previous day, was found wandering in the vicinity of the big dam, where he said he was enjoying the salt ozone. The country won the match easily, but I think they took advantage of the town. This will be understood from the fact that a dozen bottles of whisky, and a two-gallon jar of the same medicine were brought on the ground for refreshments.
Here they transhipped into a German vessel that took then via Hong-kong, Manila, New Guinea, Rockhampton, and Brisbane, to Sydney. There the animals were inoculated for the N'th time and a good deal of palaver indulged in before they were again shifted to the Lyttelton steamer.
I submitted the letter to Nelson, who then laughed, and said he had gone into the whole question, and found that McIlwraith had pledged himself. It appeared that Byrnes was in his confidence, and "looking at it again," Nelson said, "it is a good policy in western interests, but what a howl there will be in Rockhampton."
He was a Lascar, a Kharva from Bulsar, familiar with every port between Rockhampton and London, who had risen to the rank of sarang on the British India boats, but wearying of routine musters and clean clothes, had thrown up the service and gone inland, where men of his calibre were sure of employment.
Another Queensland expedition, under Mr. Walker, left the furthest out station, in the Rockhampton district, to proceed overland to the Gulf, and from South Australia, started M'Kinlay.
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