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Updated: May 24, 2025
"Well, and it was where Till runs into Tweed leastways, a bit up the Till. Do you know John McIlwraith's lad yon youngster that they've had such a bother with about the school always running away to his play, and stopping out at nights, and the like there was the question of sending him to a reformatory, you'll remember?
When I saw Nelson after the meeting, he disclaimed all knowledge of McIlwraith's promise as regards the Winton line, and looking at a map from Townsville out, said the line would be nothing but a "dog-leg business."
It was unfortunate that the most bitter opponents of McIlwraith's scheme were of the squatting class, who generally resented the cutting up of the vast areas held by them. Had the squatters of the day not defeated his proposals, the grazing-farm system would probably have come into existence some years earlier than it did, and long ago the Gulf country would have had an overland railway.
It is likely that McIlwraith could see farther into the future and dream dreams unthought of by others. The publication of McIlwraith's scheme without doubt gave the hint to Dutton, whose Land Act of 1884 was the inception of our present system of grazing farms.
McIlwraith's argument was that Queensland was heavily taxed for the construction and maintenance of these lines; that this Colony was also incurring excessive expenditure for administrative purposes, and if the pastoralists would not give Queensland the necessary revenue towards these services, it should be forced from them. The bill provoked heated arguments from McIlwraith's supporters.
However, in spite of all, the line eventually reached Winton, but that was the only part of McIlwraith's scheme which became finalised, which I think is a matter to be regretted. In later years a scheme was adopted which put Sydney as near to the Gulf Territory of Queensland as Brisbane, and which, if carried out, will make the first-mentioned the Port of Western Queensland.
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