By Lynley A. Wallis and Heather Burke

The Gregory North pastoral district (named after NSW Surveyor General Augustus Charles Gregory) is located in southwest Queensland. It features two north-south running rivers: the Georgina in the west and the Diamantina in the east, both of which eventually feed into Lake Eyre to the south.

Like the Gregory South district, the lands of Gregory North are subject to the boom and bust cycle facilitated by the occasional mass flooding of its major rivers and tributaries, the aftereffects of which include the short-term establishment of extensive pastures that are ideal for fattening stock. The greater number of permanent waterholes and improved soils also meant that this region was more attractive to pastoralists than Gregory South, and thus attracted more attention from those seeking land on which to make or increase their fortunes. Although not gazetted util 1873, Europeans and their stock had penetrated Gregory North more than a decade earlier: Edward William Lamb, the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, had speculated that in 1861 nearly 30,000 cattle, over 402,000 sheep and more than 2,000 horses were present above the 24^th parallel of latitude, which, along with the Burke Pastoral District (to the north), took in the upper two thirds of Gregory North. By 1864 he estimated that these numbers had tripled for cattle and increased nearly seven-fold for sheep (Lamb 1865–1866:326).

There are few towns in Gregory North, principally Winton in the far east of the district, and Boulia and Urandangi in the central west; of these, the latter is almost a ghost town today.

White Exploration

Captain Charles Sturt was the first White man to cross the stony country between the Cooper and the Diamantina Rivers in September 1845, including naming ‘Eyre’s Creek’ (comprising the combined channels of the Georgina and Mulligan Rivers), after his friend and co-explorer Edward John Eyre (Pearson 1940:111).

Nearly two decades later the intrepid Burke and Wills travelled through the heart of the Gregory North district, both along the Diamantina River and then the Burke River on their 1861 northward route and then again — substantially the worse the wear — on their southward route in early 1862. McKinlay (1861-62) also travelled along the Diamantina in his subsequent search for Burke and Wills, following more closely the river than had Burke and Wills. His favourable reports of much the country (including that to the north in what was to be declared the Burke District) were a key driver in encouraging the movement of pastoralists into western Queensland.

Duncan McIntyre was a Scottish pastoralist turned explorer who also spent considerable time in the Gregory North district. Initially, he and his brother set out from the south looking to take up new land, but being thwarted for five months awaiting a stock permit, while waiting he came across a tree blazed ‘L’, sparking his interest in the missing explorer Ludwig Leichardt (Gibbney 1974). Leaving his brother to take up a station (Dalgonally) in the Burke District, he returned to Melbourne, raised funds and returned in 1865 seeking signs of Leichhardt. Falling ill from fever during his explorations, he died in 1866 not having achieved his aim.

William Henry Cornish undertook a trigonometrical survey in 1880 (from the south headed north) up the Mulligan River and Sylvester Creek, extending across the southwest corner of Gregory North and up the Georgina River from waterhole to waterhole and calling at all the stations being newly formed thereon at the time. During his travels he saw plenty of Aboriginal people, but seemingly had no violent encounters with them.

Key Pastoralists and Stations

The first runs in Gregory North were taken up from the mid-1860s, initially focused on the Diamantina River in the east, before expanding to the Georgina River in the west.

Buckingham Downs was taken up by Alexander Kennedy[1], a Scottish settler, in 1866. Kennedy was alleged to have been involved in reprisal killings of Aboriginal people after the deaths of stockmen at Wonomo waterhole — one of the key events in the district and setting the tone for interactions in the following decades. Buckingham Downs was sold in 1878 to Fitzpatrick de Burgh Persse — who, incidentally, was David Thompson Seymour’s (Commissioner of Police) cousin (Richards 2005:136) — which he then sold on to John Costello, another prominent pastoralist in the region. By that time Persse was already also the owner of Connemara (on Farrer’s Creek), where several stockmen were killed in 1877 by Aboriginal people.

Davenport Downs was first taken up by John Costello in the late 1860s (also said to be Messrs Cobb and Co’s property), and acquired later that decade by James Rutherford who then held it for about half a century.

Carrandotta, on the Georgina River, was purchased and stocked in 1884 by a syndicate (known as the Carrandotta Pastoral Company), of whom Oscar de Satge was a key member; this was another property acquired by Sir Sidney Kidman in the early 1900s.

By 1876 Cork, on the Diamantina, had been taken up by Thomas McIlwraith and Joseph Smyth (McIlwraith’s long-term managing partner) (possibly with another man whose surname was Williams). McIlwraith and Co. also took up Ayrshire Downs, to the northwest of Winton.

Clunie was a large station owned initially by James Machattie (and later by Duncan MacGregor). Machattie was particularly interesting in terms of his relationship with Aboriginal people and his desire for an NMP presence in the District: he recognised that Aboriginal people were being treated abominably by some elements of the White community, which he feared would spur them to take their revenge:

Their mission should be not to hunt down the poor wretches, but to protect them, as well as to punish when necessary, as in cases of murder and cattle-stealing.  Hardly a month passes but the same old weary story of crime occurs; cowards armed with firearms going into camps and forcibly taking their women from the defenceless wretches. I have heard of two cases of this kind within the last week. How long the blacks will submit to this kind of thing, God knows; but they will take a bloody revenge some day, and innocent men of course will suffer. (Queenslander, 11 December 1880, p754)

Currawilla (taken from the Aboriginal name for the waterhole on what was to become known as Farrer’s Creek) was originally taken up some time prior to 1878 by brothers Jack (or John) and Robert Farrer, and was then sold to John Cherry Cotton. Cotton then sold the property to Messrs Martin and Johnson in 1881. Jack Farrer went on to manage Lake Nash for John Costello as the station’s second manager, the first having been Tom Holmes (Pearson 1940:116).

Elderslie, at the junction of Middleton Creek and the Diamantina River, was taken up in 1873 by Samuel (or William) Forsayth, at which time it was known as Doveridge. In 1875 it was transferred to Donald Smith Wallace, who added to the holding and bestowed upon it the name Elderslie, and then in 1879 it was purchased by Sir Samuel Wilson, though the latter never lived at the area, spending most of his time in Victoria.

Glengyle was taken up by Alexander Campbell and Duncan MacGregor in 1876, with the pair also taking up neighbouring Carcory (in Gregory South) in 1879 (Sydney Mail, 3 January 1934, p4). Duncan had previously been a station manager for Duncan McRae, but after marrying McRae’ daughter came into sufficient money to become a station owner. He held Glengyle for the next two decades (Pearson 1940:103). MacGregor also took up Durham Downs in the Warrego in the late 1870s and through the 1880s, along with the leases of Melba Downs, Miranda, Yanko and Mimosa.

Glenormiston, on the Georgina River in the west of the District, was established in 1877 by Walter Douglas, who in 1881 sold it to William Kelman (of Meteor Downs). This station was the centre of a massive Inigeous trading network focused primarily on the native tobacco pituri (Davidson et al. 2005).

Goodwood was taken up in by 1878 by William Paterson, William Livingstone Reid and Ross Thompson Reid.

Headingly, on the Georgina River (than known as Herbert River) was taken up in the mid-1870s by Mr. Crosswaite, then Mr Peppardy, and by 1881 was owned by Milsom and Oscar de Satge. Headingly is another property that was acquired by Sir Sidney Kidman in 1905.

Herbert Downs was taken up in 1877 by Colcolough Kirwan, who died of fever the following year. Herbert Downs was reportedly the scene of the first frontier death in this region, when in 1877 a man named Robert Stephson was killed; this event led to local resident petitioning for an NMP detachment to be stationed in the vicinity. After Kirwan’s death the property was taken up by S. Brown.

James Craigie was the manager of Roxborough Downs in 1878, owned then by Robinson and Edward Edkins. This had been the site of an earlier, aborted settlement attempt by Steiglitz apparently in the late 1860s or early 1870s (The Port Denison Times and Kennedy District Advertiser, 13 April 1878, p2).

Marion Downs was established in 1877 by Frank Scarr, a former surveyor and Commissioner for Crown Lands in the Burke District in the late 1860s who left his government position to pursue pastoral interests, seemingly as a speculator. Scarr sold Marion Downs, unstocked, a year later to NSW investors Andrew Tobin, John Manning and Daniel McKinnon.

Thomas McWhannell (later an MLA; see below) was a one-time owner of several stations in this district, including Headingly and Oban.

John Costello was a key figure in the district, taking up large tracts of land along the lower end of Farrer’s Creek and on the east side of the Diamantina in 1877, which included Monkira (Muncara and also Monkara). This he sold to James Marsden, then to Peppin and Webber, and by 1882 the property was in the hands of Chewings, Smith and George Debney of Adelaide (The Argus, 7 January 1882, p8).

Oondooroo was one of the larger stations near Winton, taken up by John F.S. Schollick in 1878 after purchasing it fully stocked with sheep from James Nesbit.

Sandringham (known by local Aboriginal people as Bindiaka) was taken up in September 1877 by Sylvester Browne and Edward Joseph Coman. They sold it on to James Blackwood and F. H. Moore in 1879, who in turn sold it to their former manager William George Field in 1884.

Warenda, one of the largest stations in western Queensland, came to be owned by the Wienholt family, and Daniel Wienholt spent much time there (after being educated in England), eventually becoming the manager for the Wienholt Estates Company of Australia Ltd.

Political Representation

Combined with the Gregory South district to form the broader Gregory electorate, there were two representatives of relevance for the period of our interest: Charles Lumley Hill (1878-1882), followed by Thomas McWhannell (1882–1888). Lumley was a pastoralist who had been involved in reprisal actions in 1867 against Aboriginal people in the Mitchell District after the killing of two of his fellow pastoralists (John Fanning and Richard Welford), so he may have held particularly negative views about Aboriginal people. McWhannell was similarly a pastoralist, who had taken up large stations in the Burke District (including Headingly and Oban), though there is little known about his attitudes towards Aboriginal people.

In his agitation over the need for an NMP presence in Gregory North, James Machattie invoked the support of Lumley (Queenslander, 11 December 1880, p754), perhaps suggesting there may have been common beliefs between the two men; Machattie was fearful that Aboriginal people would take revenge on whites more generally over their maltreatment and rapes that were being perpetrated by a ‘cowardly’ element of settlers.

NMP Presence

There were four NMP camps in Gregory North: one on the Lower Diamantina River (1876–1882), one further west on the Burke River (1878–1886), one to the south on Eyres Creek (1882–1888) and a final one on Moonah Creek near Urandangi (1888–1890). Both the Burke River and Eyres Creek NMP camps have been subject to archaeological excavation (e.g. Artym 2018; Barker et al. 2020; Pagels et al. 2024; Perston et al. 2021).

Located on Barracks Waterhole, between Elderslie and Cork Stations in the northeast of Gregory North, the Diamantina NMP camp^[2] was formed in 1876 on what was then considered “the very verge of extreme settlement” (Queenslander 19 August 1876, p29). Despite the fact that local Aboriginal people up to that time had reportedly not been problematic (Brisbane Courier 6 January 1877, p6), Lionel Towner was sent to establish the camp. Other officers stationed here at different times included John Ahern, Ernest Eglinton, Henry Kaye and Charles Marrett. The detachment variously consisted of one to two sub-inspectors, one to two constables and from six to twelve troopers, the patrol area covered from Diamantina north to Cloncurry in the Burke District (Brisbane Courier, 6 October 1877, p5). Associated with the period of greatest frontier conflict in the region its greatest strength extended across 1878-1880.

Following the sudden spearing death of Henry Kaye in August 1881 on the Woolgar River goldfield in the Burke District, the majority of the Lower Diamantina NMP detachment was ordered to Cloncurry (Western Champion 24 February 1882, p2), although a skeletal presence was retained until the camp was officially closed in early 1883. The troopers were then formally transferred to Cloncurry, the buildings dismantled, and all stores and property transported to Winton (Longreach Leader 7 February 1942, p7).

Further west in the District, the Burke River NMP campwas originally established in late 1878 through the transfer of Ernest Eglinton and his detachment from the Diamantina camp. In mid-1879 the Burke River camp was still referred to as consisting of only four troopers, but by the following year the contingent of troopers had increased to ten. Eglington was said to have kept the camp in a particularly neat state of affairs: “By-the-bye this is the most respectable looking native police camp I have seen in Queensland, there seems to be a place for everything and everything in its place” (Queenslander 6 May 1882, p551). However, while Eglinton enforced order in the camp, he was apparently making the best of a very poor situation, with the detachment being poorly provisioned: “at present it is simply a farce, the sub-inspector having under his charge the largest district and the worst equipped troop in all Queensland” (Queenslander 21 June 1879, p774). The situation deteriorated further when one of the two rifles the troopers had access to was accidentally destroyed by fire (Daily Northern Argus, 6 June 1879, p2). Another major problem for Eglinton and the troopers was the quality of their horses: “Their horses are very bad— not capable of making an ordinary journey, and quite unfit to follow blacks tracks over the unwatered plains of the interor. [sic] Furthermore, they are unshod, and consequently useless in the ranges” (Daily Northern Argus, 6 June 1879, p2). The white members of the Burke River NMP force increased in 1881 with the appointment of Hugh Galbraith as camp keeper, though the number of troopers was listed as only 6, suggesting perhaps that the expanded numbers in 1879 might have been only a temporary state of affairs.

The Burke River NMP officers and detachments responded to various events, including the killing of four Europeans at Wonomo Waterhole on Sulieman Creek, which prompted a raft of dispersals and the killings of many Aboriginal people. As Aboriginal resistance to European pastoral expansion in the Burke District was quelled through the effects of disease and violence, the decision was made to close the camp in 1886, whereupon the detachment was transferred further northwest to Toby’s Creek.

There was great dissatisfaction with the NMP operating out of the Lower Diamantina and Burke camps, as their ability to patrol the stations at a distance in such a large district was found wanting. Clunie, a large station in the south of the district, was certainly not well serviced by the NMP in the late 1870s, leading to complaints by its initial proprietor James Machattie:

The inhabitants of Eyre’s Creek and the Mulligan are indeed a long-suffering people, but they say the last straw breaks the camel’s back, and in this case the last straw is forming a police barracks on the Lower Diamantina, and still leaving us out in the cold after all our long years of agitation for a mail and police protection. (Queenslander, 11 December 1880, p754)

Seemingly in direct response to Machattie (who agreed to supply the camp with rations at low rates) and Lumley’s representations, the Eyre’s Creek NMP Camp (also known as Cluny) was established in 1882 midway between Boulia and Birdsville in the far southwest of the District:

… I have selected a site for the new Barracks on the west bank of Eyres Creek about 15 miles above its junction with Kings Creek and about the same distance west of Mr Machattie’s Cluney Station. This is the most central and suitable place that can be got where there is permanent water and a good horse run. (QSA290304 1882 Letter from Frederick Murray to Commissioner of Police 24 January, Eyre’s Creek Native Police Camp file)

A lack of locally available building timber meant the camp consisted of adobe buildings with thatched roofs, and included an officer’s quarters, constable’s quarters, store, six huts for troopers and both horse and milking yards in 1883. It had expanded to also include a camp keeper’s quarters, meat house, saddle shed, stock yard and a garden by 1889. The camp was staffed with a transfer of troopers from the McKinlay Downs camp to the east, housing between 6 and 12 troopers during its operating years. It was closed in 1889 after the death of Sub-Inspector Robert Kyle Little from sunstroke and the barracks were sold in 1890.

One other reference to NMP presence in the Gregory North district is worth mentioning: a never-realised camp at Lake Nash. Plans to station an NMP detachment at Lake Nash had been in process since 1883, including identifying a suitable site, sourcing a supply of horses, rations and building materials, as well as transferring Sub-Inspector Alfred Smart and the Cloncurry detachment. A report by Ernest Eglinton in late 1883, however, recorded an absence of Aboriginal people around Lake Nash. Consequently, all plans for the Lake Nash camp were abandoned, although it was another three years before a camp was formed at Moonah Creek.

The immediate surrounds of the Moonah Creek NMP camp had been seen as a hotspot for Aboriginal resistance as far back as 1884:

I have been informed by Sub Inspector Eglinton who has been for some years in charge of the Burke River detachment and who is well acquainted with all that portion of the Colony that … police stationed on Mona Creek would be in the centre of the blacks and would be in the best position for controlling them (QSA290300 1884 Letter from Commissioner of Police[?] to Colonial Secretary undated, Lake Nash Barracks file).

Nonetheless, it was not until 1888 that the NMP presence was established here, when the detachment from Toby’s Creek, under Archibald Mosman, was shifted south. Established on Carandotta station, on a site given to them by Sydney Donner, the Moonah Creek location was considered to be central to the district, especially given that the Cloncurry and Carrandotta mail passed within a short distance of the camp. This was despite earlier assessments in 1886 which considered Moonah Creek unsuitable for a camp “as there is no surface water consequently there would be a well required” (QSA290333 1886 Letter from Archibald Mosman to John Ahern 22 June, Tobys Creek Native Police Camp file). A second site on Headingly Station at Roche’s Waterhole was also suggested at the time, but considered to be less conveniently placed.

Barracks were constructed in 1888. Although the camp had been placed on the Twenty Mile waterhole on Moonah Creek, considered to be both large and permanent, Mosman’s predictions of 1886 came to pass and troughs had to be erected and a well sunk in 1889 when the Georgina River ran dry. Shortly afterwards the severity of the drought required the camp to be abandoned entirely and Archibald Mosman was obliged to rent country further north along Moonah Creek closer to Rochedale station (QSA290289 1889 Letter from Archibald Mosman to Ernest Carr 27 September, Moonah Creek Native Police Camp file). Until at least the 1940s the vicinity 12–15 miles from Rochedale was still known as Little Mosman’s Waterhole and Mosman’s Well. Ironically, this was probably closer to the alternative location at Roche’s Waterhole that had originally been suggested in 1887 by Thomas McWhannell.

By that time the area was considered pacified, the supervising Sub-inspector Ernest Carr noting that he had received “no reports of the most trivial nature of any outrage by the blacks” since 1886/7 (QSA290289 1890 Letter from Ernest Carr to Commissioner of Police 21 February, Moonah Creek Native Police Camp file). Given that “the aborigines of the district were now quite quiet and not committing depredations of any kind”, it was considered sufficient instead to form an ordinary police station at Urandangie “with a tracker or two attached” (QSA290289 1889 Letter from Ernest Carr to Commissioner of Police 15 August, Moonah Creek Native Police Camp file).

Consequently, the Moonah Creek camp was broken up at the end of April 1890 and two troopers and 14 horses transferred to Urandangie (QSA290289 1890 Telegram from Ernest Carr to Commissioner of Police 7 May, Moonah Creek Native Police Camp file).

Conflict Events

There were at least 34 conflict events between 1876 and 1897 in the Gregory North district, with 1879 being the most conflict-ridden year. As with most parts of the colony, attacks on Europeans were reported more commonly in the media, accounting for 20 events (59%). Unsurprisingly, the majority took place on pastoral runs (n=29, or 85%), with most of these taking place before 1880 (n=15, or 44%).

Several events took place in mid-1877, when a sequence unfolded, beginning with the killing of Robert Stephenson on Herbert Downs in August, and then attacks on Glenormiston and Glengyle Stations in November, at the latter of which Aboriginal people were apparently “mustered to fight the police, who they had heard were coming” (Brisbane Courier 16 February 1878, p6).

References

Artym, U. 2018 Profiling the Police: Exploring Officer-Trooper Interactions in the Queensland Native Mounted Police. Unpublished BArch (Hons) thesis, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide.

Barker, B., L.A. Wallis, H. Burke, N. Cole, K. Lowe, U. Artym, A. Pagels, L. Bateman, E. Hatte, C. De Leiuen, I. Davidson and L.J. Zimmerman 2020 The archaeology of the ‘Secret War’: The material evidence of conflict on the Queensland frontier 1849–1901. Queensland Archaeological Research 23:25–41.

Costello, M.M.J. 2002 [1930] To the Savage Land: The Life of John Costello. Victoria Park: Hesperian Press.

Davidson, I., N. Cook, M. Fischer, M. Ridges, J. Ross and S. Sutton 2005 Archaeology in another country: Exchange and symbols in north-west central Queensland. In I. Macfarlane, M.J. Mountain and R. Paton (eds), Many Exchanges: Archaeology, History, Community and the Work of Isabel McBryde, pp.103–130. Aboriginal History Monograph 11. Canberra: Aboriginal History.

Fox, M.J. 1923 The History of Queensland (3 volumes). Brisbane: States Publishing Company.

Gibbney, H.J. 1974 McIntyre, Duncan (1831–1866). Australian Dictionary of Biography 5. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Accessed online 12 August 2024 at https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcintyre-duncan-4101/text6553

Lamb, E.W. 1865–1866 Notes on the country at the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of London 10(6): 325–329.

Pagels, A., H. Burke and L.A. Wallis 2024 Archaeological insights into asymmetrical warfare on the Queensland colonial frontier. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 28(3):789–815.

Pearson, S.E. 1940 The south-west corner of Queensland. The Historical Society of Queensland Journal 3(2):100–122.

Perston, Y., L.A. Wallis, H. Burke, C. McLennan, E. Hatte and B. Barker 2021 Flaked glass artifacts from nineteenth century Native Mounted Police camps in Queensland, Australia. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 26(3):789–822.

QSA290304 1882 Letter from Frederick Murray to Commissioner of Police 24 January, Eyre’s Creek Native Police Camp file

Queenslander, 11 December 1880, p754 (Machattie’s request for NMP presence)

South Australian Register, 20 March 1880, p5 (Cornish’s published account of his journey)

Footnotes

[1] A founding investor and director of what was to become the Qantas airline, becoming their first passenger.

[2] There is also a reference to an NMP camp at Western River (not to be confused with Western Creek, near Georgetown): “There are no white police from Aramac to the border of the Adelaide territory. There are certainly two native police stations in charge of acting sub-inspectors—one on the Western River, and the other on Cornish Creek” (Western Star and Roma Advertiser 8 June 1878, p3). This is likely to be a reference to the Diamantina NMP camp, since only 8 months later the Muttaburra correspondent to the Western Star and Roma Advertiser (15 February 1879, p3) noted, that “There are no police at Winton, but there is a native police station on the Diamantina, where there are quartered two native police officers, a camp sergeant, and I do not know how many black gins and troopers”.