Pioneering Days: Thrilling Incidents

In the later end of '63 our boss bought some 8000 sheep in the vicinity of Rockhampton: horses, drays, stores, &c.--a general outfit--and a start made Northwards, across Connor's Range, by Colloray and Nebo and thence on to Suttor Creek Station. This run was owned then by Kirk and Sutherland and carried a few thousand sheep, having been stocked some two years previously. Here a halt was made to lamb and shear and cart the wool down to Port Mackay, some 130 miles distant. Nothing eventful happened between Rockhampton and Suttor Creek, the country intervening being pretty well occupied right through. The writer afterwards came over from Melbourne to join the party, and landed in Rockhampton in the beginning of the big '64 flood. Rockhampton was then but a small hamlet, and owing to the heavy rain the streets and roads were in a fearful condition. Bullock teams from Peak Downs and Springsure way were bogged in rows in the streets, and the whip cracking and lurid language of the "bullockies" made the township a little inferno. Then the drinking and rowdiness made night hideous. The few police had not much chance in coping with so many, all vieing with each other to turn the town red.

In the middle of the '64 flood the writer left Rockhampton for Port Mackay (or the Pioneer River, as the place was then generally called) in a small, cranky steamer named the "Diamantina" (Captain Champion.) She took some four days to reach Mackay. The old tub was slow, and the rough weather and head winds made her slower. However "all's well that ends well," and we were very glad that we "ended" at all--on land.