Pioneering Days: Thrilling Incidents

On to Marathon, owned then owned by Kirk and Sutherland, the owners of Suttor Creek. They were afterwards joined in Marathon by Mr. Carson (now of the big wool firm of Winchcombe, Carson and Co.) Marathon, like Telemon, is grand country, but at the time I speak of, water was a great drawback. There was hardly a drop anywhere outside the river valley, and on account of the dryness of the season, very little there. There was any quantity of unoccupied country; in fact all the country unoccupied was owing to the want of water, and splendid country too. How different then to now! Miles of running water in every direction, the dry desert turned into a garden--a paradise compared to the original state. Marathon was stocked with sheep--a small lot owing to want of water. The owners held it for some few years and then sold out that and Suttor Creek. Mr. Kirk took up a mercantile business in Townsville and died there. Sutherland a sea captain, went to Melbourne, bought a schooner there, and traded for some time in the South Seas, but the venture was premature, so he sold out and started mercantile business in Normanton. He explored a good deal of the Flinders country when at Marathon, took up Cambridge Downs, and sold it again without stocking it. He also took up a number of blocks lower down the Flinders, and, being a great admirer of Byron, named them "Manfred," "Lara," &c. Carson went South, and some time after joined the firm of Winchcombe, Carson and Co.

The next station on our route was Richmond Downs owned by Bundock and Hays. They were Richmond River people, hence the name "Richmond Downs," "Wyangarie," "Clarence Downs," &c. Walter Hays managed and they took cattle to stock the property from Richmond River. Like those above them on the Flinders, the want of water was a great drawback. They held the station for many years and then sold out. Mr. Hays started business in Townsville, and died three years ago, and so did Mr. Bundock.