Thread: Clark & Tait properties all sold.

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

That was the boast of one of the early owners of Elderslie, that he could ride 100 miles in a straight line on his property.

A former colleague long dead once sheared on Fort Constantine when sheep were still run there and which would have been about 1940-41. He told me he had never before seen such big sheep. Big crossbred wethers that looked over the tops of the pens like Shetland ponies and kicked like mules. A fair bastard to shear. I have often wondered about the logistics of shearing those huge flocks. How many shearers and other shed hands, cooks, food, accommodation, stockmen, holding yards, carriers, bales,and so on. Not as if you run short and can slip down to the shops for some more when the station may be 100 miles or more from a town.

Imagine how peeved the milko would have been, after jogging a hundred miles up the front yard, to find a note "1 extra pint please."

Worked as a Windmill Expert for a while on Alroy Downs and Dalmore (Stanbroke properties on the Barkly Tableland). Middle of a bad drought, they had cut back to 27,000 breeders!
Old cowboy/gardener was moaning about how far he had to go to find a "killer".

At one station I had an 'Assistant', for want of a better term, come up from Brissie. It was so funny to see his reaction to the tucker we got on the station. He really expected prime beef fillets with each meal!

He also got quite a rude awakening at muster time. He couldn't believe that I ceased what we were supposed to be doing, to lend a hand with loading the 2 level road trains. You have to learn pretty quickly how to operate a gate!
He returned to Brissie after 4 days, thank the Deities!

He was the epitome of a 'Soft C#*k'!

p.s. self censored, as the full term came up. Hope this is OK as no other words can describe the man.

Originally Posted by Barraman

What an interesting thread!

A mate of mine owns a former C&T property - sold back in the 70's.

I am also ex-Stanbroke Pastoral Co from the 70's, and worked on: 'Consuelo', 'Waverley', 'Havilah, 'Peakvale', 'Beresford', 'Craven', 'Frankfield', 'Fort Constantine', Donors Hill', 'Augustus Downs','Rocklands', 'Ardmore', 'Davenport Downs', 'Palpararra' and 'Tanbar' at that time - and later on: 'Strathmore', 'Kamilaroi', 'Lake Nash' and 'Helen Springs'.

If you want an idea of the scale of some of these early pastoral holdings, on many of them you could drive for 100 miles (160 km) and not get off the property!

A couple of pickup trucks at "Helen Springs":

roadtrain1.jpg

Helen Springs, I remember that name on the big old Rotinoff ex Vesteys.

The truck is at the Road Transport Hall of Fame.

Dave

Originally Posted by Hogarthde

Helen Springs, I remember that name on the big old Rotinoff ex Vesteys.

The truck is at the Road Transport Hall of Fame.

Dave

I guess a lot of these properties were on marginal land..maybe it was productive 100 years ago but with changes to rainfall etc..not so nowadays. We camped on a former Kidman property 3 years sgo..not a blade of grass anywhere...and the cattle...mostly Herefords..were bags of bones. Coming from a high rainfall area of Tas..we were shocked that anyone could farm that land.

Likewise Farina was an eye opener into past attitudes to farming in seemingly hopeless places. Looking into the history of some of these stations eg Jounee..life must have been tough...boom then bust...then sold to the neighbour for bugger all.

Such a shame given the tireless effort of the settlers and following generations that tried to make it work...taking advantage of government land leases that in many cases were doomed to fail.

Seems to be get big or get out in many cases now....or get in and get out at the right time😎

Originally Posted by INter674

I guess a lot of these properties were on marginal land..maybe it was productive 100 years ago but with changes to rainfall etc..not so nowadays. We camped on a former Kidman property 3 years sgo..not a blade of grass anywhere...and the cattle...mostly Herefords..were bags of bones. Coming from a high rainfall area of Tas..we were shocked that anyone could farm that land.

Likewise Farina was an eye opener into past attitudes to farming in seemingly hopeless places. Looking into the history of some of these stations eg Jounee..life must have been tough...boom then bust...then sold to the neighbour for bugger all.

Such a shame given the tireless effort of the settlers and following generations that tried to make it work...taking advantage of government land leases that in many cases were doomed to fail.

Seems to be get big or get out in many cases now....or get in and get out at the right time😎

Often desperately overgrazed to get some money in to pay the bank. The whizz kids with their calculators in the Dept. of Lands and Ag & Stock when they were cutting up old leases for "closer settlement" determined that 55,000 acres in central & north west Qld. would support a family and a small workforce. Not so, they used figures from runs of good seasons and good prices. Like the Soldier Settlement blockies many of these people had to walk off with nothing when the usual run of seasons and prices returned. Now 120,000 acres is considered the minimum for a family property in those locales. An extreme case maybe, but McPhersons left Dagworth after 34 years of hard going with the family's possessions in one spring cart. Others probably didn't have the old spring cart.

The explorers and first settlers wrote of a land of milk and honey and unlimited potential. Grass up to their horses bellies as far as the eye can see. Then the settlers put hundreds of thousands of sheep on these lands and ate it down to the roots.