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Christopher Rolleston
in later life |
Seeking only "persons of very active habits"In 1831, aged 21, Christopher set sail to seek his fortune in Australia. He went to Sydney and bought land at Allyn along the Hunter River valley 100 miles to the north where he farmed with his younger brother Philip.
Lack of success though led him to apply, through his father, for a government post. In December 1842 the New South Wales Governor George Gipps had posted an advert seeking...
"persons of very active habits… single men without encumbrance of any sort" as "Commissioners of Crown Lands".
He appointed Rolleston to the frontier district of Darling Downs. As you can see from the map of the area, inland from Darling Downs the map simply said "Country entirely unexplored."
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1844 - the New South Wales districts
including Darling Downs at the top
and the "Country entirely unexplored" alongside
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The role required immense stamina, as these commissioners were responsible for managing vast, often uncharted, pastoral districts on horseback. Rolleston presided over 26,000 square miles (6 million hectares) of the wild outback country of the Darling Downs area and a vast area beyond its recognised boundaries. The requirement for "single men without encumbrance of any sort" meant they needed individuals who were unencumbered by wives or families, allowing them to focus entirely on their demanding, itinerant duties on the frontier. They were also lawmen in the style of an American wild-west sheriff enforcing the law with a small posse of troopers.
Watnall, Australia - it didn't last long
His role as Commissioner of the Darling Downs district also involved registering new land claims. It was here that Rolleston registered some land of his own on the western border of Darling Downs and called it Watnall Run after his ancestral home. A few years later a settler contested the registration as commissioners were not supposed to own land in their own district. Rolleston gave it up and in 1861 it was officially renamed from Watnall to Cobblegum Creek. It stayed that way until 1931 when a railway was built and Cobblegum was renamed Glenmorgan. The railway was planned to carry on to the new farming settlement of Surat way out in the middle of the plains. It was never finished though so Glenmorgan has the dubious honour of being the end of a railway line to nowhere. There's a small museum here called the End of the Line.
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Glenmorgan - in the middle of nowhere
with an unfinished railway line to prove it. |
Christopher Rolleston's HQ
Commissioner Rolleston set up his Darling Downs headquarters at a homestead he called Cambooya, close to today's town of Toowoomba...
"Over there, peaceful in its hollow, lies the little town of Cambooya, where lived the first Commissioner for the Darling Downs. He called his cottage and "Cambooya," there the young squatters of the district used to foregather in the evenings to smoke and yarn. Commissioner Rolleston was one of them - young, full of the joy of life and popular. "
Rolleston was on very amicable terms with the prominent squatters in the district. Rolleston let Arthur Hodgson be acting commissioner while he was on leave, and he later married the sister of the famous squatter Patrick Leslie. Hodgson and Leslie in return were sure that Rolleston and his troopers would "teach these sable gentleman that their recent outrages will not escape unpunished."
"Sheriff" Rolleston and the convict police Like an American sheriff, one of the district commissioner's main duties was running the local police force and each commissioner had about 5-10 troopers (Rolleston had 3-6 troopers during 1846). In order to reduce the cost of the force as much as possible, the troopers were taken from the population of convicts that existed in the colony at that time. The convicts assigned were usually ex-soldiers who had been transported to Australia due to crimes of military indiscipline. Rolleston writes about his great trouble recruiting reliable policemen and his preference for using pardoned convicts or Aboriginal troopers and staff instead...
"I am sorry to have to report another instance of Gross misconduct on the part of the Border Police
named in the margin Patrick Bryan “Eudora” 1839. This man was sent down in Charge of Three Prisoners to Brisbane accompanied by another Trooper and Continued to get Drunk all the way down, and on several occasions ill-treated the other Trooper by Striking him on the Head with the Butt of his Carbine."
They were supplied with horses, equipment and rations, but were otherwise unpaid and had to construct their own barracks. The force was funded by a levy imposed on the "squatters" who were grazing their livestock on the Crown Lands in the frontier regions. In 1836, the "Squatting Act" was passed to allow pastoralists or "squatters", as they were colloquially known, to run their sheep and cattle on New South Wales Crown Lands beyond the limits of white settlement for a small fee. However, the act failed to address the subsequent settler-Aboriginal conflict that the act would inevitable lead to.
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Rolleston's police were a motley mix of ex-convicts, Aborigines and bushrangers.
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Aboriginal Wars - The Battle of One Tree Hill
In September 1843, one of the first skirmishes occurred in neighbouring penal settlement of Moreton Bay (now Brisbane). The Aboriginal Yugara people had pushed back against settler encroachment into the Lockyer Valley by raiding squatting properties, killing shepherds, robbing drays and blocking the main road connecting Moreton Bay with the Darling Downs. Local squatters in the region, unable to control the resistance, petitioned the colonial government for military aid. In response to these requests, the colonial government assembled a large expeditionary force, which included the Moreton bay commissioner and his troopers, the Border Police from the Darling Downs district under Christopher Rolleston as well as soldiers from the 99th Regiment of Foot and armed settlers. The Yugara retreated to Mount Davidson near the present locality of Blanchview from where they were able to repulse several attacks by rolling large rocks down towards the expeditionary force. However, the hill was eventually stormed by the expeditionary force, killing numerous Yugara and taking an immense number of spears and tools. Several Yugara encampments in the era were later destroyed, and a sentry of soldiers was established at Soldier's Flat (two miles from the modern-day town of Helidon) to prevent any further attacks on the road.
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A sketch by artist Thomas Domville Taylor depicting an eyewitness
account of the Battle of Meewah/One Tree Hill. |
Rolleston's troopers were also active in hunting down convict runaways and deserters from the British Army.
End of the wars in Darling Downs
Rolleston's activities pleased his Sydney superiors and the local "squatters". In 1845, he reported that the squatters had allowed Aboriginal people back on the sheep stations as Aboriginal relations improved somewhat partly to his distribution of blankets, flour and tobacco in winter months. ...
"Last year I applied to His Excellency the Governor for a few blankets, shirts, &c., to distribute, with a view of encourage the natives to visit my head quarters, and give me an opportunity of shewing them the folly of their aggressions, and proving to them that we wished to be on friendly terms. The effect has been more favourable than I was prepared to hope for; no aggressions have since been made on the property or lives of the whites, and I am happy to observe, not only a friendly feeling, but mutual confidence springing up between the two colors, of which I am inclined to hope the continuance. I do not hesitate to say, that it will be most desirable to resume the distribution of blankets next winter, not only as a defence from the cold, which in this district is most severe, but to ensure the maintenance of the friendly disposition at present entertained by them towards the Europeans. It may be as well to state here, that, with His Excellency the Governor's permission, I distributed a little flour and tobacco occasionally during the winter month which I may safely say has promoted our friendly relations with them to a considerable extent."
Rolleston's Border Police were mostly disbanded in 1847 and was left to small groups of constabulary. It was not the end of the violence though. In the 1850's another force was organised in New South Wales, which later evolved into the Queensland Native Police force. It employed Aboriginals from distant districts as policemen led by colonial officers, modelled on the sepoy system from British colonial India. This force massacred thousands of Aboriginal people under the official euphemism of "dispersal", and is regarded as one of the most conspicuous examples of genocidal policy in colonial Australia. It existed until around 1915, when the last Native Police camps in Queensland were closed.
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| 1864 - Native Police in Rockhampton Queensland |
Married life as a colonial administrator
Granted leave of absence to visit England in 1853, Rolleston received a silver salver and 125 guineas from the squatters. On 20 September 1854 at Foller, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Rolleston married Katherine, daughter of William Leslie, ninth laird of Warthill, and sister of Patrick Leslie his "squatter" friend from the Darling Downs. In December he brought her to Sydney, reputedly having declined the presidency of Montserrat, in the West Indies, and in January 1855 became the private secretary to the governor-general, Sir William Denison. He lived the rest of his life in various colonial administration roles.
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Rolleston front and centre
of the staff at the NSW Land Titles Office
December 1864 |
Farewell Watnall, hello Rolleston townWhile his land acquisition at the short-lived Watnall, New South Wales had not worked out, from 1860 he acquired extensive land in the Leichhardt district of Queensland centred upon his head station, Springsure, near the present town of Rolleston. He was a director of the European Assurance Society, the Mercantile Bank of Sydney and the Australian Gaslight Co. and vice-president of the Savings Bank of New South Wales.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
His final home, Northcliff, was on a prominent spur of land overlooking Sydney harbour called Milsons Point. Then relatively unknown to the rest of the world, it is anything but today as Milsons Point is where Sydney Harbour Bridge was built. This is the view from roughly the same location then and now...
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Above - Milsons Point c.1869
Rolleston's house would have been on the rocky point in the centre
Below - Milsons Point today! |
Rolleston's career in the civil service was notable for his steady devotion to duty and his avoidance of political controversy. His work contributed to the orderly growth of responsible government in New South Wales. He was made C.M.G. in 1879. He was a member of the Senate of the Sydney University, a trustee of Sydney Museum and for many years vice-president of the Savings Bank of New South Wales.
A pillar of the colonial community, he died on 9 April 1888 of chronic Bright's disease at his home, Northcliff, Milsons Point, Sydney, survived by his wife and four of their six children and was buried in the Anglican cemetery, Willoughby. His estate was sworn for probate at £16,763.
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Notes and Sources
Rolleston papers - Toowoomba & Darling Downs Family History Society Inc.
Rolleston's handwriting was terrible so sterling transcription work by Doreen Powell of the Toowoomba & Darling Downs Family History Society has rendered his letters and notes legible...
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| Rolleston's handwriting was a challenge to decipher! |
Christopher Rolleston's letterbook, itineraries, diary and record book constitute some of the most significant contemporary accounts of life and government on the Darling Downs during the 1840s for historians today. While the manuscripts are a rich lode of historical gold, the hand-writing was such that many a historian has gone home from the library extremely disappointed with the work completed that day. This faithful transcription overcomes that great shortcoming and reveals this rich resource to all.
Christopher Rolleston was appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands, Darling Downs, in 1843. He had been in the colony of New South Wales for just five years. He was the son of a Nottinghamshire Anglican clergyman, and he came out to NSW to farm and make his fortune.
In this early stage in NSW's history, the Commissioner for Crown Lands was virtually the Government in an area. Rolleston set up his headquarters at Cambooya on Arthur Hodgson's Eton Vale run. (Squatters at the time occupied vast tracts of land for an annual licence fee of £10.) Rolleston collected licence fees, handled requests for pasturage licences, and was in charge of a force of Border Police.
Rolleston had great trouble in applying Governor Gipps's plans to regulate pastoral runs and limit them to 20 square miles (5100 hectares) which Gipps considered was enough country to run 4000 sheep. For starters, no one in the bush, least of all himself as government representative, could accurately measure a mile (with no instruments), except by the make-shift method of timing the walk of a reliable horse! Then there were the peculiarities of the Darling Downs - great tracts of waterless grasslands, impenetrable scrubs popping up unexpectedly and creeks that disappeared into dry plains. Even the great Condamine River often shrank to a dry bed in the vicinity of the Gores' mighty Yandilla run.
Rolleston presided over 26 000 square miles (6 million hectares) of the Downs area and a vast area beyond its recognised boundaries. After his Border Police were disbanded, he refused to administer some 30 unlicensed runs lying beyond the boundaries. (The Orders in Council in 1847 solved the problem by creating the new Squatting Districts of Maranoa, Burnett and Wide Bay.)
Politically Rolleston was seen to side with the squatters against the growing forces of towns people who wanted the land cut up and available in farming blocks to the small men. His establishment at Cambooya was known for its gentlemanly life and ready hospitality to the appropriate classes. In 1854, Rolleston returned to England and there married Catherine Leslie, sister of the Leslie brothers of Canning Downs. The next year he returned and took up land in Central Queensland, but did not stay there long. That same year, he became private secretary to the Governor of NSW and later statistician and auditor-general.
I commend this transcription to all historians, local, family, landscape and general.
Diana Beal, Toowoomba & Darling Downs Family History Society Inc.
Australian Dictionary of Biography
Bushrangers pic - Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales
Page 27 Rolleston's testimony
Cambooya
During his time as Crown Lands Commissioner, Rolleston was based at the Border Police Depot at Cambooya, 20 kilometres south-west of Toowoomba. As sole representative of the government, he had control over an area greater than 26000 square miles (7 million hectares). When it was first gazetted, the District was bounded by the Great Dividing Range in the east and the Clarence River in the south but its northern and western boundaries were undefined. Rolleston had only a small unit of Border Police under his control and so he found it impossible to protect those who chose to settle on the northern fringes of the District. An examination of his Record Books reveals that Rolleston’s duties included, but were not limited to, the collection of licence fees, the issuing of pasturing and business licences, maintaining law and order and sending statistical reports to the Colonial Secretary.
"Over there, peaceful in its hollow, lies the little town of Cambooya, where lived the first Commissioner for the Darling Downs. He called his cottage and "Cambooya," there the young squatters of the district used to foregather in the evenings to smoke and yarn. Commissioner Rolleston was one of them - young, full of the joy of life and popular. "
Early Crown Lands Commissioners were largely successful in ensuring the orderly settlement of pastoral districts. Their success however, came at the expense of the Indigenous people, who were systematically driven from their lands without compensation and with scant consideration for their welfare.
Commissoner Henry Bingham and his Aborigine policeman. Sexual relations with servants, infanticide
Expeditions 1844
In the same year, Rolleston undertook a survey of the Darling Downs, a journey that took
him along the Boyne … , ‘Letter to the Colonial Secretary dated 30 March 1844’
and
Cunningham's discovery of Darling Downs area
Cunningham found fertile, grasslands extending over a wide area of territory; the country was perfect for pasture with a gentle climate, rich soils and nutritious natural vegetation.
Thirteen years after his discovery, the first Europeans made their way to the Downs, attracted by the rewards for producers who could provide good quality raw wool for England’s mills.
Many of these new arrivals were members of a privileged society, younger sons of the English and Scottish gentry, who were obliged to leave home and travel far away in order to make a living. The first to come north were Patrick Leslie and his brother Walter, sons of a Scottish laird, who settled at Canning Downs on the Condamine River.
They were followed by equally well-connected adventurers such as Arthur Hodgson who took up Eton Vale in 1840, the Forbes Brothers of Clifton Station (sons of the Chief Justice of New South Wales) and the Isaac Brothers of Old Gowrie, the sons of a Worcestershire banker. Others included Henry Stuart Russell of Cecil Plains (Hodgson’s cousin) and St George Richard Gore of Yandilla, the scion of an aristocratic Irish family.
This first generation of squatters formed a close-knit community who shared the same values and interests and sealed their associations by intermarrying. Often referred to disparagingly by their critics as ‘Shepherd Kings’ and ‘Grass Dukes’, or in a nod to their obsession with breeding and bloodlines, as ‘Pure Merinos’, they were at the apex of their small society, ruling over a labour-force of itinerant bush-workers, stockmen and shepherds.
The homes which the first squatters constructed were modest slab huts not far removed from the canvas or iron huts of their employees. However, after legal changes in the late 1840s permitted the purchase of pastoral leases, the squatters began to assert themselves and to aspire to a more permanent and impressive presence.
With wool prices rising, they sought political power, lobbying to bring about separation of the northern district from New South Wales. Then in the 1860s, they moved to construct homesteads worthy of antipodean aristocrats and to establish a gracious way of life.
Commissioner Sturt and the duties of a Commissioner
EPS Sturt arrived in the colony late in 1836 and just a few months later in February 1837, no doubt through the good offices of his brother Charles, he was appointed as the Commissioner for Crown Lands. (1)
EPS Sturt was excited about his appointment seeing it as an opportunity for adventure. He wrote, ‘I looked forward to my expeditions with feelings of pleasure and excitement.’ (2)
In ‘Letters of Victorian Pioneers’, EPS Sturt spoke of the items he took when travelling, ‘a good tent and camp equipage, a small supply of books and writing materials, a trusty Westly Richards (firearm) with an ample supply of ammunition, a capital nag, and some fine kangaroo dogs. My means of transport was a light cart with two draught horses, which, with a large tarpaulin, afforded an ample shelter for the men.’ (2)
The duties of Commissioners of Crown Lands included the prevention of unauthorised occupation of crown land; regulation of the boundaries of pastoral runs; prevention of encroachment and settlement of disputes; prohibition of cattle stealing and the impounding of stray beasts; collection of fees payable for government licences and collection of the stock assessment tax. The Commissioners dealt with applications for depasturing licences and provided each settler with a stock assessment notice. Commissioners also prepared returns for the Colonial Secretary regarding licensed runs and their occupants, the employment and conduct of the Border Police under their command and a monthly itinerary of their own activities. The Commissioners were also responsible for preventing clashes between the settlers and the Aborigines and as part of their duties as honorary protectors of Aborigines, they were required to visit reserves, report on the condition of the Aborigines and supply them with food and clothing in cases of extreme emergency. (3)
EPS Sturt loved the wilderness and described it as, ‘untrodden by stock, and, indeed, unseen by Europeans. Every creek abounded with wildfowl, and the quail sprung from the long kangaroo grass which waved to the very flaps of the saddle.’
Aboriginal Staff
1st January 1847 letter from Rolleston to the Colonial Secretary
"I am bound here to state that I have never observed any disposition on the part of the Squatters or their Servants to hunt the Blacks off their Runs (as some people erroneously suppose) but on the contrary an earnest desire has generally been manifested to secure their good will, and treat them with kindness & consideration X
with reference to the prospects of the Aborigines my experience leads me to the conclusion that no measures of the Government or Legislative enactment can be effectual in improving their condition as a class.
individually much may be done, and it appears to me it must be left to the very much to the natural good feeling of the Squatters to lead reclaim them from their roving habits and vicious habits courses, and by finding them employment and providing them with food and clothing upon their Stations, induce them by degrees to acquire the habits and relish the pursuits and comforts of civilized life
as an instance of what may be done with individual Blacks I may mention the case of a Native in my own service - some eight years ago, when I resided in the Paterson District, I attached this black (then a boy) to my Service. He resided almost constantly on my Farm, and was employed in the Stable & Kitchen, as an assistant sometimes to the Groom, at others to the House Servants - by this means he became a most useful and trustworthy fellow - when I came to this District 4 years ago "Bobby" accompanied me of his own free will, and has remained with me ever since - He has been employed some-times upon Police duty, but principally attending upon myself, and his Services are of more value to me than (being of a more generally useful Class) than I could look for in any white man He is a good Groom, Cook, House Servant and Stockman - this instance will shew what may be done with individual blacks, by kindness and attention."
Aboriginal conflicts
Site Name - Mt Haldon, Darling Downs Pastoral District
Date - 30 Jul 1843
Transport - Horse
Motive - Reprisal
Weapons Used - Firearm(s), Musket(s)
Narrative - Christopher Rolleston, CCL Darling Downs and party cornered Aboriginal people in daylight in the Range scrub, three days after Yugara people killed Richard White, a shepherd on Sibley and King's Haldon run and drove off 1874 sheep (French, 1989, p 104). Rolleston estimated that twelve Yugara people were killed (Rolleston to Col Sec, August 15, October 12, 1843, CCL Correspondence 1843, SRNSW, 4/2601).
NSW Report 1867 by C Rolleston
1845 report
From Christopher Rolleston, Esq., J. P., Commissioner of Crown Lands, Darling Downs :-
1.- The probable number of the Aborigines frequenting the Darling Downs, cannot, as yet, be correctly ascertained; not less, I dare say, than one thousand - men, women, and children. But I do not think the tribes actually claiming this district as their peculiar country, can amount to more than half that number. I am sorry that I cannot give the proportion of females and children, but judging from what I have seen, I should say more than half.
2, 3, & 4.- This district has scarcely been occupied five years, and it is impossible to say whether the numbers have increased or diminished during that period.
5.- The condition of the Aborigines is better than in most other districts with which I have been acquainted, and their means of subsistence sufficient to satisfy their wants.
6.- I do not think that their ordinary means of subsistence is diminished in the least, but rather the contrary, owing to the blacks having confined themselves for three or four years past to the scrubs and mountains, from which cause I should imagine that the game in the open country must have increased, and this opinion is justified by the quantities of game and fish I have seen them bring to camp after a few hours hunting.
7.- Last year I applied to His Excellency the Governor for a few blankets, shirts, &c., to distribute, with a view of encourage the natives to visit my head quarters, and give me an oppor-tunity of shewing them the folly of their aggressions, and proving to them that we wished to be on friendly terms. The effect has been more favourable than I was prepared to hope for; no aggres-sions have since been made on the property or lives of the whites, and I am happy to observe, not only a friendly feeling, but mutual confidence springing up between the two colors, of which I am inclined to hope the continuance. I do not hesitate to say, that it will be most desirable to resume
the distribution of blankets next winter, not only as a defence from the cold, which in this district is most severe, but to ensure the maintenance of the friendly disposition at present entertained by them towards the Europeans. It may be as well to state her, that, with His Excellency the Governor's permission, I distributed a little flour and tobacco occasionally during the winter month which I may safely say has promoted our friendly relations with them to a considerable extent.
8.- No Hospital or Medical treatment has been called for.
9.- The Aborigines are not sufficiently civilized to be of any service to the squatters.
10.- They are of a very roving disposition, and I cannot see that they have any peculiar habits which can fit them for the employments of civilized life.
11.- There are three of four half-castes living with the whites.
12. I can observe no disposition on the part of the white labouring population to amalga-mate with the Aborigines, so as to form families; indeed the jealousy which the blacks entertain of any interference with their gins would prevent it.
13.- The Aborigines are in friendly relations with the squatters.
14.- The destruction of property occasioned by them in this district, amounts to about one thousand five hundred sheep, and two hundred head of cattle killed and driven away.
15 & 16-The relations of the Aborigines among themselves is amicable.
17.- Infanticide is said to be common among them.
18.- The very limited acquaintance I have as yet had an opportunity of forming with the Aborigines in this district, furnishes me with no facts that can, in my opinion, be serviceable to the Committee in its endeavour to promote their welfare. My enquiries lead me to doubt whether any Legislative enactment can be efficacious in improving their condition as a clsss; individually I think much may be done; I may instance my own black, who has been with me some years, and I find him more serviceable in every respect than a white man, and I believe, in this way only can any permanent good be effected.
Allyn property
"Watnal" and "Lower Cobblegum"
11. Jany. 1861
Sir
In retransmitting to you the accompanying papers relative to the conflicting claims of Messrs Bell and
Blyth to country simultaneously known as "Watnall" and "Lower Cobblegum" I am instructed to inform you that His Excellency and Executive Council coincide with the Executive council of N S Wales in the view of the case taken by them and that they have in consequence directed that a refund of all payments should be made to Mr. Blyth or his agents by the Treasury of Queensland, and that Messrs Bell shall be
confirmed in possession of the Run as "Lower Cobblegum"
Ch. Commr. Cr. Lands.
Done 11th Jany 1861
The Principal Under Secretary
In attention to your B C of 19th instant I herewith transmit the papers relating to the Lower Cobblegum
run as well as Mr C Rollestons tender for the run named "Walnall-" The run named Walnall
appears upon Mr Commissioner Rollestons map but not Lower Cobblegum-
A C Gregory
Crown Lands Office
Brisbane 21st Decr 1860
B C.
{61/188}
{26. January}
{Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands}
{Transmitting further papers connected with the Run Lower Cobblegum or Watnall run}
{60/. 1807.-}
{60/60 C.}
{Nothing appears done on this}
Transcription
This case involved a refund of License and assessment paid on account of the "Watnall" station. The matter was determined by the New South Wales Government before separation and need not be reopened, as there is nothing in the subsequent correspondence which can in any way affect the decision
arrived at.
It is evident that "Watnal" has no existence- the country originally comprized within its boundaries being now known as the "Lower Cobblegum" run presently held by the Messrs Bell.
Mr. Rolleston, in June 1852, tendered for some vacant country on "Cobblegum Creek,["] on the western boundary of the Darling Downs District - In September of the same year he withdrew his tender as it was contrary to Departmental rule for a Commissioner to hold country in his own district.
In August 1852, Mr. Welch tendered for country which was identical with that applied for by Mr. Rolleston- Mr. Welch called his block "Lower Cobblegum"- In consequence of the withdrawal of Mr. Rolleston's claim Welch's Tender was accepted - It appears to have sold to Messrs Bell or, at all events, those gentlemen are now the recognized holders of the run- but neither they nor Welch ever occupied the country.
In July 1857, Mr. Blyth Tendered for "Watnal" and upon my report as the then Commissioner of the
district he obtained the run.
Messrs Bell now resist Mr. Blyth's title, and the matter has been very justly determined in their favor and a refund to Mr. Blyth authorized by the Executive Council of New South Wales, but Mr. Blyth
still clings to the hope of being able to make good his claim, by disputing the identity of "Watnal"
and "Lower Cobblegum"
As Mr. Blyth has hitherto occupied Watnal upon an authority based upon my Report, and I am
compelled
{Council R.G.W.H.}
{G.F.B.}
{Letter within A W M 11.1.61}
Original book of land registrations for Darling Downs
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View from Kobble Creek cottage, a red herring
and not the place once called Cobblegum Creek and Watnall Station
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Patrick Leslie - last son from landed Scottish family, first settler to Darling Downs, Christopher Rolleston's ally and brother in law and general squatter extraordinaire...
Cobblegum renamed to Glenmorgan in 1931 on the coming of the railway
Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1926 - 1954) Sun 25 Oct 1931 Page 2
RELIEF WORK
With 'The Depression' biting hard in the 1930s, The NSW Government came up with relief schemes to provide work for unemployed people, incl returned soldiers from ww1 famously called Diggers. These schemes involved low pay and hard work. Diggers have a somewhat folklore tradition in Australia e.g. in old songs such as The Band Played Waltzing Matilda which was covered by the Pogues.
Location (as lat/long) 27° 05' 00" S / 149° 41' 00" E
Location (as decimal degrees) -27.08333333, 149.68333333
Comments A creek on the old Cobblegun pastoral run held by I.A. Blythe in the early 1850s. The run and the creek both appear on a Darling Downs Run Map of 1883. The name is probably of Aboriginal origin although there is no clear evidence. F.J. Watson lists 'Kobble' as a Yugarabul language word from the area near Brisbane. Warra Warra run (also on the Darling Downs) was once known as Cobble Cobble, both names with the repetition common in many Aboriginal dialects. [NSW Government Gazette, 20 August 1852; Surveyor-General's Office, Brisbane, Darling Downs Run Map 1883; F.J.Watson; Stewart Jack, History of Dalby and District 1940s; ANPS files]
Search for "cobblegun crek"
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Glenmorgan district has very similar boundaries to the
original Watnall Run/Lower Cobblegum with the
Condomine River at the northern boundary.
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| Glenmorgan - in the middle of nowhere! |
Tourist info sheet
Mystery solved, location of Watnall, Australia finally discoveredIn conclusion, the old Watnall Run land allocation reserved 1852 by Christopher Rolleston, disputed in 1857 by Mr Blyth and renamed by him in 1861 to Lower Cobblegum until 1931 then renamed to Glenmorgan after a local politician who had brought in the railway (to the disgust of the newspaper article above). The railway was never completed onwards to Surat hence the "End of the Line" museum in Glenmorgan.
Therefore Kobble Creek was never called Watnall.
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