BY HON. A. NORTON, M.L.C. 99 
station. These I got together so that I might not be further 
delayed when my business with Mr. Walsh had been com- 
pleted. Edward Mullett, who was at this time manager at 
Milton, came to Degilbo while I was there: this was as 
fortunate for me as it was agreeable, for he helped me to 
drive about a dozen spare horses when we started on. In 
due course, I parted with my very kind friends, the Walshes, 
Staying with them for a time, was good old Mrs. Brown, of 
Colstoun, on the Paterson River (Mrs. Walsh’s mother). 
and her youngest daughter, the wife of Dr. Walter Brown, 
of Parramatta ; they had come up for a few week’s visit. 
Starting soon after breakfast, Mullett and I jogged on 
quietly by a cross-country track to Stanton Harcourt, not 
particularly good country, and largely overgrown with gum 
saplings and wattle. It belonged to Mr. Corfield, but Mr. 
Spain was in charge at the time. We went on as far as Walla, 
and crossing the Burnett, claimed the hospitality of Mr. and 
Mrs. John Barker, who, not long before had bought out 
the former owner. Livingstone had latterly sold his Teningering 
station, and started North with his sheep in search of another 
run. The Walla house is beautifully situated on the left 
bank of the River. Immediately under the bank was a mass 
of columnar basalt in an upright position ; where the columns 
had broken away there were some well protected natural 
bathing holes. There is a similar outcrop in the bed of 
Baramba Creek, not far from Gayndah ; persons who travel 
that road by coach never forget the crossing of Baramba 
Creek. A similar columnar basaltic outcrop may be seen 
beside the road between Walla and Teningering. There 
were some fine orange trees in the garden at Walla, and some 
of these were still there when I visited the place a few 
years ago. The one object of which John Barker was specially 
proud, however, was his stockyard, which then was about 
finished. ‘‘ Jim’”’ Hobbs, a monster of strength, who erected 
it, afterwards came on to me, and put up the Rodd’s Bay 
yards. But John Barker must have the crack stockyard 
of the Burnett ! The round posts were enormous, and all the 
rest of the timber was proportionally large; the rails were 
so wide that they met, and formed a wooden wall in the 
clefts of which no man could even get toe-hcld. Cattle were 
more or less rowdy in those days, and the thought of work 
