80 NEW ENGLAND (n.S.W.), ETC. 



member of Parliament, and served as a Minister more than 

 once. Gilbert Eliott, who owned Emu Creek, took up or 

 bought Yenda, near Gayndah. He was the first speaker of the 

 Queensland Legislative Assembly. A grandson of his is a 

 highly respected officer in the Harbours Department at the 

 present time. Palmer became the owner of stations north of 

 Rockhampton. He entered Parliament, and, by force of char- 

 acter, made a prominent place for himself. He was for some 

 years Premier, was a member of more than one Ministry, and 

 ended his days as Sir A. H. Palmer, President of the Legislative 

 Council. Many of my contemporaries on New P]ngland puslied 

 north, preferring the heat of Queensland to the frost and snow 

 of what has often been describeil as the " Garden of New 

 Sov;th Wales." One to whom I have made no reference was 

 the once owner of a station not many miles distant from Armi- 

 dale, and afterwards came to Queensland. Captain O'Connell 

 for a time, resided at Gayndah. Thence lie moved to Glad- 

 stone, where he held the appointment of Government Resident, 

 until the northern districts of New South Wales were excised, 

 and the new Colony of Queensland was established. He was 

 then summoned to the Legislative Council, and succeeded Sir 

 Charles Nicholson as President, which office he held, under his 

 new title of Sir Charles Maurice O'Connell, until his death. His 

 honoured widow still lives amongst us. As for myself, when 

 I was seized by the roving spirit, as so many of my friends 

 had been, I wandered through many parts of the parent colony, 

 gravitating finally towards what is now the State of Queensland. 

 And even now the association with my first bush home is 

 maintained by the many names with which I was familiar 

 there as I now am here. 



Space does not permit of further reference to the New 

 England district and its many points of interest. I will only 

 now briefly allude to the extraordinary formation on its eastern 

 side. Along this, by some extraordinary convulsion which I am 

 unable to explain, there are immense fissures, several hundred 

 feet in depth. One of these terminated abruptly about three 

 miles from Waterloo, where I lived for five years. The Apsley 

 River is one of the heads of the Macleay, which finds itb way 

 to the sea at Trial Bay. Until, and for a few miles after it 

 passes Waterloo, it runs through pleasant undulating country^ 

 and a stranger following its course would never suspect the 

 surprise which was in store for him. Suddeny it drops into 



