90 NEW ENGLAND (n.S.W.) ETC. 



in, the only result being the knocking-up of Parrott'.s own horse 

 on the third day. Then I again turned northwards, had dinner 

 with Peter Shea at his inn on Cloud's Creek, secured the other 

 horse, and arrived at Nimboyda the same afternoon. After all 

 my trouble the old horse I had secured at Shea's knocked up on 

 the following day, and I did not get him to Aikin's until 

 evening. I had to leave him there, and got back to Retreat the 

 following day in good time. 



The time had now arrived for starting with the cattle. 

 They had been collected at one of Mr. Sharpe's stations, named 

 Southgate, and this we left on 8th April, passing the Travellers' 

 Rest Hotel (a bush pub), Camira station, which the McDougalls 

 had just bought from Captain Marsh, and Hamilton's station 

 Wyan, part of which is in the Clarence River district, part in 

 the Richmond. The second day from Wyan we crossed the big 

 hill of the neighbourhood. This was the Richmond River 

 Range. A few miles on we came to Sandilands, the property 

 of Robertson Brothers, who sold out to their sister, Mrs. Robert- 

 son, a year or two later on, and established themselves on Baffle 

 Creek, a little north of Bundaberg. The next station, Tabulam, 

 was occupied by Mrs. Chauvel and her son, who afterwards 

 moved northwards to Canning Downs South From here we 

 crossed over Grasstree Hill to Fairfield, where was another 

 roadside inn. Now we were drawing near to New England once 

 more and rough roads marked the approach. Girard's Down- 

 fall suggests the rugged bush track. After this we followed the 

 old road across another big hill. A road party under Mr. Yates, 

 who afterwards came to Queensland and made roads for our 

 Government, were working on the new road over the Great 

 Sandy Range, and we were not allowed to drive cattle over it 

 as the cuttings and embankments, all through rough granite, 

 had not settled down. We got over the range, however, and 

 camped on Black Snake Creek, on New England. We were 

 now near Barney Downs, then owned and occupied by John 

 Ross. It afterwards passed through several hands, and the 

 freehold was eventually bought by C B. Dutton, the Georgian 

 apostle, who in our own State in 1883-4 advocated the nation- 

 alisation of land. 



Tenterfield is but 5 miles from Barney Downs. It was a 

 village rather than a township at that time. Cowper and Riley 

 were interested in the Tenterfield station, and Stuart Donaldson, 

 the old Sydney politician, was also a partner. We had with us 



