342 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



Island, and was succeeded in 1885 by the HON. JOHN DOUGLAS, 

 who had been Premier of Queensland in 1877. 



" I have often thought," says Douglas, " that a good deal was 

 lost to us when we left Somerset and the mainland. We abandoned 

 with it the chance of occupying some twenty or thirty thousand 

 acres of fine RICH SCRUB SOIL . . . and we abandoned also the 

 chance of a RAILWAY which might have pushed through the 

 Peninsula and made our starting-point for the East, for India, 

 China and even the Old Country. 1 



It must be admitted that much of the scrub in the vicinity 

 of Somerset covers poor soil ; but Douglas's estimate of 20,000 to 

 30,000 acres (say, 31 to 47 square miles) of available good scrub 

 land is probably a cautious one. The abandonment of the 

 settlement on the mainland has undoubtedly retarded the occupa- 

 tion of whatever area of such soil there may be for over a quarter 

 of a century. A commencement has been made at last by MR. 

 JOHN McLAREN, who, in partnership with Mr. J. W. Graham, 

 started UTINGU PLANTATION (960 acres), near the old Paterson 

 Telegraph Station, in October, 1911, clearing the scrub with the 

 assistance of native labour. The greater part of the clearing is 

 planted with coco-nuts, but maize, bananas, pine-apples, sweet 

 potatoes, etc., are very much at home, and grow practically 

 " without cultivation." 



After Utingu was started, Mr. Frank Jardine planted coco-nut 

 trees on an area at SOMERSET itself, and several thousands were 

 also planted on POSSESSION ISLAND. Shanahan records that on his 

 visit to LOCKERBIE (25th July, 1896), he found corn (maize), pine- 

 apples, bananas and paupaus growing at the station. 



The CATTLE overlanded by Frank and Alick Jardine were first 

 camped on a station at VALLACK POINT. Writing on nth August, 

 1896, Shanahan asserts that the scrubs between the Jardine River 

 and Somerset contained several thousands of WILD CATTLE, descended 

 presumably from stragglers of the overland mob, as well as many 

 wild PIGS. VALLACK POINT station was not continuously occupied 

 except during a few years after 1865, but it was occasionally camped 

 in by parties mustering cattle. One of these parties, consisting 

 of white and black STOCKMEN (among whom was EULAH, who had 

 accompanied the Brothers Jardine on their overland expedition), 

 was ANNIHILATED BY THE NATIVES.' On a previous occasion (August 

 or September, 1868), the blacks had rushed the station and carried 

 away the whole of the stores, arms and ammunition, which, however, 

 were afterwards recovered.' 



Frank Jardine's first out-station was BERTIE HAUGH, on the 



1 Past and Present of Thursday Island and Torres Strait. Outridge, Brisbane, 1900. 



2 A. Meston, " A Tour in North Queensland." Queenslander, i6th, 23rd 

 and 3oth January, 1897. These articles are a " popular " supplement to Mr. Meston's 

 official Report on the Aborigines of Queensland. Brisbane: By Authority, 1896. 



8 Brisbane Courier, September, 1868. 



