THE EVOLUTION OF THE STATION 69 



and worthy applicants were readily granted one or 

 more stations. 



The pioneer squatters, in fact, helped themselves to 

 as many acres as they had a mind to, none at first 

 disputing their claims. Other pioneer squatters would 

 then arrive and sit down among a group of squatters, 

 " taking part from each, but most from me," says the 

 narrator in one instance. 



Of course, they quarrelled about their boundaries, 

 and awaited the arrival of the Crown Lands Commis- 

 sioner. One might content himself with a trifle of 

 12,000 acres, there being around them " a sort of 

 natural boundary." When the Commissioner appeared, 

 he " was left with less than 2,000 acres." He was not 

 so easily to be defrauded of his broad domains. " Know- 

 ing some little of human nature," he invited the Com- 

 missioner to his station, and there attended to " the 

 man as well as his horses," with the result that he 

 " was put in possession of his original boundary." * 



Disputes about the boundaries of runs were frequent. 

 One settler relates that, after taking up a run and 

 remaining there with his sheep for some years, other 

 settlers arrived, and then contentions began. The 

 consequence was that he left his station, with the 

 improvements he had made, to those who liked to 

 occupy it, and travelled elsewhere. Another took up 

 part of a run already in occupation, and a battle-royal 

 ensued, when each runholder led his men. A lawsuit 

 displaced the invader. t 



The vicissitudes of runs or stations would form an 

 interesting — perhaps a painfully interesting — chapter. 

 The station of Tartha, in Queensland, was formed by 

 Beck and Brown in the late fifties. It was sold to Dr. 

 Nelson in 1862. He soon tired of it, and sold it in 1864 

 to Forbes and Pettigrew. They, again, were no more 

 successful than the doctor, and Brown bought it back 

 from them in 1866. He, too, found it unprofitable, and 

 parted with it to a man who had been his horse-driver 



* Victorian Pioneers, pp. 23. t Ibid., pp. 165, 147. 



