90 THE PASTOBAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



in search of a run, leaving Dight's station on the Lower 

 Mclntyre, with two servants. He settled on the 

 Gwydir, but his right to be there was disputed. There- 

 fore he sat down at Bebo, and built huts there, while 

 he made his cattle-camps on the other side of the river. 

 Thus, by accident, he became the first stockowner in 

 what was to be Queensland. Two months later Patrick 

 Leshe joassed his station on his way to the Darhng 

 Downs.* 



A pioneer squatter inspired others to emulate and 

 follow him. The more successful of these were variants 

 on their leader, took different routes, and worked 

 different districts. Where so many are conspicuous it 

 is hard to select, but almost all the names that distin- 

 guish those early days are notable. Not a few of them 

 were heroes. David Cannon McConnel was the first 

 settler on the head-waters of the Brisbane. He had 

 been exploring as far south as Moruya, 200 miles south 

 of Sydney, but resolved to try the northern country, 

 and he went to New England, where he seems to have 

 squatted for a time. There he heard of Patrick Leshe 

 and his adventurous journey still further north — 

 indeed, Leslie had started from that very district — and 

 he resolved to push on in the same direction. Following 

 the track of the Leslies as far a,s the Severn, he there 

 diverged from their route. He passed by Tenterfield 

 and Stanhope, and looked for suitable country near the 

 heads of the Clarence or Logan districts. He found 

 the country disappointingly broken and untempting. 

 Then, traversing the tableland to the Upper Condamine, 

 he crossed the Great Dividing Range and settled on 

 Cessbrook Creek, a tributary of the Upper Brisbane 

 River, in 1841 ; he was the first, JVIr. Bartley tells us, 

 to settle with stock on a run to the east of the main 

 range in Queensland. There he bought pedigree short- 

 horn bulls from the Australian Agricultural Company, 

 and imported others from England. The herd thus 

 bred still exists, 



* J. J. Knight, In ths Early Days, pp. 75 ff. 



