94 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



formed by the pioneers in 1865-6, and found unsettled 

 country further on. They, like their predecessors in 

 1864-5, followed the course of the rivers. Two names 

 stand out still more conspicuously than most of these. 

 Captain John iNIackay was navigator and explorer before 

 he became a pioneer squatter, and he continued his 

 navigation and exploration after he became, or in order 

 to become, a pioneer squatter. Setting out from 

 Armidale in 1860, he tracked to the coast the river 

 named Mackay, and decided to tender for the fertile 

 valley it watered. Having been successful, he set out 

 from Armidale in the following year with 1,200 or 1,400 

 head of cattle, 50 horses, and two bullock teams. In 

 1862, after overcoming crushing difficulties, he formed 

 his station. Still living (1910), he was one of the 

 oekists of Northern Queensland. 



Another was named Jardine. Carrying into effect 

 an idea of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of 

 Queensland, Jardine travelled a mob of cattle from 

 Bowen to Somerset, and there established a refuge and 

 a coaling station. It was a journey of 1,600 miles, and 

 it took the heroic pioneer, with his tAvo sons, six months 

 to accomplish one of the most thrilling of early expedi- 

 tions. They cut their way through the bush, swam 

 their horses across rivers and creeks, and performed the 

 last 300 miles on foot. The year of their success was 

 1864. 



Discoveries of new country suitable for stations were 

 sometimes made, in a manner, by accident. An 

 assigned convict servant, Richard C*raig by name, in 

 the employ of Dr. Dobie, of New England, wandered 

 away A^dth the intention of escaping from his servitude, 

 or else, as he professed, losing his way in the mountain 

 ranges while he was shepherding. He was carried 

 down to the low country by the blacks, with whom he 

 for a time resided. Getting tired of their company, he 

 came back to his employer, to whom he told his story 

 of a great river, a mile broad, flowing between banks 

 where grew the cedar in abundance, and behind them 



