230 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



in South Queensland from 1840, and in North Queensland 

 from 1850 — were discovered and formed by their first 

 owners. As a licensing fee of £10 was all that had to 

 be paid for the " right of station," their whole means 

 were laid out in the purchase of stock and the erection 

 of station-buildings. The majority (not all) of the 

 pioneer pastoralists who settled Victoria in the late 

 thirties or early forties brought stock with them from 

 Van Diemen's Land or New South Wales. A large 

 number of the squatters who formed runs in Australia 

 brought wealth with them from England, or had acquired 

 it as superintendents of stations (as in Tasmania), or 

 in other employments, as that of a sea-captain. The 

 capitalists who at first purchased extensive tracts of 

 land in Western Australia from the Home Government, 

 then, finding conditions impracticable there, migrated 

 to Tasmania, and finally, learning the promising prospects 

 of pastoralists in Victoria, settled there, are examples 

 of the first class, while John G. Robertson and John 

 Hepburn are examples of the others. Young men like 

 Rolf Boldrewood, as T. A. Browne is honourably known 

 in literature, was furnished by his father with the means 

 of purchasing stock enough to form a small run, and 

 when he had completed his purchases he found himself 

 in possession of a few shillings as his sole floating capital. 

 Others were sent by their fathers to take up runs at 

 some distance from the paternal station, and they over- 

 landed thither the surplus of their father's stock. Others 

 still had acquired cattle or sheep by means of theft, like 

 certain innkeepers in Queensland and small squatters (in 

 the primary sense) or, it might be, free selectors every- 

 where.* 



These are instances of stations formed and often 

 discovered by their owners. But the sale and purchase 

 of stations already formed rapidly sprang into existence, 

 and a run often changed hands repeatedly in a few 



* Victorian Pioneers, pp. 22, 43, 265, and passim ; Old Mel- 

 bourne Memories, ch. i. ; Dabwin, Voyage, etc., ch. xix. ; Grant, 

 Bush Life ; and Patebson, An Outback Marriage, cha. xiv. xv. 



