302 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



— the provincial capitals themselves, Brisbane and 

 even Sydney — long bore the impress of the squatter. 

 Its largest business premises are wool stores, which 

 face the new arrival as he approaches the wharves. Its 

 leading firms are wool-brokers. The Exchange is at 

 first a Wool Exchange. The chief importers, filling 

 whole streets, supply the storekeepers in the small 

 country-towns who supply the squatters. Some of the 

 most sumptuous private houses are occupied by such 

 importers. 



Ports were opened up by squatters to facilitate the 

 export of their avooI. Such are Rockhampton and Port 

 Curtis. The squatters of Southern Queensland fought 

 desperately to make Ipswich, situated higher up the 

 river, the working capital of Queensland. It was nearer 

 the Darling Downs ; the export of wool and the import 

 of supplies would presumably have cost them less ; and 

 they would have been better able to control it. They 

 completely failed ; nature was against them. 



Roads were made by the squatters, sometimes (as on 

 the Darling Downs) combining in a " working bee " to 

 clear the dense scrub. Half-a-dozen such squatting 

 firms cut a track for wool-drays across the Dividing 

 Range. 



Railwaj'^s were first determined by pastoral needs. 

 Thus the first railway in Queensland was built to drain 

 the Darling Downs stations of their wool and supply them 

 with their desiderata. It had its terminus at Ipswich, 

 some distance up the Brisbane River, and Brisbane, the 

 provincial metropolis, was left out in the cold. Yet the 

 Times asserts that the railways of New South Wales 

 were built in the interests of Sydney, to carry wool 

 from the interior. 



