Page 8 - eMuse Vol.9 No.09

MACPHERSON AND

MOUNT ABUNDANCE

by Athony Hammill
In the above composite illustration the background is from the
The trials and tribulations of a hundred cattle, four loaded drays cover of sheet music “The Dr Leichhardt March” by Fred Nerque.
squatter founding a new pastoral each pulled by ten bullocks, a Major Sir Thomas Mitchell and Dr Ludwig Leichhardt from Public
station are no better represented small horse team and several sad- domain.
than in Allan Macpherson’s mem- dle horses. Five miles a day was here, a piano, cigars, eau-de-co- the station, and taken away up to
oir Mount Abundance: or The considered a good day’s journey logne, scented soap, but wherev- a thousand sheep. The terrified
Experiences of a Pioneer Squat- for such an expedition through er I planted the brandy they (the workers had deserted the station
ter In Australia Thirty Years Ago, trackless scrub, but in two months men) were sure to find it. I took a taking the sheep with them, and
published in 1879. Drawing on the the expedition averaged only 2 bottle this morning and put in a Macpherson located and rallied
entries in his journal, Macpherson ½ miles a day, the main problem dose of tartar emetic, thinking to them. He went ahead with Char-
recounts the hardships and trag- being lost animals, and drays be- detect the culprit. But now they ley, killing several hostile blacks
edies that led to his acceptance of ing left behind until replacement are all sick . I can’t discharge them along the way, and found the
defeat and eventual sale of his run bullocks could be purchased from all!” station intact along with around
‘for a song.’ the nearest stations. Macpherson Bushrangers at one point also forty bales of wool. Life returned
Allan Macpherson (1818- himself was absent for a month held up the party, stole some of to normal .
1891) was born at Blairgowrie on business in the Darling Downs. his wine, and tried to drink the In late October 1848 Macpher-
House, Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Crossing St George’s Bridge, eau-de-cologne and eat his scent- son set out with three men to find
Scotland, of a wealthy family. He a rocky crossing on the Balonne ed soap! a new line of road to the near-
came to Sydney with his parents River, they left the last outpost of Having organized the construc- est road on the Darling Downs,
in 1828 where his father had ac- settlement with 180 miles to go. tion of the head station, huts, in order to transport his wool
cepted a government appoint- Leaving the superintendent with yards, fences and out-stations, in to Brisbane. Along the way he
ment. He was educated at Cape’s the lambing sheep, Macpherson December 1847 Macpherson re- found a deserted station and a
school, and in 1847 found himself and his personal servant forged turned to Keera to replenish sup- grave, and further on the owner,
a struggling squatter on Keera Sta- on ahead and on 15 October plies with a horse team, an empty Mr Blythe, who warned him of a
tion in the Gwydir district in north- reached their goal, which he de- dray, and men. The hazards he marauding band of blacks num-
ern New South Wales. scribed as ‘beautiful undulating encountered make the labours of bering 300-400. On the way home
Sir Thomas Mitchell, a fellow downs covered with the richest Hercules look like child’s play, with Macpherson came across a camp
Scot and friend of the Macpher- barley grass and intersected with the onset of floods, the dray up to of warriors wearing war paint, and
sons, told them of magnificent creeks and gullies.’ He claimed its axles and the horses up to their drove them off, but with fatal con-
grazing country, ‘champagne 600 square miles of well-watered knees in mud, constant rain, swol- sequences:
country’ about 360 miles to the land, establishing a sheep station len rivers, and his near-drowning “As there were not above
north-west of Keera, which he had and also a cattle station where and rescue by aborigines in the thirty or forty warriors in the party
discovered on his 1846 expedition. Roma now stands, and building Gwydir River opposite Keera. Hav- who had retired, and as our hors-
He had named the prominent fea- his homestead on the southern ing left the original team behind es were rather tired, I resolved to
ture there Mt Abundance . Allan, bank of Bungeworgorai Creek. at Grover’s station, he returned camp for an hour at the blacks’
recognizing opportunity when he Macpherson understandably with another team, but encoun- camp by the side of the creek.
saw it, determined to be the first fails to mention some humorous tered similar conditions. At the I gave the order to turn out the
to settle on the best of the land incidents that occurred along the Mount he found the shearing al- horses, taking off the pack and
under squatters’ rights and make way. Henry Stuart Russell, the pas- most completed and everything other saddles, and began to pre-
his fortune. He hoped to make 10 toralist and historian who wrote harmonious, and soon after jour- pare for dinner, rendered unusu-
000 pounds a year. The Genesis of Queensland re- neyed to Sydney for six months. ally sumptuous by the addition
Armed with insider informa- cords that he came across the ex- Returning to St George’s Bridge of an immense number of fish,
tion including sketches from pedition, and found Macpherson with new men and a civilized cooked and uncooked, roasted
Mitchell, in July 1847 he set out to sitting sadly under a tree, and his black named Charley, Macpher- bandicoots, possums and, though
find his self-described Promised men lying around, clearly in pain . son received the bad news that a last, not least, five snakes, ready
Land. His expedition consisted of As Macpherson explained: raiding party of blacks had killed cooked, which we found at the
twenty men, a superintendent, “I’m not going into the bush a shepherd and a hut-keeper on fire.
around 10 000 sheep, several like a savage . I have a good cellar
8 eMuse September 2020