THE RAINBOW TRAIL - SOME BILOELA FARMS
(By “Seagee”)
Mr. Roy Brown, one of the sons of Mr. Alfred Brown, senr., late of Valentine
Plains Station, on the south-west side and opposite the Biloela railway station,
holds a typical Prairie perpetual lease block of 200 acres upon which he had
carried out some very substantial improvements during the two years that he
has been in possession. A fine six-roomed bungalow roofed dwelling is to be
found here and encircling the block is a five-wire fence consisting of three
plain and two barbs which make a good sheep proof fence, so that the 265
merinos, mostly wethers, which run on the property are in a safe enclosure.
Mr. Brown, has had sheep here for about 12 months and found that they did
very well, so recently he increased his little flock by the addition of another
200 wethers front the Springsure district. Very little spear grass is to be found
on this Prairie country, most of which is well suited to the raising of sheep. MrBrown can claim to be the pioneer sheep farmer. It is fully 50 years since any
of the stations in the district carried sheep. His experience will certainly be of
benefit to other settlers, some of whom will, no doubt, follow his example and
run a few sheep on their holdings.
Mr. Brown is the big storekeeper of Biloela and in his Pioneer Store can be
found almost everything to meet the requirements of the surrounding settlers.
The post and telephone allowance office, which at present is located at Mr.
Brown's private house, will shortly for greater convenience be removed to the
store. Dealing in stock is another of Mr. Brown's activities his many years
experience of station life fitting him well for this calling. Water on Mr. Brown's
farm is obtained from a well 50 ft. in depth where good water was struck and
at the time of my visit a pump had been installed thereon and a Cooper 3 h.p.
engine was alongside ready to be rigged up. There are also in a deep gully
some natural waterholes which hold water for a considerable period. Mr.
Brown who is a Justice of the Peace is well to the fore in every movement for
the advancement of the town and district.
Mr. Alfred Brown senr., who I mentioned in a previous article as being the
owner for 25 years of Valentine Plains Station, the homestead of which is
situated only three miles from Biloela and which station was also resumed for
closer settlement purposes some two years ago, owns one of the blocks
adjoining this property of his son — Mr. Roy Brown — which he is working in
conjunction with the latter. The area of this adjoining block is 214 acres about
10 acres of which have been cleared and six acres of which carries the finest
crop of corn that I have so far seen in the district. The variety is 90 days old
and the cobs which are of good size, are well filled out and should soon be
ready for pulling. A long deep gully runs right through this property and holds
water for several months in the year. Water can also be obtained by sinking
about 50 ft. anywhere on this block.
Immediately opposite the last-mentioned block with only the road between, is
the, farm of a newcomer, Mr. G. R. Anderson, who arrived only three months
ago on his block of 210 acres which has a frontage of one mile to Kroombit
Creek, with good holes therein. Mr. Anderson has been a farmer and
dairyman all his life and hails from Kyogle, a great dairying centre in New
South Wales. He was fortunate in securing a block with 130 acres practically
all cleared, some of it having previously been under the plough. Within three
weeks after his arrival he purchased cattle and soon commenced dairying,
sending his cream to the Wowan butter factory. The dairy herd consists of 25
milkers of mixed breed some of Jersey strain. Mr. Anderson's intention is to
go in for grade Jerseys, the class that he favours being the Jersey-Ayrshire
cross of which he has had a good deal of experience. Mr. G. R. Anderson,
one of Mr. G. R. Anderson's sons, has an adjoining block of 208 acres with
Kroombit and Kariboe creeks running through. The two properties are being
stocked in conjunction and the 490 acres in the two blocks make a splendid
dairying proposition. A small house and a dairy has been erected, a well sunk
12 ft. in which a good water supply was struck at 8 ft., and fencing and other
improvements are now in hand and being pushed along vigorously. It is
intended to grow corn and a little cotton, but the main industry is to be
dairying, that being, in Mr. Anderson's opinion, the farmers star of hope.
Mr. Joseph H. Ninness, who holds Rosalie Park, an area of 208 acres, being
an adjoining block on the west side of Mr. G. B. Anderson’s farm, is also from
Kyogle and has had much, farming and dairying experience. This farm is an
example of what can be accomplished by one man on a farm. In the short
space of less than two years 100 acres of land has been cleared, boundary
and subdivision fences have been erected, and house, yards, etc., built,
besides which Mr. Ninness has done all his own ploughing and planting. Last
year 10 acres was put under cotton, but it was planted a bit late; still a fair
crop resulted. Brown millet to the extent of six acres was also grown and a
very fair crop realised £40 per ton. Peanuts and sunflowers were also
cultivated as feed for fowls and stock, This year 70 acres of Durango cotton
saw the light and is now being picked and will average about two bales to the
acre. Of sunflowers five acres are in and now, just at the flowering stage,
make a gorgeous and brilliant show. A fair number of fowls are kept on this
farm, the feed for them being grown on this farm. The breed liked best is tie
Leghorn-Black Orpington cross and of these 100 find, a good home at Rosalie
Park. The source of water supply is a gully containing big waterholes which
last for several months, but a bore is to go down so as to obtain a permanent
supply. Dairying will then be carried on.
Mr. Llewell Harold, who was a land guide on the Burnett and Callide land
settlement scheme area for 18 months and was the means of assisting a
great many of the settlers to secure suitable farming blocks, also secured for
himself one of 230 acres, which he has named “Oeo”, fronting the Biloela
railway station and lying between the railway and the old Prairie homestead
block. Oeo includes an agricultural plain of 200 acres practically all cleared.
Mr. Harold has only recently come into occupation.
The Callide Sawmilling Co., in which undertaking Mr. Harold is interested, has
its mill established on this block and is doing a fine business in hard wood
sawn timber, supplying the needs of the settlers, many of whom are
commencing to build. The railway construction, irrigation, State farm, and
roads improvement departments are also buyers of sawn hardwood from this
mill. A site for a bore has been chosen on this farm by the Government
diviner, who anticipates striking water at 100 ft., and the department well borer
is expected to come along shortly to test the correctness of this prophecy. Mr.
Harold's intention is to turn his 230 acres into a sheep farm. At the time of my
visit improvements were going on and included the erection of a small new
residence to replace the temporary abode in which Mr. Harold has been
housed.
Mr. A. P. Duke, a son of the late Mr. James Duke, a well-known dairyman of
Tewantin, has secured the old Prairie homestead block and an adjoining,
block, which his son James has taken up, bringing up the total acreage held
by the Dukes to 480 acres. Dairying is the industry carried on and a fine herd
of cattle is to be found here, brought from the farm of Mr. Duke's father at
Eumundi. The cows in this herd are all tested cows, and comprise pure bred
Jerseys from Burton's Stud, Brisbane, pure bred Illawarra milking Shorthorns
and good grade cows of both breeds. The leader of the herd is Spider, a pure
bred bull of the latter breed. Up to 38 head of these fine cows are being
milked and a number of heifers are coming on, so that the size of the herd will
soon be increased. The buildings on this homestead are the oldest in the
whole district. The main residence was originally roofed with shingles, but
over this, in recent years, a second roof of the usual iron has been put,
rendering the building a very cool one in the heat of summer. Both this and
the large kitchen are slab-sided and the walls of both have been bored for
musketry fire so as to enable the defenders better to keep off the early days
attacks of marauding blacks.
In the matter of water supply Mr. Duke is fortunate in having on the
homestead block the old station well upon which there is a windmill, as well as
a Fuller and Johnson engine, both of which do their share as occasion
requires in keeping filled a huge supply tank of 20,000 gallons, also a smaller
house tank, from which the water is laid on to the homestead buildings.
As mentioned in a previous article, Mr. Duke provides free, for the provisional
school, a fine large building formerly the bachelor's quarters and store, from
which the partitions have been removed, making a fine roomy school room,
sufficiently large to accommodate, if required, eighty scholars and those who
ride to school also have free grass and water for their ponies. Free use of this
school building, also of a player-piano and lights, is also given by Mr. Duke for
dances, concerts, &c., held in aid of any movement for the benefit of the town.
Mrs. Duke has a hobby in which she has met with a good deal of success,
and that is the breeding of high-class Pomeranian dogs. It seems strange to
find these beautiful dogs so far from any big city. Amongst these attractive
little pets are to be found five prize-winners at Brisbane shows, besides which
many first and other prizes have been won by Mrs. Duke's stud at suburban
and country shows. The leader of the stud is by Houghton Goldmite, of the
famous Marsden Stud, Brisbane, champion of the Brisbane Dog Show for
several years. Mrs. Duke also has another pet dog Bubbles, a Pekinese, also
a prize-winner at Brisbane and country shows.
Messrs. Jarvis Brothers, two born-and-bred farmers from Kent, England, are
near neighbours of Mr. Duke; in fact, only a road is between them. The
brothers, who hold two blocks, have between them 500 acres They have held
their blocks about two years and secured on one block the fine large former
station barn and a cottage close by so that they had a roof over their heads
and storage for fodder right from the start. They are making good use of the
barn, too, for in it they had at the time of my visit a large quantity of Sudan
grass hay from two acres of this good fodder plant, besides a good deal of
bush hay; also plenty of storage room for their cotton, two bales of which,
weighing 550 lb. each, I saw these hefty brothers loading on to a dray for
conveyance to the railway. They believe in packing their bales well, as less
bales are required, and they are easier to load, not being given to sag. Last
year they held the record for the heaviest bale of cotton sent to the ginnery; it
registered 636 lb. Fully 100 acres of land had been cleared and brought under
the plough by these hard-working brothers. Last year 38 acres of cotton was
put in and yielded a fair crop, and this year's 20 acres will go about 650 lb. to
the acre. A natural waterhole and large house tanks have been the source of
water supply so far, but it is intended later to bore for a more adequate supply.
Mr. Godfrey Frances McRae, a native of Victoria, holds a farm of 300 acres of
agricultural land adjoining that of Mr. Joseph B. Ninness above described. To
this farm he has given the name of Ellandonan, after a castle in Scotland, the
stronghold of the McCrae or rather “MacRae” Clan. Mr. G. F. McRae saw
service in the South African War and in the last Great War he was a Sergeant
Major in the 11th Light Horse and put in a strenuous time, both in Egypt and
France, and, was mentioned in despatches. It was rather a coincidence, too,
that he and another soldier were the only two in the whole regiment that went
right through the campaign free from both wounds and sickness. Mr. McRae
showed me a very fine book, bound in tartan, and called “The Clan MacRae
with its Rolls of Honour and of Service in the Great War” compiled by Ella
MacRae-Gilstrap, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel John MacRae-Gilstrap, the
present head of the Clan. It is a splendid record of the brave doings of the
men of this great name “the wide world o'er” on the side of Britain and her
Allies in the great struggle and includes amongst the number Mr. G. F.
McRae, two of his brothers, and many other Australians.
Ellandonan, the castle before mentioned, for a great many years was nothing
but an old crumbling ruin, but the present head of the Clan has had it restored
at great expense and so it has come back to much of its ancient grandeur.
However, to get back to Ellandonan, the farm, the soil of which appears to be
too rich to grow cotton as owing to the rapid growth of weeds it seems almost
impossible to keep the cotton clean. Some farmers have, to a great extent,
got over the difficulty by spacing their plants very wide, leaving 4 ft. or 5 ft. of
space between the plants as well as the rows, and then by crosscultivating
keeping the weeds in check. Lucerne does extremely well here. A patch of an
acre planted by Mr. McRae late in May last has, up to March 1st instant, given
five cuttings of splendid growth. Cotton to the extent of five acres was put in
as an experiment, but late planting, frost, and weeds gave it such a doing that
not much cotton resulted. Corn, potatoes, and all kinds of vegetables and
fodder do well in this rich soil and the land with its wonderful growth of good
natural grasses is ideal dairying country. Water in fair supply is to be had in a
creek bordering the road just opposite the McRae residence, but it is intended
to bore for water which it is expected to strike at a reasonable depth and so
secure an ample supply. Dairying has been commenced in a small way the
intention being to increase the herd and make dairying the main, industry. Mr.
McRae is the Chairman of the Biloela Local Producers' Association, a live
local body consisting of nearly 70 members.
“The Capricornian” 3 Apr 1926 pp 13-14