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JUANDAH TO HORNET BANK
OLD DAWSON RIVER STATIONS
DANGERS OP EARLY DAYS
By E. S. Sorenson
ONE of the first big cattle stations
that was taken up on Leichhardt's
track across the Dawson River country
was the historic Juandah, whence origi
nated the immense mobs of brumbies and
wild cattle that for many years roamed
over the land from above Hornet Bank
down to the headwaters of the Dee and
the Don. Juandah, which stands mid
way on the 85-mile road between Miles
and Taroom, is now only a selector's home
stead, nearly all the run having gone over
to small holders, while the Dawson Valley
has become noted for cotton-growing.
To the early settlers the Dawson was
known as the worst tract in Queensland,
on account of the numerous murders and
massacres that occurred there, and it was
a marvel to them how Leichhardt got
through unscathed in 1844. Juandah was
one of his camps; Taroom was another.
The town, on a small hill overlooking the
river, was built around "Leichhardt's
Tree," which was preserved by the resi
dents.
Juandah was taken up by R. R. Mac
kenzie, afterwards of Warra Warra, but
he was not with the first party of men,
who were sent there with a mob of cattle
and horses. The blacks attacked the cattle,
killing several of them, and stampeding
the rest into rough, scrubby country. The
horses followed. Then the blacks at
tacked the bark-roofed hut, in which the
men were besieged for several days and
nights. The men were armed with
blunderbusses, and while repeated at
tempts were made by the attackers to fire
the hut with lighted spears a number of
them were shot. Then the men escaped,
the hut was reduced to ashes, and for a
puted possession of the place.
Then a stronger and better-equipped
party arrived, and formed a new home
stead a mile farther north, on a low hill
overlooking a broad marshy lagoon. The
new owners were two brothers named
Royd, bachelors, who built a big house
with wide verandahs, and surrounded it
with a large garden and orchard. They
held it till the early 1890's. At first they
stocked with sheep, but on account of
grass seed these were passed out for
cattle.
HOMESTEAD LIKE A TOWNSHIP
When I was at Juandah in 1895-when
I also went through Taroom, Eurombar,
and Hornet Bank-the station belonged
to the Moores of Colinton, on the Brisbane
River, and was managed by William Moore,
one of the sons. The homestead then
resembled a township. Besides the house
and the usual station sheds and store,
there was a row of cottages facing the
main road, and accommodation for coach
passengers, the station being a halting
place for the mail coach. All the build
ings were commodious; the store was
bigger than those usually found in small
country towns,
I was shown a spot on Juandah Lagoon
that was known as the place of Fraser's
Vengeance, where Billy Fraser, one of the
two survivors of the massacre at Hornet
Bank, up the river, caught the instigator
of the crime. A gruesome relic that was
long kept at Juandah was the skull of a
notorious character known as Wild Toby.
That fellow's first authenticated crime
was the murder of his own gin. When
Sergeant McGuire and a constable went
out to arrest him. Toby was squatted at
his camp with his heels doubled under
him. He allowed them to approach closely,
then suddenly sprang up and split the
constable's head with a tomahawk. For
a long time afterwards he eluded the
police and settlers, but at last he was
betrayed by a gin he had espoused, ap
parently against her will.
NOTED HORSEMEN
Juandah was renowned for its great
horsemen. Among these were the Lawton
brothers (of Juandah, Taroom, and Chin
chilla). Five of them-George, Ted,
Jim, Bob, and Tom, all dare-devil scrub
dashers-were considered in their heyday
to be the champion roughridere of Queens
land. Jim was noted as a horsebreaker,
and Bob and Tom specialised in cattle
throwing. Tom held the record for throw
ing and tying a bullock, made on Too
woomba showground. Bob would go into
a yard on foot, among wild cattle, and
casually throw any beast that charged
him. A good part of the run was rough
and scrubby, the cattle wild, and only
skilled hands were any use as stockmen.
Besides being a fine rider and cattleman,
Tom Lawton was an expert driver. He
would put a young horse, sometimes two,
straight into a coach team, and drive full
speed along a narrow, winding track to
town. The driver of the mail coach,
Frank Lamb, would do the same when he
wanted fresh horses at Juandah. With,
a couple of unbroken youngsters in the
body of the team, the passengers had some
anxious moments as they sped between
trees.
Juandah horses were generally good,
though many were wild and demons to
buck at first; but brumbies were yarded,
too. I sampled the Dawson brumbies at
Eurombar, a few miles up the river from
Taroom, where a party of us stayed a
few days to buy and break in some of the
wild mustangs for the road.
THOUSANDS OF BRUMBIES
Eurombar was then owned and managed
by William Lord. The house and sheds
stood on a rise in a bend of Eurombar
Lagoon, a place long shunned by the blacks
as a bunyip water. They, however, hunted
around it, and 19 shepherds were mur
dered by them on the run. This station
was the largest brumby camp I had struck.
While I was there 600 horses were trapped
in four nights, and the catch totalled
9,000 in two months. Lord paid the trap
pers six shillings each for the hides, which
were sent by team to Miles.
Wild mobs ran in dense brigalow coun
try, and a big effort was made against
them only in dry summers, when they
could be restricted to certain watering
places. There the trap-yards were built.
The entrance of the trap was just wide
enough for a horse to get through, and if
he tried to get back he was stopped by the
projecting ends of long timber rails. The
first prisoners were a lure to others. In
this way the yard filled.
The mob came in to water at night. In
the morning all but a few of the best were
shot down and skinned-a big job for
three or four men when mobs were crowd
ing night after night to one lagoon; and
as the carcases, which had to be drawn
away from the yard, accumulated about
the place it became more and more un
pleasant, except for crows and goannas.
The brumbies we took away went very
well as hacks and packers, except that one
killed himself at Hornet Bank, 12 miles
above Eurombar, through catching his
hobbles against a low stump during the
night.
Hornet Bank was taken up by Andrew
Scott and leased to the Frasers, who were
always kind to the blacks. At the house
they had a little blackboy, Koopee. There
was a camp In the vicinity, where one of
the shepherds and a visitor from another
station had amused themselves by round
ing up some of the girls with their whips,
and driving two of them away. The visitor,
who left soon after, said it was only a lark,
but that "lark" led to the Hornet Bank
massacre. Years later the man concerned
was sent to Peel Island, where he died
a leper.
THE FRASER MASSACRE
On the night preceding the tragedy in
October, 1857, Koopee's mother took him
to the camp. Before daylight next morn
ing he knocked on the door, which was
locked, and called out, "Me Koopee." As
soon as the door was opened he was taken
away and an armed mob rushed in. In
a few minutes all the inmates, with the
exception of the youngest boy, were killed.
The boy, Sylvester Fraser, was struck on
the head with a nulla, and rolled off the
bed. On recovering he got a horse and
rode barebacked to" Eurombar, where he got
a fresh horse, and thence rode to Ipswich,
320 miles, where the eldest brother, Wil
liam, was loading a team with station
supplies. William Fraser died on a selec
tion near Mitchell in 1914, at the age of
83.
Those killed at Hornet Bank were Mrs.
Fraser (the mother), four daughters, three
[sons, the bookkeeper and tutor, and two
shepherds. When I was there the mail
man's track passed between the little
house paddock and the private cemetery.
The cemetery, conspicuous by the white
headstones, was only about a quarter of
a mile from the front of the house. Besides
the Fraser family, several murdered shep
herds were buried there. As on other
stations thereabouts, cattle had displaced
the sheep.
About 60 aborigines were shot by a
punitive party after the Fraser massacre;
but that did not subdue the savage blacks
in that neighbourhood. Three or four
years afterwards they attacked Culalar
ingo, a day's journey from Hornet Bank,
when Wills, a squatter; Baker, an over
seer; Baker's two sons, and 11 other per
sons were killed. In revenge for those
murders 170 blacks were shot.
Many other tragedies occurred in the
early squatting days In the strip of coun
try between Juandah and the head of the
Dawson. One place was known as Murder
ing Gully. According to local tradition it
was settled by a man named Sullivan, who
had 22 sons, ranging from infants to men.
One night the blacks attacked the place
and murdered 21 of the sons.
When I passed there, along the mail
man's track, only the clearing and a few
old posts showed where the Sullivans
had lived. It was then a cattle camp.
Mr. Arthur Henry Behrend, who com
posed "Daddy," one of the most popular
ballads ever written, died in London
recently at the age of eighty-two. "Daddy"
went all over the world in the late 'nineties,
and sold in hundreds of thousands. Mr.
Behrend made nearly £4,000 with it,
despite the fact that, after it had been
running for some time, he sold his royal
ties outright. He was a grandson of Balfe,
the composer of the opera "The Bohemian
Girl." His two hundred ballads included
a setting of Hood's "Song of the Shirt."
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