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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Abandoned homesteads from the 1880s still remain, such as Eulolo on the Gilliart River with its separate cookhouse and many outbuildings or Nelia Ponds on the Flinders River – both main homestead buildings prefabricated and carted there by bullock drays. Rockvale has buildings from every period, while some components like wool bins were moved to different properties as occurred with those from Peak Downs in the 1860s going to Cubaroo and remaining in use until 200. The associated stock routes between stations contain in situ heritage such as cast iron stock route signs, yards, bores, mills and tanks, which all require heritage protection.

Patterns largely remained until the mid 1960s when social and economic changes caused a slow but obvious drift away from the bush and a new pastoral framework formed with larger scale corporate ownerhsip, less labour and increased mechanical assistance. Granting equal pay to

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

A West Moreton Orchard.

The large view on this page furnishes a notable example of what may be achieved by an industrious settler in Queensland. It represents the property of Mr. F. W. Rebstein, Orange Grove, Mount Sylvia, near Gatton. The number of trees in the orchard is 700, comprising 50 Lisbon lemon, 100 mandarin, and 550 orange trees of various kinds.
Mr. Rebstein has also about twenty other fruit-trees, such as apples, pears, and peaches. Where the gaps appear in the rows about seventy trees have been cut out, having failed to make suitable growth, but in every case the tree removed has been replaced by another, which in a few years will grow up and restore the uniformity of the rows. The orange bug has made great havoc among the trees lately, and it takes a good deal of time and labour to keep the

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Station Life

Station life was hard and made harder by the isolation. The hub of any station was the homestead. Whether or not there was a ‘Missus’ to run the essential backup services for all who lived on the big properties, someone had to be responsible for the feeding, such medical care as could be given, and the provision of a place for the management to operate.

Sometimes these functions would have been performed by the owner’s or manager’s wife, sometimes by paid help. Many station cooks were male, and the boss was often the provider of health and welfare for the station hands.

For many properties the great distance and the transport problems meant that orders had to go in for twelve months. Typical was an order for one station in 1888, which included 2 tons of flour, 1 ton of common salt (meat had to be

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Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The Homestead Gate.

It swings idly on its hinges, the old fashioned gate, the sun and wind have long since scarred its surface and the once snow-white palings are now a sickly grey. It swings to and fro as though mutely protesting against its fate, for far up in the ridge the carpenters are camped – the carpenters who for weeks past have been busy at the new home. The old homestead, with its long rambling verandahs and passages and roof of iron and shingle, has been razed to the ground, and today a grand new structure proudly stands on the grave of the old home.
‘Tis a long stretch of years since the young owner brought his girl-bride to the homestead to face their new life in the big, still bushland. Every evening the bride would come to the gateway and lean on the snow-white railings

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