History Notes - droving from Mackay to Muswellbrook in 1890

History Notes

Historical Society members have survived a very busy October with two market days, several visitors looking for family history, a street stall and several improvements in the Dean Room. Thankyou to those who were able to help with the street stall especially those helping with the setting up the tables and putting them away afterwards. Hopefully everyone will remember the Annual Meeting next week.

This week an interesting letter arrived requesting photos and comments about the Barraba area in the 1890's. The author's great grandfather was part of a team droving a mob of cattle from near Mackay in Queensland to Muswellbrook in NSW in 1890. He kept a diary of the journey and now his great grandson is hoping to publish a book about the journey then and now.

The mob passed through Piedmont and Cobbadah Station runs in August, 1890, commenting on a plague of kangaroos in the area and how the owners of the stations had shot thousands of them. There was a severe drought in the early 1890's and it looks as though this plague may have played a part in the losses of station cattle.

As the cattle approached Barraba the drovers noted that there was plenty of grass on very stony ground but no grass as they passed through the "little town". It seems that they passed through on the old stock route over railway hill two days after passing through the village of Cobbadah.

Two days later the mob passed Haydon's wine shop and cattle station (now owned by the Bowman family) and camped at Tarpoly. The next day they had trouble going through Upper Manilla because the cattle kept on breaking out around the houses but they noted the wheat growing on the flats.

A week after passing through Cobbadah the mob passed through Manilla where they found a brick school, nice houses and a handsome bridge over the Namoi River. Apparently, NSW had a lot more bridges than Queensland in 1890.

This book promises to be rather interesting if the great grandson manages to finish it and he will be getting copies of a couple of Barraba photos to help him on his way.