I am not talking about the fence in the foreground but rather the mountain range in the background.
I've been reading a history of the Boyne Valley written by my father in 1979. He details the arrival of the first pastoralist in the valley.
When WHW, William Henry Walsh, arrived in 1853 he blazed trees at 4 key points bounded by the range and Boyne River with his initials, claiming a 5 year lease on the 25 square miles squattage or run that he had thus created. In the next ten years three more enormous runs were surveyed and added to the run. By 1868 the Milton squattage extended across the whole of the Boyne river watershed (659 square miles) When just two of the portions were offered for sale in 1870 together they were running 9000 cattle, 130 brood mares and 50 saddle horses - not bad for a young man from Oxfordshire who had arrived in Australia as a 21 year old just thirty years earlier.
Mr Walsh became a prominent citizen of the colony. After leaving Milton Run he was elected to State Parliament, appointed Minister for Works and later Speaker of the House before he resigned from the position to remain in the chamber where, it was reported, he "erratically scintilled" until his untimely death in 1888 when he fell under a dray and was killed.
What an enterprising young man....a trail blazer indeed! Squatters rights certainly worked in those days but I dare say it would be very rough uncultivated land. It's very beautiful now!
@happypat oh yes. Often reflect on what those clearly English settlers arrive. It is impossible to imagine what they felt-seasons upside down, not one familiar tree or animal and not a sign of a village or town. What a challenge
May 26th, 2015
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