West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Thursday 24 November 1887, page 3


A FEW NOTES ABOUT KIM- ï

BERLEY. j

[BT BENQALEE.]

Poor young Kimberley ! You have been abused and scandalised by returning diggers and would-be funny journalists to such a de-gree that if you wore not such a sturdy, genuine customer you would have to hide your diminished head and sink into oblivion. There are many reasons why you should not do so. Your hardy pioneer settlers know by tliia time the value of your vast natural re-sources, in the shapo of millions of acres 01 glorious .pastoral country and splendid rain-fall that will eventually chango the current of public opinion. Your goldfields thafhave been so much declaimed against are, accord-ing to the latest reports, likely to prove a remunerative field for quartz reefing. The future prosperity of the field will soon be placed beyond a doubt as crashing machinery is by this time pretty well on its way to the scene of operations. The first plant of quartz crashing machinery is, I hear, partly owned by Mr. H. Brockman, a member of a well-known Weat Australian family. Other plants of machinery are expected shortly, so that, apart from pastoral matters, Kimber-ley for some time, at any rate, will be able to keep a good many hands at work and give employment to the teamsters. I won't say anything about the township of Derby, as no doubt the public have been deluged with de-scriptions of it, except that a more hopeful tone is observable among the various business men in the place.

After leaving Derby on the road to the diggings, tho first stopping place is Nobby's well. In this well there is a never failing supply of fresh water close to the surface. The origin£of the name, I believe, is derived from the fact of an old horse of that name, haying departed this life somewhere in the vicinity. The Local Roa.Js Board have erected troughs, and a small stackyard at ibis place, fur the convenience of the travelling public. Yeeda station, the first pastoral settlement met with, is about 25 milos from Derby, and" the home station is situated on a, sand-jridge on the bank of the Ycsda creek, on another, branch of the Fitzroy. " Between the horne station and tile Fitzroy River some fine, open, well grassed country is to be seen. This sta-tion is under the management of Mr. G. B. Rose, and both sheep and cattle are depastur-ed. The cattle especially, look well, and have increased in a-remarkablo degree.

There are some substantial improvements upon this run in the way of fencing, etc., and sheep thrive wonderfully. Proceeding up the' Fitzroy, the next place met with 13 Lower Liveringa, about 2:') miles from the Yeeda.. The' country passed over being for'the most p'art open, "lightly timbered," well "grassed country; with occasional patches of Pindan.' I may 'as welljexplaiñ he're that " Pindan}" is the native name" for the country back irop£ the river frontage, but" the word is ijsed, in. various ways. ' Lower Liveringa can boast of the finest "home station in Kimberley, which is, p.rettily situated on a sand-ridsre, with a beautiful sheet of permanent water at its bas J. This station is owned by Messrs. Emanuel, and although only lately formed, is far in ad-vance, in the way of iinproienients, of many of the older formed stations. At this station a portion of the waterhole has been wisely reserved for the public, and if more precau-tions are not taken in way of reserving other places on the road to the diggings before long, great inconvenience will bo felt by teamsters, and others, with travelling stock. Messrs. Emanuel have introduced a good class of sheep into the district and haye been successful as regards inoroase. These gentlemen also bred a good few horses, and a small herd of cattle, who enjoy the very beau, ideal of bovine felicity, plenty ol water, grass and shade.

After leaving Lower Liverina, the road approaches Mount Anderson, the most westerly point of the Grant Range. At the foot of the Mount, is the home station of Messrs. Rose, Brothers. All the stock here look well, and give testimony to the excel-lence of the pasture by their condition and increase. On the opposite side of the Fitz-roy, about 12 miles up the river, is situated Mesrs. Gregory, Bros': home station. This homestead is well situated on a dry ridge, and commands a fine view of the Grant Range. This range, although hardly equal in grandeur, and all that sort of thing, to the Alps or the Himalayas, is still picturesque and there are may caves, nooks and views that in a more populated country, would be the scene of rnany a merry pic-nic, and figure in sketch books. The name of Messrs, Gregory Brothers' station is Neerima, the native name of a tributary of the Fitzroy, near the home station. The sheep on that

place look well, although not above two or' three thousand ; but the intelligent manage-ment of their owners points to a rapid increase, as the country is well grassed with plenty'

of secure back country. By secure country I mean country not liable to be affected by floods. On crossing the Firzroy, back to the Goldfields road, still going up the river, the

land of the Kimberley Pastoral Company is reaohed, This company have a large extent of woll grassed and well watered country, although the best of it is not seen from the

road.

To the east of tho Grant Range is a magni-ficent stretch of open plain, OQ\ero,d wlÖl Flinders, and qthcç grasses.. 'This plain goss by the naiqo of Yarvala Plain, a large water hole ofthat name, adjoining it. The natives here, as elsewhere, have names for nearly every waterhole and hill. The nativo name for the Erskine Range.that borders this plain at the north-east, is Moorolyabba ; Mount Wynne is called Loman, and so on. This" station is managed by Mr. W. McLarty, and about 12,000 sheep are depastured on the run, and are steadily increasing.' Near' the centre of this run is a splendid sheqt of water, called Upper- L,iyçrin,g«'. This waterhole", ' <$: lakelet, ?> is about' è,'njilo long, and from t*q tothree hundred yards wide, .

4t the time qf my v-isit, this was the torn pqrary ca.mn of Messrs, W. M, Marmion & Co. fqr ca,ttlp. Tbose cattle look exceptionally Well, and there seemed to bo a goodly num-ber o'f oalves among them, still another proof of the excellence of the stock producing capabilities of the Kimberioy District. After leaving this water-hole a long stretch of un stooked country is passed over. With the ox . ception of a sheep camp of the Kimberley Pastoral Company, at Lake ¿coolinda p.tdt'tjf little circular lakciej, near. 'Mt. Wynne, the oi-iy other p.astoYaXsç.ttlen\en.t passed. 0« tho rqàd to the diggings is M^1'- McDonnel & Oo.'s s.tatiQq, on this place, in common W-Hh the rest of the country, stock aro doing remarkably well. The only thing to be re-gretted is that SO muoh country is lying idle for the want of stock. This, of course, v. iii be obviated in time when a_ rc^«sibn secs iii." Although there, s.6taUi-j to bo, a.*"sqrf of-' pre-" judioe tgainsv.tiii^iiarî qf the codon.ies, thq starting "qualities of the grR3s,oá and the glorious rainjiillj stamp, Kimberley as one of

tho. b,ssi lAacu,3 in the Oolonics, if not the wq'rld,, a§" a atook producing country. In time to come, no doubt, many flourishing settlers will endorse my humble opinion of the country.

The question might natnrn.Hr ar¡áev. What is to bo done w\tb the stock 'whjsn we. raise thom, i The ans.w.er to thia is-Lpok at the ¡ price-, meat is selling, in Perth and; I'remantlo. And taking, into, o,qt\s$de>rTitiQn tho advaneo of tl\o öolqiyy- i*4 general, whether under Re-sponsible (JtoYornmciit or not, the speculation is worth trying. At the present date the main difficulty would be to get stock t9 start with. In fact it is doubtfully, if a TíiQb 0? 400 store bullocks, of fattening u££t» conk* be got together in all We^t Ausnalia. There I is one curious fact \n connection with the Ktaroy. On the north side, for at least 110 wiles, it receives no tributaries; on the south sido, there aro two in the same distance, namely, Jeergaly Creek and Neerim». Ac-cording to some authorities in the pronuncia-tion of the native language, Gilgally k tUe proper way to pronounce the name of the creek, on which iipebüok Downs cattle sta-tion is situated» This station is owned by Mos'srs. Monger and Collins. The homo [ stead of this run is about 40 miles

from the river, on the

32 r»

Creek. This creel: joins the river a little cast of south of Mount Anderson, and for at least 20 miles of its course runs all the year round. At this point a sudden rise in the country forms the creek into a waterfall of about 50 feet high. This waterfall is shaped like a horse-shoe. The basin into which the water falls is deep and well-stocked with fish. Mr. Collins is the -manager of this run, and in a shoit space of time has erected several handy stockyards on the station. The one at the nome station is on a very convenient plan for working a herd of cattle. The cattle, of which thoro are about a thou-sand, look well, and the 'country is well gr.issed. A large extent of it up the creek, can only be described as simply magnificent.

{To le Continued.)