WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

Station NT – a feat which became known as 'The Great Drove'. In 1883, the Duracks
drove 7,250 cattle and 200 horses over 4,828 kilometres from Thylungra Station to
Argyle Downs and Lissadell Station in the north east Kimberley.
The story of the Durack droves has become widely known through Dame Mary
Durack's best selling books, Kings in Grass Castles, To Ride a Fine Horse and Sons
in the Saddle.
Part of the mystique of the history of Kimberley cattle men in popular imagination
comes from its association with these overlanders who established the first pastoral
runs in the Kimberley. They travelled astonishing distances with large numbers of
cattle over largely unmapped country distant from established European settlements.
Some were assisted by Aboriginal people and some experienced conflict and
resistance from Aboriginal people. It is also clear that the drovers and animals alike
faced harsh conditions.
In contrast to many who admired these pioneering feats, overlanders were at times in
conflict with other pastoral landowners when during a drove they squatted on others
land. This conflict was particularly difficult in times of drought. Nevertheless, drovers
became a symbol of European adaptation to a harsh environment as well as of
adventuring into the unknown in far and isolated places. Their tenacity played a role
in the development of the Australian identity and their place in Australian legend is
reflected in folklore and balladry. The life of the drover is described in poems by
Henry Lawson and 'Banjo' Patterson, in books written by Judith Wright and in
Australian song, film and art.
The drove undertaken by the MacDonald brothers from 1883-86 epitomises both the
outstanding exploits of drovers during this era, and the endurance of these men in
moving stock great distances across the country. In financial partnership with the
MacKenzie family to whom they were related by marriage, they sought to take
advantage of the new grazing country opening up in the Kimberley. Over a three year
period between 1883 and 1886, the MacDonald brothers drove 670 head of mixed
cattle, 32 bullocks yoked to two wagons, and 60 horses from near Goulburn in NSW
to Fossil Downs in the Kimberley (MacKenzie 1985). This drove illustrates the
hardship faced by both men and animals during a journey of this length. Many cattle
and horses were lost because of drought conditions in Queensland, boggy river
crossings and Aboriginal attacks on stock. In addition stock illness caused problems
when the leading mobs of cattle came down with pleural pneumonia. Malarial fever
struck the expedition and both the assistant drover and the bullock handler became so
ill they had to leave the drove. The Chinese cook was also killed during what is
recorded as an attack by Aboriginal people. Two years into the trip Charles
MacDonald, the expedition leader, became so sick with malaria that he had to be sent
by steamer back to New South Wales (MacKenzie 1985). Later his brother William
MacDonald was also struck down with malaria and became too ill to go on. He also
returned to New South Wales to recuperate, and this in turn delayed the ultimate
completion of the trek (MacKenzie 1985). They eventually arrived on 3 June 1886 at
their destination, at the junction of the Margaret and Fitzroy Rivers near a tree marked
F136 by explorer Alexander Forrest. The drove had taken three years and covered a
distance of over 5,600 kilometres, a feat unequalled by any other drovers and
recorded as the longest drove in Australian history.
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