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The area
Robert and
John had chosen to move into was first discovered by Major Mitchell who, on
June 28th, 183 passed just to the N.W. of Kow Swamp on his way to Mt. Hop and
Pyramid Hill. He described the country as 'varying from Box forest to extensive
plains with some areas well grassed'.
Two years later Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney overlanding
cattle from N.S.W. to Adelaide passed through the same area describing the same
area N.W. of Kow Swamp as 'thick bushy scrub full of small kangaroos and emus
varying to extensive plains'.
They also found large tribes of Aboriginals who were fairly
friendly and probably belonged to the Baraparapa tribe which ranged as far north
as Hay in N.S.W. It seems that the climate and interconnecting water courses
which so attracted the European settlers to the area also attracted the
Aboriginals. The census of 1862 shows there were approximately 900 Aboriginals
along this part of the Murray, but by 1877 white mans' diseases had decimated
the tribes to about 200 people. In the last few years many important fossilized
Aboriginal remains have been found in the Kow Swamp area and some Archeologists
think they are of world wide importance.
The first whites to settle in the area were the squatters or
station owners who were granted large leases by the Government' on which they
ran mainly sheep. The land Robert and John selected was a part of the Gunbower
station lease first taken up in 1847 by James Rowan and consisting of 180,000
acres. It is not hard to imagine the lonely life these squatters led in those
early days and it was a common thing for the shepherds, who lived in small huts
at different places on the lease, to go mad through the loneliness and
isolation.
The Gunbower station lease eventually ended up with Salatial
Booth in 1873 who was to buy Robert's farm nine years later when he left for N.
W. Mooroopna. To Salatial Booth, this must have seemed like buying his own place
back and it is true that many squatters were very resentful of the small
selectors, who they saw as encroaching on their properties.
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