Ephemeral materials included brushwood, grass and reed thatch, crude stones in ant-bed matrix and upright saplings with mud infill. After a period of progress in the 1870s, the original stations of slab and stringybark and greenhide and more ephemeral materials disappeared. Suter’s introduction of ‘outside studding’ in the 1860s. Increased efficiency occurred in the 1870s with the widespread introduction of wire fencing.Įarly settlements were characterised by innovative construction techniques using available local materials and techniques learned elsewhere, such as R.G. After retreat in the late 1860s, the pastoral frontier expanded in a second major wave until by the mid-1880s occupation of the land was nominally complete. Some of these like Canning Downs and Coochin Coochin were painted by Sydney artist Conrad Martens in the late 1850s.įollowing separation from New South Wales in 1859, rapid expansion occurred west into the Maranoa and Warrego, then north into Mitchell and Burke districts. Queensland pastoral settlement was initiated by expansion from New South Wales to the Darling Downs and by 1844 there were 30 squatting stations. These homesteads with their cluster of buildings resembled small villages.

As the physical buildings are abandoned, deteriorate and are demolished over time, the survival of the remaining homesteads is under threat.Ī ‘homestead’ is the main house or head station on a large landholding running livestock, together with its associated outbuildings.

The station homestead was an important landscape feature that assisted the establishment and survival of the Queensland pastoral industry and the community of people associated with the industry.

Mount and blade cattle disappear