problem of the stock route (1912)
TRANSCRIPT
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The World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), Saturday 27 January 1912, page 19
National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128720972
Mysteries of the Australian Bush.
A PROBLEM OF THE STOCK ROUTE.
(By FRANK KEEN.)
VE of the principal travelling <
routes in the State of Queens
land is the scene of what pro
bably ranks as the most inexplic
able circumstance on record in
the bush life of Australia. Of
deserted huts and river bends and kindred
places, which may or may not harbbr spirits
or forms from another world, the number is
legion; and it is safe to say from the Appari
tion Era, introduced into Australia by Fisher s
Chest many ye<irs ago, many out-of-the-way
places have since fur
nished their Story of the
Unexplainable. Apparition
stories are numerous.
They are in fact, common;
but what I am about to
pen is not an apparition
stdry; it is a narrative of
plain, baldcircumstance.
1 am the author of a
series of Australian Tales
cf the Inexplicable. These
are claimed to be the most
extraordinary stories ever
written of the Australian
bush, or that ever will be
written. Headers, per
haps, would like to know
if I have ever had any per
sonal communication with
spirits or forms from an
other world. Certainly 1
have, and always found
them excellent and inte
resting company; and
some day I may furnish
far these pages an article
respecting spirits and ap
paritions that will inte
rest readers more than
anything they have ever
read in print or heard from
human lips. With a few
strokes of the I will
strokes of the pen I will
whirl them away to a new
world altogeher—a world
of wonder and of splendor,
of fascination and of mys
tery. Por the present I
will proceed with my
story, and if any reader
can come to a solution
he
may. Personally,I
cannot see how a solution
can be iorthcoming. Yet
there must be one. The
whole are authenticated
facts, aud 1 have examined
the country written of my
Drovers and men with
teams of horses and bullocks travelling a cer-
1
tain route leading towards the Gulf country, a
(
few years ago met with a remarkable expert-<
ence. The country written of was very sparse
ly settled, and taking at random an area of
4bsquare miles,
there was not a single settler
or human occupant of the soil. That means
on the route you might make a two-days jour
ney of 20 miles each day, and not meet with
a human habitation. The country was practi
cally unpopulated and untenanted. Now, what
in the way of remarkable circumstance can be {
told of such a deserted territory? Nothing (
more nor less than a systematic propaganda of
theft, of which there has never been any solu
tion. The case constitutes one of the most as
tounding puzzles ever placed before a human
being.
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being.
A drover would come into camp. Maybe he
had with him four horses. He would turn them
cut to feed tot the night on the partially-tim
bered plain, and would probably hobble three
and put a bell on the fourth. In the morning,
when he went to catch his stock, there would be
no bobbles and no bell. They had disappeared,
and perhapsthe drever would have to walk
several miles to find bis (
stock, and have difficulty(
in catching them. The\
bell and hobbles bad not
dropped from the horses.
They could not. They
had been securely fas
tened. And yet they
were gone, and a careful
search of tbe
failed to bring them to
light. This experience
1-appened to drovers repeatedly, and what be
came of the property no one knew. The plains
would be examined carefully, but nothing to
indicate the presence of intruders near the
camp was found. No strange hoof marks, no
tioises would be heard in the night of an un
usual character, and no out-of-the-way move
ments among the feeding stock. Team
sters would have a similar experience. Bells
and hobbles would be removed time after time,
tut where they went to no one could say. And
when the climax came, and horses and bul
locks disappeared with the bells and hobbles,
the matter became one of more intense mys
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TOT ENGINE FOB A SIAMESE PRINCE.
t
The wonderful toy which has been made for one of the royal princes of Siam
by Bassctt-Lowke, Ltd.,of London and Northampton. Built to scale, it is quar
ter the size of a modern English express engine, and with its tender weighs two
tons. It can pull seventy persons, and travel thirty miles an hour on Its 15in.
gauge. It is 15ft. long.
i
t«ry. So, in course of time, as the story of the
) thefts passed along the route from man to
> man, travellers would guard their stock in the
) moonlight and in the hours of partial dark
, ness. On these occasions nothing disappeared,i
and no intruders were seen on the plain. But
Nthe first time vigilance was relaxed the mys
sterious and balEing disappearances began again,
and continued. In time travellers quitted the
route entirely, and used others to take them
to their destinations.
> The particulars of these incidents were given)
to me in the hrst case by an experienced bush
)
man and Australian overlander, and he a man
I
who had great knowledge of the bush, but he
(
classed the disappearances of the stock and the
f bells a Lid the hobbles as the most exftFaordin
r
ary incidents coining under his not^^if?^ the
r whole of an experience covering matyy years.
/ He made no mistake whatever in bra vftate
/ ments. These were afterwards supplemented by)
those of other men, who knew the route and
; bad lost their property. Since then the writer
; has him3elf passed over the route.S
Now, what is the explanation of the cir1
cumatances? Who removed the bells and the
bobbles in the first case, and the stock in the
second? And where to? Someone who rode up
wards of one hundred ntiles in the night? It1
is not likely. And were bells and hobbles1
valued at a few shillings worth the trouble?
Scarcely. But horses were. Still, the stock1
were never again heard of, except in a few in>
stances, from sileyards hundreds of miles away.
no had been un
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)
And then there was no proof they had been un
)
lawfully handled. They might have wandered
)
away from their feeding grounds. But then,
when a vigorous search was immediately made,
no trace whatever could be found of them.