The Royal Mail Hotel is a single storey building with a timber frame clad and roofed in corrugated iron. It has two major elevations with a corner entrance and a wing extending to the rear forming a U shaped plan.
The main entrance is on a truncated section at the north eastern corner and the gabled roof and awning is truncated to match. A wide awning supported on timber columns runs around both main elevations and the corner. The corner entrance opens onto the bar which has a high ceiling, is lined with pine boards and has 12 pane sash windows. A double sided brick chimney is between the bar and the original sitting room. The bar fireplace is formed with a brick arch and is in regular use. That to the room behind is lined with ripple iron. A room adjoining the sitting room was also part of the original living quarters, but is now used as a store room. The cellar survives and is reached by a handmade ladder. Shelving for kegs has been cut out of the earth.
The original dining room is now living quarters for the licensees. The ceiling and most of the walls are lined with ripple iron as is the pub kitchen and a private bedroom. Modern sliding doors have been added to the kitchen and living quarters. There are 3 guest bedrooms approximately 12' square. 2 rooms are lined with pine boards, but the other is ceiled and lined largely with ripple iron, a material that has also been used in parts of the bar and dining area.
The outbuildings are clad with corrugated iron and consist of 2 bathrooms and an unused washhouse. Bathroom fittings are early and feature ripple iron lining and a claw foot bath. The former staff quarters has lost its cladding to all but one wall and is used as a storage shed.
","history":"The Royal Mail Hotel was granted its first license in 1874, a year before Hungerford was gazetted as a township. The town lies on the border between Queensland and New South Wales, on the east bank of the Paroo River, and was a customs post on an important early stock route running between Queensland and the markets in Victoria and South Australia.
In the 1830s pastoral settlement in New South Wales pushed northwards and in the early 1840s sheep runs were established on the Darling Downs. In the 1850s and 60s the pastoral industry continued to expand in what became the colony of Queensland in 1859. Once pastoral stations had been established in Queensland, the transport flow began to reverse as products in the form of wool and livestock were moved to southern markets. The Victorian gold rush greatly increased the demand for beef from the 1850s. One major north-south stock route connected north west Queensland with Victoria following natural watercourses. It began in the Gulf country and passed through Cloncurry and Longreach, down the Thompson to the vicinity of Windorah, south to Hungerford and Bourke, then down the Darling River to Wilcannia and overland to Hay.
Hungerford is approximately 200 kms south of Cunnamulla and the same distance north of Bourke in New South Wales. It is named after Thomas Hungerford, later an MLA, who camped there with his brother while in the district and early references to the place are as 'Hungerford's Camp'. Being on a major route and near a watercourse, it was an excellent location for a wayside inn, catering for drovers and carriers as well as pastoral workers. Such inns provided food and accomodation for people and horses and it was usually possible to obtain the services of a blacksmith, leave or collect messages and gain information on the condition of the road ahead. Hotels were also an important source of company and conviviality in isolated areas. Their services made the development of regular supply routes possible, which made a major contribution to the way in which areas were opened up for European settlement.
The first license for the Royal Mail Hotel was issued to John George Cooke on 6 November 1874. He was also the postmaster following an earlier attempt to set up a service based on a property at 'Hoodsville', a few miles away. The name of the hotel is particularly apt as several publicans served in this capacity over the years, besides supporting a later Cobb & Co mail and passenger service. The first post office was established at 'Hungerford's' on 1 January 1876. The mail delivery contract was won by Michael McAuliffe who travelled between Bourke, Hoodsville and Hungerford's via Ford's Bridge, Yantabulla and Brindingabba, a distance of 150 miles on horseback, once a week. Responsibility for the delivery and processing of mail moved from one colony to the other for many years because the exact position of Hungerford in relationship to the border was uncertain.
The border between New South Wales and Queensland was not officially surveyed until 1879-1880. When the Royal Mail was built, it was thought to be in New South Wales and licence fees were paid in that colony from 1874 to 1879. The survey revealed that the land was part of Queensland and from 1880 the hotel licence has been issued in this state. The town survey shows the hotel with yards and outbuildings close to the 'Wilcannia Track'. Near the hotel was a blacksmith, stock yards and 'gardens' presumably for vegetables. Isaac Foster, who had acquired the hotel from Cooke in 1876, formalised his ownership by purchase of the hotel allotment and an adjoining lot in September 1880.
Other allotments in the block containing the hotel were reserved for police, post office and customs buildings because Hungerford was one of the 14 settlements along Queensland's borders used as customs posts until the colonies were federated in 1901. The customs post monitored the payment of duty on such goods as wool but also acted to prevent smuggling which was common because duty on alcohol in Queensland was high. The size of the town survey and the government reserves suggests that it was thought that the town would become larger and more important than actually occurred. New South Wales surveyed a 'twin town' to Hungerford on the other side of the border, designated 'Berriwinnia', although it was not developed. Customs posts on state borders were not needed after Federation and it may be that if it had not occurred Hungerford may eventually have achieved its projected size.
Beginning in 1882, Cobb and Co ran weekly buggies between Hungerford and Eulo and Thargomindah and Hungerford transporting mail, goods and passengers. The route officially ran between post offices in each settlement, but nearby hotels were commonly used by coach companies to change horses and accommodate passengers and this was the case with the Royal Mail hotel. Isaac Foster died in 1882 and the license passed briefly to two other men before being taken up by Charles Wethered who held it until 1889, when it was taken over by Thomas G. Foster, who was possibly a relative of Isaac. By this time the Royal Mail had competition in the form of the Commercial Hotel, built in 1885. The railway had by then reached Cunnamulla and with the coach link, provided access to larger centres.
Over December and January of 1892-3 Henry Lawson and a friend walked from Bourke to Hungerford and back. In spite of writing about the bush he had little real experience and is thought to have been goaded into the trip by public comments to that effect made by Banjo Paterson. He found the country harsh and did not care for Hungerford from which he wrote a despairing letter to his aunt saying that he was finished with the bush. Even so, this trip proved the inspiration for a number of his early stories and poems so that Hungerford may be said to have contributed to the Legend of the Bush developed in the late 19th century by such writers as Lawson.
.
Lawson described Hungerford in a short story of that name which appeared in While the Billy Boils in 1896:
The town is right on the Queensland border, and an interprovincial rabbit-proof fence - with rabbits on both sides of it - runs across the main street... Hungerford consists of two houses and a humpy in New South Wales, and five houses in Queensland. Characteristically enough, both the pubs are in Queensland. We got a glass of sour yeast at one and paid sixpence for it - we had asked for English ale.
The post office is in New South Wales, and the police barracks in Bananaland. The police cannot do anything if there's a row going on across the street in New South Wales except to send to Brisbane and have an extradition warrant applied for; and they do not do much if there's a row in Queensland. Most of the rows are across the border, where the pubs are.
Hungerford was quite prosperous as a small centre though, and in 1895 Cobb and Co upgraded its service between Hungerford and Thargomindah to a coach route. In this year John Logan became the licensee of the Royal Mail. He also purchased the large adjoining reserve on which the blacksmiths and yards had been located in 1880. In 1897 he acquired title to both the hotel allotments and took out a mortgage of £250 on all 3 lots, a total of £750. The purpose of this loan is not known, but it may have been at this time that the hotel was moved to the reserve allotment or a new building constructed or recycled from the old. The current hotel contains features such as windows which are consistent with an earlier building date, but has been added to and adapted over the years using traditional techniques and materials, so that a construction date is difficult to ascertain.
John Logan died in 1907 and his widow, Margaret, became the licensee. By this time, the town had passed its peak when it had a population of over 100 and a magistrate's court, police station, post and telegraph office, a school, 4 churches, several shops and 3 hotels.
Following Federation, border customs posts were no longer needed. The early years of the century were also very dry and although the Wilcannia Track originally had many waterholes and springs, widespread tapping of the artesian basin caused the level of springs to fall and dry up. An attempt to sink a bore at Hungerford was abandoned at 850 feet. The Cobb & Co service to Hungerford was discontinued in 1904 and by 1915 Hungerford had been bypassed and was merely a turn off on the Cunnamulla to Thargomindah coach route.
The hotel was sold in 1928, though the original 2 lots (105 and 104) were not and were taken over by the Bulloo Shire Council in 1971. The Royal Mail has since had several licensees, the current owners having purchased the hotel in 2000. The town population has in recent years been as low as 10 and the Royal Mail has been the only hotel for most of the 20th century, drawing custom from local people and seasonal pastoral workers. Following the opening of nearby Currawinya National Park, custom is being increasingly drawn from tourism.
","criteria":"The Royal Mail Hotel illustrates the pattern of development of Queensland in several ways. It was built as a wayside inn serving an early stock and trading route and provided the foundation for a service town as did many such inns. The hotel also illustrates the role of Hungerford as a border post before Federation and held a New South Wales licence until the border was officially surveyed in 1879. As a hotel catering for coach teams and passengers and a postal receiving office from time to time, the hotel illustrates the ways in which communications functioned in remote areas in the 19th century.
|The Royal Mail Hotel is now uncommon in Queensland as a coaching inn still trading.
|The hotel complex has the potential to reveal information about the operation of 19th century hotels in Queensland.
|It is a good example of a vernacular hotel in a remote township as it preserves examples of early building techniques and has changed little in the last century
|The Royal Mail Hotel is important as a vernacular building whose form, scale and materials make a substantial contribution to the built character of Hungerford and which is a landmark well regarded by the community.
|It is important for its long connection with the community of Hungerford and the surrounding area as a venue for many social events.
|The settlement of Hungerford, including the Royal Mail Hotel, is important for its connection with the life and work of Henry Lawson; Hungerford being the subject of one of his popular writings that contributed to the Australian view of the bush at the end of the 19th century.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15136,"place_ref":600361,"name":"Noccundra Hotel","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"6 Wilson Street","suburb":"NOCCUNDRA","lga":"BULLOO SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1992-10-21","description":"Noccundra is roughly equidistant from the borders of South Australia and New South Wales and is on the road from Thargomindah to the east. The hotel consists of a group of stone and corrugated iron buildings that stand out in their isolation against the flat gibber plain and are seen for a considerable distance when approaching by car.
\nThe main part of the hotel comprises two parallel and linked single storey structures built of coursed sandstone blocks. A smaller stone structure containing a bathroom and laundry is linked at right angles to the northwest corner. All have separate hipped roofs clad in corrugated iron. A corrugated iron verandah supported on a timber frame and posts runs along the south and west elevations of the hotel and shades a concrete pathway. At the rear a similar verandah runs from the laundry across the width of the building.
\nThe interior of the hotel has ripple iron ceilings. It has a stone double fireplace set between two of the rooms. Internal walls are rendered and painted. There are sash windows in timber frames and some doors now have metal frames.
\nTo the rear of the hotel is a detached kitchen and dining room. This is a gable-roofed building constructed of corrugated iron sheeting over a timber frame with an extension of the same materials to the north. Other more recent storage sheds and structures are in the rear of the grounds and are not of cultural heritage significance.
","history":"The Noccundra Hotel lies approximately 140 kilometres west of Thargomindah on the eastern edge of the Sturt Desert. A hotel was established on this site in the nineteenth century, adjacent to Noccundra Waterhole, on the Wilson River and on the stock and trading routes from South Australia and New South Wales.
\nThe expedition of Burke and Wills through far southwest Queensland in 1860 paved the way for pastoral settlement of the area, with Bulloo Downs being the first run to be taken up in 1864. A small township was established on the Bulloo River to service the pastoral properties in the district, and on 31 December 1874 the Thargomindah Town Reserve was proclaimed and soon other small settlements in the area were trading through it. In 1880 Bulloo Division was gazetted, with headquarters at Thargomindah. Bulloo Division had an area of 45,000 square miles (116549 sq km), extending north to Windorah and east to Adavale and Toompine.
\nJohn Dynan took up Nockatunga Station in the late 1860s and Herbert Bristow (HB) Hughes acquired it in 1872. The Noccundra Hotel may have been set up in order to serve this run and the earliest records for the station show amounts paid to the Noccundra hotel. The current building is said locally to have replaced an earlier one, which may have dated from the establishment of Nockatunga, although the first license was granted to James Gardiner (or Gardner) in 1886 and this may have related to a new building. A town reserve was created in 1885 and the future township site of Noccundra was surveyed by James Hood in mid-1889, at which time the only structures there were a hotel with an associated bathhouse, stable and yards on allotments 2 and 3 of section 1 and a store to the west of the hotel owned by James McColl. The two men concerned purchased the blocks from which their businesses were operating at the first land sales in January 1890. These two establishments were well placed, being near a waterhole at the intersection of the stock and trading routes to Innamincka in South Australia and Tibooburra in New South Wales. Trade would have come from teamsters, travellers and staff at Nockatunga at a time when stations had a large workforce and transport to distant towns was impracticable.
\nThe hotel is said to have been constructed of stone from Mt Poole quarry about 200 kilometres away in New South Wales. It is in a style similar to surviving buildings in Birdsville and Boulia which relates more to South Australia than Queensland, a reminder that south west Queensland in this era had better access to, and more trade with, these colonies than it had with Brisbane far to the east. McColl's store was also of stone and was a rectangular structure with several rooms. Photographs from the 1970s when substantial sections of it remained, show that it had coursed stonework and well-detailed windows with stone sills.
\nThe township of Noccundra was first listed in the Queensland Post Office Directory in 1892, at which time William Hogan was the publican of the Noccundra Hotel, having taken over from Gardiner in 1890. In 1894, the license reverted briefly to Gardiner before it passed to Martha Hogan, who was probably William's widow. By this time the town had a constable, though the names in the Post Office Directory suggest that the township was mainly a supply depot and receiving office for several pastoral stations in the vicinity. The publican in 1899 was H L Barber who was soon succeeded as licensee by Catherine Costello who ran the hotel until 1913. McColl continued to operate the store until he died in 1902, after which T.J. Costello became store manager and postmaster. The store was sold to P.J. Leahy & Co Ltd in 1904.
\nWilliam Richards was the next licensee but in 1916 Henry Hughes purchased both the store and hotel, hiring Samuel Milne to run the store. In the 1920s the tiny township gained a saddler and the hotel Noccundra was extended by the addition of a kitchen/dining room of corrugated iron sheeting on a timber frame, possibly in the 1930s. However, by 1933 the store had closed and Noccundra was no longer listed in the post office directories. It may be that increased access to motor transport and the growth of Thargomindah as a local centre contributed to the failure of Noccundra to develop as a township. The police station closed in 1959.
\nAlthough the township failed, the hotel continued to be important in the area. Situated in a remote area between supply centres the hotel remained a link in outback communications, a service point for travellers and as a focus for community events. It has served as a venue for monthly medical and dental clinics by the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and for meetings of a social and racing club that raised funds for the RFDS. It is also a landmark place for tourists. In 1977 the National Trust listed the hotel in its heritage register and photographs taken at that time show the store building to the west of the hotel still had large sections of three walls standing with a lean to addition of corrugated iron on the eastern side. This building was used at one time as a bar for the hotel, allowing the hotel proper to be used for meals and accommodation.
\nThe front and side verandahs of the hotel were almost completely replaced in 1985 and it was sold in 1990 as part of Nockatunga Station. Some refurbishment was carried out in 1991 and again in the late 1990s.
\nThe visible remains of the store have now dwindled to a part of the eastern wall and some footings that have been preserved as part of a garden feature. This area is now lawn and dilutes to some extent the visual starkness of the building in the landscape.
","criteria":"The Noccundra Hotel in far southwest Queensland survives as an important link with the establishment of pastoral settlement in this area. As an inn operating in conjunction with a store to serve travellers and surrounding pastoral stations, it illustrates the way in which remote areas were serviced and how many service towns began. While some went on to become important regional centres others, such as Noccundra, failed to develop due to a variety of causes as circumstances changed. The hotel now remains as an indicator of this failed township but retains its role as a way station for travellers.
|The Noccundra Hotel is a rare surviving late 19th century outback hotel, and has the potential, through physical investigation and documentary research, to reveal important information about the design, form and function of far western Queensland hotel complexes of this period, and about the people who erected such buildings.
|The Noccundra Hotel is a rare surviving late 19th century outback hotel, and has the potential, through physical investigation and documentary research, to reveal important information about the design, form and function of far western Queensland hotel complexes of this period, and about the people who erected such buildings.
|Although some changes have taken place, the Noccundra Hotel is important in illustrating the principal characteristics of a vernacular style of masonry construction that spread throughout central Australia, across South Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland in the late 19th century, efficiently controlling the extremes of temperature in the hot, arid interior of the continent, and compensating for the lack of locally-available timber.
|The Noccundra Hotel has aesthetic appeal, derived partly from its form and materials and partly from its setting as an isolated vernacular structure in a broad, open plain.
|The Noccundra Hotel is important for its long connection with the community of the surrounding area as a venue for many social events.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion B | Criterion C | Criterion D | Criterion E | Criterion G","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Queensland's cultural heritage | The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places | The place is important because of its aesthetic significance | The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":15847,"place_ref":601073,"name":"Burke and Wills Dig Tree","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"Nappa Merrie Station","suburb":"THARGOMINDAH","lga":"BULLOO SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2003-02-28","description":"The Dig Tree is located approximately four to six kilometres southwest of Nappa Merrie homestead, on a Reserve for Memorial Purposes. The Reserve of 4470m² is excised from Nappa Merrie cattle station, which comprises almost three-quarters of a million hectares of channel country. The homestead is close to the South Australian border, lying some 380 kilometres west of Thargomindah and forty-four kilometres east of Innamincka.
The Dig Tree is a mature Coolibah (Eucalyptus microtheca), believed to be 200 to 250 years old, common along this section of the Cooper and widespread in arid and semi-arid areas near watercourses and in seasonally-inundated areas. The tree stands high above the creek, on the southern bank of the Bulloo Bulloo waterhole.
Brahé cut three blazes into the tree in 1861. On the creek side of the trunk "B LXV" denotes Brahé and Camp 65. On the land side of the trunk "DIG 3FT NW" was the message to the returning party to find provisions buried approximately a metre to the northwest. On an upstream-side limb "DEC 6.60 APR 21.61" marks the date of establishment of the camp, and that of Brahe's departure. Much of the lettering is now obscured by overgrowing bark.
A boardwalk has been constructed around the tree to prevent the ground from being compacted as a result of visitor impact. A stone cairn is located 40ft northwest of the Dig Tree. Further to the northwest is the Conrick Plaque, a metal sign attached to a large stone. Recent signage near the Dig Tree tells the story of Burke and Wills and their ill-fated expedition.
The Face Tree (Eucalyptus microtheca), stands on the banks of the waterhole downstream (southwest) of the Dig Tree. It portrays a rendition of the face of Robert O'Hara Burke and the letters ROB.
","history":"The Burke and Wills Dig Tree on the banks of Cooper's Creek is associated with explorers Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills. The tree was blazed on 21 April 1861 by William Brahé and party who had remained at Cooper's Creek while Burke, Wills, Charles Gray and John King forged ahead to the northern coast of Australia. Brahé's party was finally forced to abandon the depot and trek homewards, leaving a message pointing to a cache of hidden stores.
Burke was born in 1821 in County Galway Ireland, of Protestant gentry. Following an education at the Woolwich Academy, the young Burke served as a lieutenant in the Austrian cavalry and later the Irish Mounted Constabulary, before emigrating to Australia in 1853. After several postings with the Victorian Police, Burke was appointed to lead the Victorian Exploring Expedition, a position he had anxiously and diligently pursued.
Wills, born in Devon England in 1834, trained in medicine. He migrated to Australia in 1853 and after a short stint working as a shepherd at Deniliquin, New South Wales, Wills assisted his father with his medical practice at Ballarat, Victoria. Wills later studied surveying and astronomy, and accompanied the expedition as astronomer, surveyor, and third-in-command, behind camel master George Landells.
The Victorian Exploring Expedition was undertaken in the spirit of previous epics such as Edward Eyre's journey between Western Australia and South Australia in 1840, and Ludwig Leichhardt's 1844-5 trek from the Darling Downs in Queensland to Port Essington near Darwin. Organised by the Royal Society of Victoria and supported by the government, the expedition's objectives were hazy, beyond the desire to make the already-prosperous colony mightier by taking the lead in exploration efforts. The expedition would prove extremely expensive both financially and in lives, yet was ultimately successful in its bid to beat South Australia's McDouall Stuart to the first north-south crossing of the continent.
A large Melbourne crowd farewelled the explorers on 20 August 1860. The party comprised fifteen men, twenty-six Indian camels with their drivers, packhorses, wagons, food and supplies. In early October the party reached Menindee on the Darling River. Burke had already begun to shed baggage, determined to travel light and fast, leaving behind much of the equipment and some provisions at Balranald.
Burke left more provisions at Menindee. He also quarrelled with Landells, who subsequently resigned. Burke promoted Wills to second-in-charge and engaged local man William Wright as third officer. Despite having received clear instructions that he was to establish his main base camp at Cooper's Creek, Burke pressed on quickly with an advance party of eight, leaving the remainder of the men and stores under the unreliable charge of Wright. Wright lingered at Menindee for three months, contrary to Burke's orders to proceed to Coopers' Creek as soon as possible. Wright failed to arrive at Cooper's Creek with the all-too-important reserve provisions and transport before Burke returned from the Gulf of Carpentaria.
On 6 December 1860 Burke and his seven men established Camp LXV (65) at Cooper's Creek, having halted at several other spots along the Creek during the preceding three-and-a-half weeks while searching for the best location for a longer-term depot. Here Burke split his party once again, and on 16 December pressed on to the Gulf accompanied only by Wills, King and Gray. Brahé, Thomas McDonough, William Patten and Dost Mahomet were instructed by Burke to wait for at least three months (the more cautious Wills preferred four months), before retracing their steps homewards via the Darling River. During their stay at Camp LXV, Brahé's party erected a timber stockade to protect themselves and their supplies from the unwanted interest of local Aborigines.
Four months later on the morning of 21 April 1861, William Brahé and his party of three others including the seriously-injured Patten, left for Menindee. Before embarking on this four-hundred-mile return journey, Brahé carved three separate messages into a Coolibah tree on the banks of Cooper's Creek. The inscriptions marked the location of the cached stores, the camp number, and the dates of the arrival of the advance party (6 December 1860) and Brahé's departure.
Brahé noted in his journal that the party left the depot at 10 o'clock a.m., leaving 50 lbs. of flour, 50 lbs. of oatmeal, 50 lbs. of sugar, and 30 lbs. of rice buried near the stockade, at the foot of a large tree, and marked the word "Dig" on the tree.
Brahé headed towards Menindee, taking all the camels, horses and clothes, and the bulk of the remaining food stores. He later testified that he did not leave the message and stores in any real expectation of Burke's return, given that he was already well overdue. Rather, only for any party that should come up - that was most likely to come up from the Darling - to know what had become of us. I was very likely to miss any party coming up, he told the 1861-2 Royal Commission established to inquire into and report upon the deaths of Burke and Wills.
Burke's party, by now reduced to three with the death of Gray on 17 April 1861, reached Camp LXV on the evening of 21 April 1861. Only two exhausted camels survived and the men were perilously low on stores. They discovered that Brahé had departed that same day, leaving the messages carved into the Dig Tree pointing to the cache of supplies. Subsequent events would prove to be a litany of missed opportunities and failure to communicate.
A week after their departure from Camp LXV, Brahé met with Wright's party, heading north and finally en route to Cooper's Creek. Brahé and Wright then returned to the camp, but having noticed no evidence of Burke's return on 21 April, left no further messages or indications and retraced their steps southwards. Brahé arrived in Melbourne late in June 1861 to report on the missing men.
On April 23 Burke's trio began the 150-mile westward journey to Blanchewater Station, near Mount Hopeless in South Australia, preferring to take this direction over the longer, but known, journey to Menindee. Twice they were forced back to Cooper's Creek due to lack of water to the west. They then remained along the Creek throughout June. On 30 May 1861 Wills had returned to Camp LXV. He found no evidence of Brahé's return in early May, and placed his journals and a new note in the buried cache for fear of accidents, and returned to his companions waiting further along Cooper's Creek. After surviving on ground nardoo, which was slowly poisoning them due to their lack of expertise in its preparation in leaching out the toxins, Wills died alone on the banks of Cooper's Creek on 27 or 28 June. He had insisted that his companions head further down the creek to seek assistance from the Aborigines. A day or two later, Burke also succumbed, having sent King on to look for help. With the assistance of Aborigines, King survived along the watercourse until found on 15 September 1861 by Alfred Howitt's search party.
When it became known that the Burke and Wills expedition had foundered, such was the prominence of the undertaking that a number of search parties were quickly organised. Howitt left from Melbourne, John McKinlay from Adelaide, Frederick Walker from Rockhampton, and William Landsborough from Brisbane.
Howitt's party, which included Brahe and King, arrived at Camp LXV on 13 September 1861. The Royal Commission was told that they found the depot as Mr Brahe had left it, the plant untouched, and nothing removed of the useless things lying about, but a piece of leather. The party located Wills' remains where his body had been covered by King, some miles downstream of Camp LXV. They buried Wills on 18 September 1861, and inscribed a tree. Field books, notebooks and various small articles were recovered.
Three days later and approximately seven miles away, Howitt found Burke's remains near Innamincka Waterhole (two miles north of Innamincka) in South Australia. Burke was buried wrapped in a Union Jack, under a box tree on the south-eastern bank of Cooper's Creek. Howitt blazed this tree at the head of Burke's grave.
The Royal Geographical Society, organised to promote exploration, awarded Burke a posthumous RGS Founder's Medal in 1862. Wills was awarded nothing, as the Society's policy was to award only one medal to an exploration party. King received a gold watch, as did McKinlay, Landsborough and Walker for leading their various search parties.
These search parties helped open up vast areas of inland Australia for settlement, as a result of the increased knowledge of the country they brought back with them. McKinlay had travelled northwards across the Cooper, to Gray's grave, and on to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Landsborough came from the north, via the Barkly Tableland to the Cooper and then Menindee, and Walker arrived to find Burke's last camp, thence returning eastwards. By the time the public funeral for Burke and Wills was held in January 1863, pastoralists were driving their sheep and cattle up the Bulloo. Within a decade or so there were established homesteads on the banks of Cooper's Creek, including Nappa Merrie sheep station, taken up by John Conrick in 1873. Prospectors working their way north of Menindee found enormously rich deposits of silver, lead and zinc at Piesse's Knob, later better known as Broken Hill.
Called in 1911 by the Sydney Mail "William Brahé's Tree", an accompanying photograph showed the "DIG" inscription on the right-hand branching trunk partly overgrown with bark, obscuring the "D". Another blaze on the left-branching trunk showed some indecipherable letters and/or numerals. Surviving remnants of Brahé's stockade also are visible in the photograph. In 1928 the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia referred to the tree as better known as the 'Depot Tree', alluding to its function of marking a major stopping and storage place for the expedition. Frank Clune's 1937 book Dig has been credited with changing the tree's popular, and still-current name, to the 'Dig Tree'.
This particular tree had initially received less attention because it was not immediately associated with the deaths of either man. But by the 1880s the various explorers' trees marked by members of the expedition and by the various search parties had become valued by Australians as relics worthy of protection. The Dig Tree eventually came to be regarded as central to the story of the expedition, partly as a result of John Longstaff's iconic 1907 painting exhibited in the National Gallery of Victoria, The Arrival of Burke, Wills and King at the deserted Camp at Coopers Creek.
The Dig Tree has been considered of historical significance to Queensland for much of the 20th century. In 1937 the Conrick Plaque, erected by members of the family to first settle the area, was placed on a cairn near the Dig Tree. On 2 July 1964 the Queensland Government declared an area of approximately one acre surrounding the Dig Tree a reserve for memorial purposes, the land placed under the trusteeship of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. The Stanbroke Pastoral Company currently manages the site on behalf of the Society.
The Department of Environment & Heritage erected interpretative signage in 1993. In 1996-7 further signage was prepared by the Department of Environment, in consultation with the Royal Queensland Historical Society, Bulloo Shire Council, and the Stanbroke Pastoral Company. Funded by Dick Smith's Australian Geographic publication, these new interpretative panels were erected c1997. Subsequently, boardwalks were built to protect the Dig and Face* Trees, and toilets were built in February 2001.
* The Face Tree is located on the same reserve as the Dig Tree. It portrays the face of Robert O'Hara Burke and the letters ROB, thought to have been carved in 1898 by John Dick.
","criteria":"The Dig Tree is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland history, because the Burke and Wills expedition contributed to the opening up of the Australian inland to pastoralism. During the 1860s settlers, including the Duracks and Costellos in 1865, had pushed into the Channel Country grazing their sheep and cattle along Coopers Creek and the myriad channels and streams. Only twelve years after the deaths of Burke and Wills, the land encompassing the Dig Tree and depot area had been taken up as Nappa Merrie station.
|The Burke and Wills Dig Tree and Camp 65 is important for its special association with explorers Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, who completed the first north-south crossing of the Australian continent and who both died during their return journey, in 1861. Their journey was remarkable not only as a feat of endurance and story of incompetence, but for the way in which it has permeated Australian historical consciousness, how it is celebrated in high art by verse and painting, and how it has contributed to the perpetuation of the Australian bush legend of struggle against the wilderness. The Dig Tree is a revered social landmark for many Australians, as evidenced by the many visitors to the site every year.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":16122,"place_ref":601359,"name":"Dr Ludwig Becker's Grave","alternate_name":"Dr Ludwig Beckers Grave","street_address":"Bulloo River","suburb":"THARGOMINDAH","lga":"BULLOO SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"1994-08-05","description":"Dr Ludwig Becker's grave, with the graves of Purcell and Stone, is located on a stock route along the western bank of Kooliatto Waterhole on the Bulloo River near Molesworth Station southwest of Thargomindah.
The gravesite, marked by a plinth with a plaque and three timber posts, is surrounded by a low metal fence.
","history":"Doctor Ludwig Becker, a member of the Burke and Wills expedition, died on 29 April 1861 and his grave, together with those of Purcell and Stone, is located on a stock route along the western bank of Kooliatto Waterhole on the Bulloo River.
Becker was born at Darmstadt, Germany in 1808. He achieved a doctorate of philosophy and left Germany for political reasons during the 1848 revolution. After some time in Rio de Janeiro he arrived at Launceston in 1851. He was described by Lady Denison as one of those universal geniuses who can do anything...a very good naturalist, geologist...draws and plays and sings, conjures and ventriloquises and imitates the notes of birds so accurately. In 1852-54, while gold digging in Bendigo, Becker made meteorological observations and produced sketches which he exhibited in Melbourne in April 1854. He became a council member of the Victorian Society of Fine Arts in 1856 and of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1859, and was a leading member of the German Club. He corresponded with ornithologist and zoologist John Gould, known as the father of bird study in Australia, on the lyrebird, and was one of the first to try to raise a lyrebird chick and sent sketches of the egg to ornithologists in Germany and France.
His scientific knowledge and artistic ability qualified him for selection as a member of the Victorian Exploring Expedition in 1860-61, which has since become known as the Burke and Wills expedition. It was organised by the Philosophical Institute which in 1860 became the Royal Society.
The Burke and Wills expedition was led by Robert O'Hara Burke, who was a superintendent of police in the Castlemaine district when, in 1860, he was given leave to take command of the exploring expedition to cross the continent from south to north.
The objectives of the expedition were hazy and its route, from Cooper's Creek to the Gulf of Carpentaria, was decided less than a month before it set out. Burke's instructions, sent after him because they were not ready at the time, were incoherent. The real object of the expedition appears to have been to snatch from the South Australian explorer, McDougall Stuart, the honour of making the first south-north crossing of the continent. Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of Victoria 1856-1863, described it as the glorious race across the continent between the expeditions fitted out in this and the adjacent colony of South Australia.
The Burke and Wills expedition was the most expensive in the history of Australian exploration. It cost over £60,000 and seven lives. Burke was the first Australian explorer to be provided with camels, over two dozen of them, imported complete with cameleers. There were horses and wagons, food for two years and lavish equipment. The party consisted of three officers; Burke, Landells the camelmaster, and William John Wills surveyor and meteorologist; German scientific officers Ludwig Becker artist, naturalist and geologist, and Herman Beckler medical officer and botanist; a foreman, nine assistants and the camel-drivers.
The expedition left Melbourne on 20 August 1860 and made progress through the settled districts to Swan Hill and Balranald and reached Menindee on the Darling River at the beginning of October. Burke was in haste and left much of his provisions at Balranald and more at Menindee.
Becker, as artist, naturalist and geologist on a salary of £300, received lengthy instructions from Doctor John Macadam, honorary secretary of the Exploration Committee, which stipulated that he should collect specimens, keep a diary and produce daily maps with illustrations and sections. He sent his first dispatches from Swan Hill, and from Menindie sent a number of specimens. He became despondent when these were not acknowledged.
Burke became impatient with the lost time in making scientific investigations and ordered that Becker and Beckler give up their investigations and work like the rest of the men and walk instead of ride. In a report to the Exploration Committee, Landells wrote that Burke requested him not to allow Becker to ride and had observed that if Becker accompanied the expedition, and got through, people would say that it would not be difficult to cross to Carpentaria, and that he was to be walked until he gave in. At one stage Becker did not eat for three days and became faint. He had to wait until everyone was asleep to do his writing and sketching.
After quarrelling with Burke, Landells resigned at Menindee and Burke promoted Wills to second in command, replacing him as third officer by a local man, William Wright, who proved incompetent and unreliable.
Burke's orders were that his base camp was to be at Cooper's Creek; instead, he divided his party, transport and provisions, dashing on to Cooper's Creek with an advance party and ordering Wright to follow with as little delay as possible. However, Wright waited in Menindee for three months - by which time Burke had travelled to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back - before transporting the vital reserve transport and provisions the four hundred miles to Cooper's Creek.
Becker was with Wright's party in Menindee, and frustrated due to the lack of communication from the Exploration Committee he no longer wrote his daily reports and concentrated instead on sketching. He became aware of the possible failure of the expedition, but his letter to the committee about the delays was ignored.
Wright's party moved north at the end of January 1861, and reached Torowoto, about half way from Menindee to Cooper's Creek on 12 February. By this time Becker and others were suffering from scurvy and the effects of bad water. At their camp at Rat Point, Becker and Purcell, the cook, were very ill. Wright moved on to try to reach Cooper's Creek, but only made it to Bulloo and returned. Beckler remained with the sick members, and on 8 April wrote to his brother of Becker's illness and the unlikelihood of his recovery, stating that I shall have to bury him here, and then what an outcry there will be for me in Melbourne! Wright wanted to send the sick men back to Menindee, but Beckler told him that they could not make a single days journey. Wright then ordered the party on to Bulloo, which they reached on 21 April. Wright's party never continued onto Cooper's Creek.
Meanwhile Burke, impatient for Wright's arrival at Cooper's Creek, selected Wills, King and Gray to accompany him to the gulf and left four men under the command of William Brahe, one of the assistants, at camp LXV at Cooper's Creek. Burke decided to explore on foot and took provisions for twelve weeks and six camels and a horse as pack animals. It took four months to complete the 1500 miles, and Gray died before they returned to camp LXV at Cooper's Creek. When Burke's party reached camp LXV on 21 April 1861, spent, starving and in rags, they found it deserted. Brahe's party, having given up hope of seeing Burke and Wills, had left that day for Menindee with six camels, twelve horses, all the clothes and most of the food. Burke decided that as they were in bad shape and had only two camels, they would not be able to catch Brahe's party and would not survive the 400 mile journey. He decided to make for Mount Hopeless, a 150 mile journey away, leaving a message of their intentions at camp LXV.
Brahe's party arrived at Wright's camp at Bulloo on 28 April. The natives were hostile, and had attacked the camp on 27 April. During this period, Becker was mostly unconscious and died on 29 April, and was buried near the graves of Purcell and Stone who had died a few days earlier. The Royal Commission to enquire into the causes of the deaths of Burke and Wills also found, from Dr Beckler's evidence, that Dr Becker died of dysentery and the exhaustion consequent upon it; of course with some peculiar symptoms, which were principally owing to the affection of scurvy. After his burial, Becker's clothes, bedding and tent were burned and his other effects were placed in a pack for conveyance to Melbourne.
Brahe decided to return to camp LXV at Cooper's Creek, to wait for Burke and Wills, which he reached fifteen days after he had left it. He did not find Burke's message and left again for Menindee for good. Burke, Wills and King, heading for Mount Hopeless, were too weak to get far. Only King survived, by living with the Aboriginals and sharing their food after Burke and Wills had died, and was rescued by AW Howitt's search party from Melbourne in September 1861.
A royal commission appointed to inquire into the deaths of Burke and Wills censured Burke for having dividing his party at Menindee and for entrusting Wright, of whom he knew little, with an important command, and that he had showed more zeal than prudence in leaving Cooper's Creek before the arrival of Wright and undertaking the journey to the gulf with inadequate provisions.
Burke kept no journal, there was no time for scientific observation and Burke's route was only practicable in unusual weather. Burke won the race to the north, but McDougall Stuart found the all-weather route. Solid gains in geographical knowledge were made by the explorers Howitt, McKinlay and Landsborough who led parties in search of him.
Becker had made meteorological observations daily until a month before he died. His death was lamented in newspapers and journals both in the Australian Colonies and in Germany, and he was mourned by colleagues at the Royal Society. Governor Barkly paid tribute to one of the earliest and most indefatigable contributors...the name of Ludwig Becker will...rank with those of Cunningham, Kennedy and Leichhardt and the rest of that noble band who have sacrificed their lives in the cause of science. The City of Ballarat commemorated the expedition with a clock tower in 1863 referring to the deaths of The Victorian Explorers Burke, Wills, Gray and Becker. The small Queensland parish of Becker perpetuates his name and some timber posts mark his grave.
This expedition paved the way for settlement in the area, with the first recorded settlement being Bulloo Downs taken up by Jones, Sullivan and Molesworth Green in 1864.
","criteria":"Dr Ludwig Becker, artist, explorer and naturalist, has been described as a martyr to science and his loved profession...both a devotee to science and to art. He was an integral member of arguably the most famous, and fateful, of the Australian exploring expeditions.
|His grave and its location are both a memorial to his life and to the Burke and Wills Expedition.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion A | Criterion H","criteria_definitions":"The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history"}, {"heritage_type":"State Heritage","site_id":33358,"place_ref":602806,"name":"Cameron Corner","alternate_name":null,"street_address":"South-west Queensland, at the border corner with New South Wales and South Australia.","suburb":"CAMERON CORNER","lga":"BULLOO SHIRE COUNCIL","register_entry_date":"2012-11-09","description":"Cameron Corner is the southernmost of Queensland's three south-western corners and is the westernmost point of the Queensland-New South Wales border. It is located approximately 335 km south of Haddon Corner [QHR 602817], 450 km south-east of Poeppel Corner [QHR 602808] and 1400 km from the east coast in an arid environment comprising ochre coloured dirt and sand with some native vegetation. The confluence of 141 degrees E and 29 degrees S (with no official marking) is located approximately 112 m to the south-east.
\nNearby are: Cameron Corner Store; a shelter shed with information boards on the NSW side of the border; a road and road signs on the Queensland side of the border.
","history":"Cameron Corner, marked in September 1880 during the first official survey of the western section of the border between Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) undertaken in 1879-81, defines the westernmost extension of the Queensland-New South Wales border. Its marking was a surveying feat of its time.
After debate about a suitable southern boundary for the proposed new colony to the north of New South Wales (NSW), letters patent were issued by Queen Victoria in June 1859 which separated the new Colony of Queensland from NSW. They described the border between the two colonies as having three components - the watershed from Point Danger (28º8"S) west to the Dumaresq River; a river section formed by the Dumaresq, Macintyre and Barwon Rivers to latitude 29 degrees South; and along latitude 29 degrees South to the 141st meridian of East longitude, which was the eastern boundary of South Australia.[1] The eastern and western sections of the border required surveying but the central river section did not.[2]
The eastern section was surveyed between 1863 and 1866.[3] In 1863 surveyors Francis Edward Roberts from Queensland and Isaiah Rowland from New South Wales were chosen to survey the boundary line from Point Danger west to the Dumaresq River. Starting in June, two separate surveys were carried out, and although in many instances both surveyors used the same tree to mark the border, Rowland and Roberts defined the border in different positions. At the direction of the Queensland Surveyor-General, Roberts deviated from the definable position of the watershed in order to increase the accuracy of the survey. Subsequently, the New South Wales and Queensland governments essentially adopted the survey of Roberts.[4]
Marking the river section formed by the Dumaresq, Macintyre and Barwon Rivers to 29 degrees South took place in 1865. Queensland and New South Wales arranged for the fixing of the 29th parallel of latitude, at the intersections of the Barwon, Mooni, Bokhara, Narran, Biri and Culgoa Rivers, to enable the colonial governments to adjust the rents of leases of several pastoral runs in the vicinity, some of which were partly in both colonies. In addition, about 450,000 acres of land on the Queensland border could not be leased until its position was determined.[5] Augustus Charles Gregory, Queensland Surveyor-General and NSW District Surveyor of the Northern Rivers, William Albert Baylesford Greaves, conducted this initial survey of latitude 29S. The marking of the border was done with steel [iron] pins one inch in diameter and two feet long, driven a few inches below the surface, radial reference bearings being taken to adjacent trees.... This process was repeated at each of the above named rivers, and the work was completed in five or six weeks.[6]
That left surveying of the western section of the border at latitude 29 degrees S to be completed. Pastoral occupation of south-west Queensland began in the 1860s. In July 1862 Sir Charles Nicholson[7] had reported to the Secretary of State for the Colonies that: ‘On the west, the whole of the basin of the ‘Barcoo' for several hundred miles, as far as the 142nd meridian of East longitude, is becoming rapidly occupied by squatters, and the authorised possession of the greater part of it has already, I believe, been secured under pastoral licenses...'.[8] Pastoralists began settling the Cooper and Bulloo country and the adjacent portion of South Australia in 1864 with Bulloo Downs being the first run in the Bulloo area. By the end of the decade the Cooper country was also settled.[9]
During the 1870s, settlement extended west to the Diamantina, Mulligan and Georgina areas. In 1873, the pastoral districts were named - Gregory South comprised the Bulloo and lower Cooper area and the remainder became Gregory North. Initially runs in both districts were stocked with cattle and sheep.[10] By 1885 all available land in Queensland's far south-west had been claimed. This land, comprising the floodplains of the Mulligan, Georgina, Diamantina and Bulloo Rivers and Cooper Creek, which form part of a vast inland drainage system originating in Queensland's central west and north-west and eventually reaching Lake Eyre, became known as Channel Country. During floods, the semi-arid region becomes a network of channels, watering vast grasslands suitable for cattle-fattening.[11]
Another factor in the determination of the Queensland-NSW border was the collection of customs duties at the border and establishment of border customs offices. Inter-colonial border duties were introduced in Australia in the 1850s, after the Murray River became the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria. Their introduction demonstrated that the Australian colonies were developing in divergent and independent ways. As each new colony was declared, it established its own Customs administration, which was responsible for the collection of lucrative custom duties and the prevention of smuggling.[12]
In mid-1862, the Queensland government assented to the provisions of the New South Wales Border Customs Act, introduced to provide for a mutual Queensland-New South Wales system of collecting customs duties payable on goods crossing their shared border. At first, the flow of goods into Queensland through the inland routes was not sufficient in either quantity or value to warrant the cost of collecting customs duty in remote areas. However, as settlement expanded, the Queensland government became concerned at the amount of revenue being lost in this way (estimated in 1870 at between £12,000 and £15,000 per annum, with approximately 340 pastoral stations, stores and public houses along the southern Queensland border being supplied primarily from New South Wales). Not only did more goods travel north than went south into New South Wales, but duty on such everyday commodities as tea and tobacco was twice as high in Queensland and a considerable amount of smuggling across the border took place.[13]
As the western regions of the colony developed and internal trade routes were established, custom facilities were required along the borders with New South Wales and South Australia. The Customs Duties Act 1870 provided Queensland with independent legislation to regulate the collection of duties on goods imported from other colonies. A small Customs Border Patrol consisting of a police inspector, sub-inspector and four constables was appointed with powers to collect duties from 1 January 1871. They travelled along the Queensland-New South Wales border, collecting duties and keeping careful records regarding the type and value of goods and the amount of monies collected. They also recommended 11 sites where Custom offices could be established. It was soon reported that the effect of increased vigilance on the border was to deflect the importation of goods to Brisbane, reducing the amount of such trade through inland centres.[14]
Finally in June 1879 the surveying of the remainder of the Queensland-NSW border along the 29th parallel of south latitude extending into the Channel Country was undertaken. Survey parties from both colonies met at Barringun, near the border, and WJ Conder, superintendent of the trigonometrical survey NSW, undertook preliminary work to fix the latitude of the border town on the Warrego River using astronomical observations.[15] Having determined the position for the border and the longitude of a point on it and the direction of the true meridian found, surveyors John Brewer Cameron from NSW and George Chale Watson (Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Warrego and Gregory South) representing Queensland, started to survey westerly on 15 September 1879 from a point on the east bank of the Warrego River where they had erected a zero obelisk [QHR 600763].[16] The two surveyors divided their work with Watson being responsible for chainage and Cameron for the astronomical work required to undertake this geodetic survey.[17] After marking the first 5-mile chord and offsetting the mileposts from this chord to the arc the work continued in this manner.[18]
Very soon the surveyors struck floods. Cameron wrote ‘Had great difficulty in crossing creeks with the whole camp. The Irarah, Cuttaburra and Warrego being flooded... I had to construct two boats one of planks and the other of Canvas and frame: ... ferried eight tons ... in one afternoon including instruments.[19] After crossing these swollen watercourses, they encountered the usual arid conditions of the south-west. In March 1880 after reaching the 100-mile post on the Paroo River, Surveyor Watson withdrew from the survey party, having written ‘As I believe Mr Cameron capable of working within great precision and he is evidently a painstaking officer over his professional duties, I have no reason to doubt but that the work would be precise enough for all the purposes of scientific accuracy as Mr Cameron, added to his other qualifications, has a supreme regard for his own reputation'.[20] According to Kitson, Watson had other reasons for withdrawing - he resented having to continue his duties as land commissioner while working on the border survey as it meant he was unable to fully participate and made him ‘the laughing stock of the NSW contingent'.[21]
This left Cameron to complete the task of surveying the 29 degree latitude of S over remote and desolate country. Cameron wrote that ‘At the 235-mile post we nearly lost all our horses in one night (32) owing to ... being unable to find the waterhole ... Having 100 gallons of water in camp I divided 50 gallons among the 32 horses with a little oatmeal which enabled them to travel to "Warri Warri" Creek. I was obliged to give the horses a week's spell to recruit their strength.'[22] Cameron identified the corner between Queensland, NSW and South Australia with a timber post marked with the government arrow and LAT 29.[23] The survey of 285 miles from Barringun to the South Australian border had taken a total of 12 months and 15 days.[24]
After reaching the South Australian border and marking the corner, Cameron returned to Barringun to survey the easterly section of about 200 miles to the Barwon River, completing the entire border survey in October 1881. Cameron reported that his line passed 68.5 links north of Gregory and Greave's steel pin in the Culgoa River and that its greatest distance from Gregory's 29th parallel was about three chains on the Macintyre River. He marked the end of the survey to the east with a one-ton post [QHR 600014] on the west bank of the Barwon River.[25]
John Brewer Cameron was born in Scotland and migrated to Victoria with his family in 1853. After going to the Victorian goldfields and then New Zealand, he returned to Victoria and joined a government geodetic surveying party working in the Mount Baw Baw area. This experience led him to take up a career in surveying. He went to Fiji as a surveyor in 1869 returning to Victoria in 1872 where he specialised in surveying and geodesy. By 1879 he was a First Class Surveyor in the Trigonometrical Branch of the NSW Lands Department and a member of the Royal Geographical Society of NSW. He undertook the surveying of the Queensland-NSW border between 1879 and 1881. In 1883 he moved to New Guinea, acquired a plantation and later guided the Government Resident, Sir William MacGregor, on journeys of exploration. In 1896 Cameron became Government Surveyor of New Guinea. On 31 December 1897 he died suddenly from malaria while visiting Brisbane and was buried in Toowong cemetery.[26] Afterwards, his former colleague in marking the NSW-Queensland border, George Watson, stated ‘and so passed away an energetic spirit worthy of classification as a man of genius. His boundary marks on the Queensland boundary will remain an imperishable monument of his skill as an astronomer.'[27]
Given the enormous difficulties Cameron faced in the task, his survey of the Queensland-NSW border was impressive. Today, we have the Global Positioning System (or GPS) to pinpoint place by longitude and latitude more accurately. It is now apparent that the intended corner between Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia at 141ºE, 29ºS was not achieved. The corner surveyed by Cameron was actually 140º59'57.4"E 28º59'56.7"S.[28] This is the location of the original corner post at Cameron Corner, which was replaced by the current concrete pillar, unveiled by the Ministers for Lands from NSW, Queensland and South Australia on 6 June 1969. The position of Cameron Corner as per Queensland's Digital Cadastral Database (DCDB), however, does not correlate with either the concrete pillar or the intended border corner. The DCDB places Cameron Corner 20 m to the east of the concrete pillar and 112 m north-west of its intended position of 141ºE, 29ºS. The DCDB corner location that can be listed is that on Lot 1 AP21535. This variation in the intention and reality of the border corner shows the continued difficulties of surveying remote regions. This would be resolved by re-survey of Lot 1 on AP21535.
The Queensland Boundaries Declaratory Act 1982 confirmed ‘that each land boundary of the State ... as ... defined in the Letters Patent ... by reference to a parallel of latitude or a meridian of longitude is and always has been the boundary ... permanently fixed by marking it upon on the surface of the earth before 1900...'.[29]
The corner post as a survey mark is protected under the Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Act 2003 and the Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Regulation 2004 whereby a person must not interfere with a survey mark unless certain conditions are met.[30]
Today, Cameron Corner is a well-known tourist destination.
","criteria":"Cameron Corner is important to the Australian community as a geographical and cultural landmark, and is a well-known tourist attraction.
|Cameron Corner (1880), marking the westernmost extension of the first official survey of the Queensland-New South Wales border, is important in demonstrating the priority placed on clear border demarcation by the governments of Queensland and New South Wales. Set borders were an important part of colonial economic and administrative development, providing certainty for governments and pastoralists, and enabling the collection of customs duties.
Cameron Corner is the result of early cooperation between Australian colonies and provides lasting evidence of the feat of endurance necessary to complete the Queensland-New South Wales border survey.
|Cameron Corner has an important association with the life and career of John Brewer Cameron (1843-97) as a commemoration of one of his most notable accomplishments.
|Cameron Corner represents the culmination of a difficult feat of geodetic surveying and results from an early application of this branch of surveying in Queensland.
","criteria_letters":"Criterion G | Criterion A | Criterion H | Criterion F","criteria_definitions":"The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons | The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history | The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history | The place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period"} ]}