The party stopped at Suttor Creek to shear, lamb and car the wool to Port Mackay.

Towards the end of 1864 Sutherland and his party of 11 men continued on their westerly course with two horse teams and a two-horse dray, passing Hughenden, Marathon, Richmond and Caroline Stations until they reached the Leichhardt River.

From a base camp at the Leichhardt, unsuccessful exploratory trips were made to find suitable sheep country.

One party then left to investigate Landsborough’s Barkly Tableland and returned with favourable reports.

The 64km stretch of grass lands from the Leichhardt to the Gregory River was hard going for the sheep so a log was towed by the horse team to flatten the grass and make a track for the sheep.

Another move was made to the Georgina River where the sheep were watered before the group pushed on and continued all the following day until at dusk they reached the head of Landsborough’s Chester Creek where, according to the diary, there was a waterhole.

The hole was located but it was only mud.

The sheep smelt the mud and rused to the creek searching for water despite the efforts of the tired shepherds, dogs and horsemen to hold them back.

The mob ran six miles along the creek until they were within a mile of Mary Lake where they smelt the water and rushed through a large camp of Aborigines at the lake’s edge.

The startled Aborigines fled.

Landsborough had warned settlers in his diary not to camp beside waterholes in this part of the country for fear of the fierce Aborigines but Sutherland and his party nevertheless set up their canvas tents on the left bank of Mary Lake and called the station Rocklands.

The present Rocklands homestead stands on the same site.

After a few days, the Aborigines made a surprise night attack on the settlers.

The camp was set up a fair way from the lake with the fireplace beside the water and a bough shade for eating was built between the two.

On the day of the attack one of the bullock drivers had made a large heap of wood beside the fireplace.

That night as the party was eating, deafening yells came from behind the woodheap and a shower of spears, nulla nullas and waddies were thrown at the group.

One of the men fired a revolver into the darkness.

A spear went through the rim of his hat and was found next morning stuck in a tree with the hat impaled on it.

Meanwhile the others ran to the tens for their guns.

The Aborigines collected pannicans, knives, forks, billies and two camp ovens and left.

The party soon began exploring the surrounding country.

After several weeks Sutherland began wondering how he could receive rations and organised a trading vessel to bring supplies from Sydney to the mouth of the Albert River in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

George Sutherland, who wrote memories of the trip, recalled the supplies being welcomed at the station although in bad condition from the long journey.

“The flour was half rotten and full of long maggots, the sugar (in casks) black and tarry, the tea no better than gum leaves”, he recalled.

“I may say here that we had to live weeks at a time on mutton, bluebush and pigweed, not even a smoke of tobacco or a grain of salt.

“At times it was impossible to buy a shirt or a pair of pants of any sort and some of the men had to turn tailors and make suits (not too fashionable)out of an old blanket>”

Six months later other settlers arrived in the district.

The first was Nash, who took Stony Plains, about 60km down the river, then came John Lorne Campbell Ranken and his cousin Lorne.

The Stieglitz brothers and Lyne followed.

Lyne’s partner Gregg brought his wife and daughter.

Mrs Gregg was the first woman to live on the Barkly Tableland.

Low wool prices and high fright costs eventually forced the settlers to abandon their holdings and drive their stock to the southeast.

The district was again deserted of whites and in around 1868 even Burketown was deserted.

In 1877 Alexander Kennedy reached Camooweal but found it deserted.

He took up some land on Sulieman Creek.

Well-known overlander and explorer Nat Buchanan guided Crosswaite and Tetley and their stock from Mount Cornish to Rocklands.

Soon afterwards, part of Rocklands was sold to a D Murray of Melbourne who named the property Morestone.

John Costello took up Lake Nash and in 1880 W. Stuart Russell camped at Stony Plains.

The district now urgently needed a township and a hawker J. Cronin, who camped on the bankcs of Frances Lake in 1882, was the first resident of what was to become the town.

The following year a pub was built by a man named Kennedy.

In 1890, another store was started by Paddy Synnott and the firm of Synnott, Murray and Scholes, which was to become the leading station supplier of Burketown and Camooweal, was formed.

Crosswaite and Tetley sold Rocklands in the early 1880s to Alec Burke, his son-in-law Scan and William McCullagh.

The men, who ran 3500 cattle on the 3000 square mile property, traded as Rocklands Pastoral Company.

The first man to take a wheeled vehicle from Cloncurry to Camooweal was Urquhart who took Alexander Kennedy with him.

The journey by buggy was very rough but a new era had arrived.

The history column is a weekly series on the history of the North West printed in your The North West Star.