problem of the stock route (1912)

7/27/2019 Problem of the Stock Route (1912)

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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.



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



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



)

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.

problem of the stock route (1912)

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