British exploration In 1861, an expedition led by
William Landsborough became the first British entry into the area. Following what became known as the
Georgina River, he named several connected waterholes as Mary Lake, Lake Francis and Lake Kenellan, around which Rocklands station was later established. Landsborough found the Aboriginal people abundant in the vicinity, writing that: This place seems a favourite resort for blacks...there were about one hundred blacks in the neighbourhood of the camp some of whom were so bold that I feared it might be necessary to shoot some of them.
Establishment of Rocklands In 1865, venture pastoralist George Sutherland arrived at Mary Lake with 8,000 sheep to establish Rocklands
sheep station. He described their arrival as: "On the left bank of the river at the lake [was] a large camp of blacks, on rushed the sheep through fires, blacks, and all other impediments to quench their thirst. The unfortunate niggers had a terrible time of it. To be roused up out of their sleep at midnight by some 8,000 sheep rushing madly and tumbling over them was chaos, was something demonical to the simple natives, who never saw, or heard of jumbucks before." The Aboriginal inhabitants resisted Sutherland's aim to dispossess them. "After the fright the blacks got on the night of our arrival to rob them of their country, we thought the poor wretches would give us a very wide berth, [however] a shower of spears, nulla-nullas, and other waddies came flying in all directions. Unfortunately only one of the whole party had any firearms, all left in the tents. The one possessing a revolver fired twice at the niggers, haphazard in the dark. Of course all made a rush to the tents, to secure, firearms, but in the dark these were not easily found, and had the savages followed us up, they could easily have massacred the lot of us. However they didn’t, but grabbed and took everything they could lay hands on." operation around Rocklands Station The company then appointed Augustus Henry Glissan as manager who remained at Rocklands for many years. In 1887, Glissan brought a kidnapped Aboriginal boy named Oscar to the property from
Cooktown, Queensland. Oscar worked as a station-hand at the property and recorded his experiences there in a series of sketches now held at the
National Museum Australia. In these drawings are depicted Aboriginal people working on the property and conducting traditional ceremony. Oscar also drew Aboriginal men being chained up and shot dead by Native Police troopers. Rocklands Pastoral Company, in various forms, retained ownership of Rocklands Station well into the twentieth century.
Later changes of ownership Western Grazing acquired Rocklands, from the
Stanbroke Pastoral Company, in 2004 at the same time as acquiring Tanbar. The property was acquired by the
Paraway Pastoral Company from the Western Grazing Company in 2016 along with
Tanbar Station for 130 million. The property was stocked with 35,000 head of
Brahman, Brahman cross Santa, Charbray and Senegus cattle. Rocklands Station records are held in the
State Library of Queensland. ==See also==