William Landsborough in 1861 named the Barkly Tablelands after the Governor of Victoria, His Excellency, Sir Henry Barkly. The first settler to the area was John Sutherland, who took up the Rocklands lease in 1865. Stock losses to the local dingos and Wedge-tailed Eagles; lack of water and isolation soon forced him to abandon his lease. The Englishmen Benjamin Crosthwaite and William Tetley, who were marginally more successful, took up the lease again in 1876.
The initial town of Camooweal was gazetted in 1884 to be built on a 4-square-mile (10 km2) plot by Lake Francis. A year later the present site was re-gazetted and within a year a post office was built. Other milestones for the town were the addition of a police station in 1886, opening of a provisional school in 1893, drilling of the town bore in 1897.
Caption on verso reads 'Arrival of teams at Camooweal with general goods from Burketown, a seaport 240 miles away'.
Little is known about J. T. Needham but his studio stamp appears on this cabinet card (see below).
No comments:
Post a Comment