Bernie Beston FAP. FRPSL.
Following the opening up of the Moreton Bay District to free settlers in 1842, the influx of migrants and squatters increased rapidly. As the best grazing land nearest Brisbane was taken up, adventurous pastoralists scoured further and further afield for good grazing lands. By 1860 coastal towns such as Maryborough, Gladstone and Rockhampton were well established. They not only had regular shipping services to and from Brisbane and Sydney (Fig. 1), operated by the Australian Steam Navigation Company (ASN). But they enjoyed the presence of other casual visiting ships, each able to bring supplies, and to export any saleable produce to the southern ports.
Fig 1. Cover from Sydney to Rockhampton via Brisbane in 1862 carried on the Australian Steam Navigation Company Ship Telegraph.
On the 25 February 1861 George Elphingstone Dalrymple was instructed by Governor Bowen to establish a settlement at Port Denison. He journeyed there overland from Rockhampton, a distance of about 500 kilometres. He took with him 140 horses and 121 cattle, and their tracks provided a clear path for any future travellers journeying overland to the settlement. Upon arrival, he was met by the Government Ketch Santa Barbara and the Schooner Jennie Dove, both ships having been despatched by the Government from Brisbane with settlers for the new town. Robert Towns took up the Woodstock Station, he was later probably played a small part in this short story.
Fig 2. Cover from Sydney to Bowen in 1864 carried on the Australian Steam Navigation Company Ship James Paterson, addressed to Byrnes Bassett & Co.
There was an immediate need for the new settlement to receive a regular postal service and postal facilities.
The then Postmaster Thomas Murray-Prior(1) recorded the position when he reported to the Queensland Legislative Assembly dated 29 July 1863:
“During the year 1860 the subsidy paid to the Australasian Steam Navigation Company for the conveyance of mail once a fortnight to and from Brisbane, Maryborough, Gladstone, and Rockhampton was £5,400, this, with the subsidy for the Port Denison mail amounted to £6,000, or within £348.1s.2d of the whole postal revenue of the Colony. At the commencement of 1862 so much difficulty was experienced in keeping up regular postal communication with Port Denison, the prevailing winds blowing for the greater part of the year from one quarter, sailing vessels frequently a long time overdue; to obviate this, tenders were called for a monthly service by steamer, and a contract entered into with Messrs. Byrnes Bassett, and Co, at £100 per month. The service was commenced with the small screw steamer Murray. Although the Murray is not well adapted for this service, she has, when practicable, been making fortnightly instead of monthly trips, visiting Broad Sound and the Pioneer River, and has also been into the Burdekin River. Lately the Australasian Steam Navigation Company has placed their steamer Eagle on the Port Denison trade, thus increasing the means of transit between Rockhampton and the intermediate ports. Within a year the two companies are trading to places between which only the most uncertain communication previously existed. I submit that more benefit accrues to the general revenue in subsidising steamers by opening new ports in the Colony giving facilities for traffic, and thus encouraging commerce, than in direct postal communication; therefore the subsidy might properly be charges against the general revenue, and the postal department bear the expense of letters despatched or received which would form only a small item compared with the sum paid.”The Postmaster-General of England in his 8th report, touching on a subject somewhat similar, remarks- “The payment to the Chester and Holyhead Railroad Company has been omitted, only part of that payment is for postal service, the remainder of the nature of a Government grant to increase facilities for communication with Ireland.”
The Government declined to take up the Postmaster General’s recommendation of the subsidy question, as the citizens of Bowen (formerly Port Denison) were still clamouring in 1865 for the Government to grant a subsidy to a shipping line to carry the mail to Bowen and to thereby increase services to the town.
The volume of mail to and from the
Rachel Henning is recorded as writing to her sister regarding Murray-Prior’s visit in these none so glowing terms:
“A few days ago we had a visit from Mr. Prior, the Postmaster General, who was travelling through this district to decide on the places whence regular mail was needed. I suppose it does not require any great talent to be a “Postmaster General”. I hope not, for such a goose I have seldom seen. He talked incessantly, and his conversation consisted of pointless stories of which he himself was the hero. The witty sayings he had said and the clever things he had done. However we treated him very respectfully, and Biddulph gave up his room for him, and I think he left us under the idea that a mail to Exmoor was necessary for the good of the country and tenders are already out for it. So we shall probably have it at the beginning of next year and a great benefit it will be. He was very much disgusted at the treatment he received at Fort Cooper. The next station to this. I believe that it is the dirtiest station on the road, and the overseer would not lend him a horse. I do not know whether this will stop the mail from running on to Fort Cooper or not.”
The S. S. Murray was built at Batterglen, County of Lanarch in Glasgow, Scotland in 1859, and entered in the Glasgow Shipping Register on 20 January 1863, as having been sold on the 21 November 1862. It was a screw steamer of 59.35 Tons, and was registered in the New South Wales Shipping Register (No, 54 of 1863) on 22 October 1863 as being owned by James and William Byrnes. No mention is made of Bassett.
It weighed anchor in Brisbane in early July 1862, and commenced to advertise in the Brisbane Courier for freight and passengers for its impending passage to Port Denison, via Rockhampton, departing on 10 September 1862. The Brisbane shipping agents were J & G Harris. It is unknown when the regular service from Rockhampton to Port Denison commenced, but it can be reasonable deduced that it commenced on its maiden voyage in late September 1862. The ship was the first vessel to enter the Port of Mackay on 23 September 1862, under the command of Captain Till.
The Government first called tenders for a monthly steamer or sailing vessel from Rockhampton to Port Denison in 1861. No tender was received, and the Government wrote to the ASN Company inviting their interest. An application was received from the Australian Steam Navigation Company dated 10 June 1861. Their offer was not accepted. Tenders were again called in January 1862 (Fig. 3). Alas, this Tender suffered a similar fate. Hence, a further Tender dated 9 May 1862 (Fig. 4), called for a steam vessel service only. It was this Tender that Byrnes Bassett sought and won, being granted the contract on the 29 July 1862.
Figure 3. 20 January 1862 Gazettal Notice calling for Tenders for a Steam ship or Sailing vessell service for the mail from Rockhampton to Port Denison.
Figure 4. 9 May 1862 Gazzettal Notice calling for Tenders for a Steam ship or Sailing vessell service for the mail from Rockhampton to Port Denison.
The ASN Company offered to carry the mail from Brisbane to Rockhampton, and thence to Post Denison for £150 per voyage.
Australian Steam Navigation Company
Brisbane 10th June 1861
Sir,
Having forwarded to the Manager of the A.S.N.C for the consideration of the Board of Directors your letter to me of he 27th ultimo relative to the employment of one of their steamers for one trip to Port Denison and back.-
I have now the honour to submit for the consideration of the Government the reply I have received, which is that the Directors offer the screw steamer Eagle specially for this service, namely a voyage from Brisbane to Rockhampton and thence to Port Denison for the Subsidy of One Hundred & Fifty Pounds (£150).
This low sum is named in the hope that the prospects held out of a considerable amount of passage money and freight may be realised, and because the company are willing to take the risk of loss, rather than that the Government and the friends of the company desirous of paying a visit to Port Denison should be disappointed.
Should this offer be accepted you will do me the honour to inform me in time to advise the manager by the return of the Telegraph, which vessel will leave thus early Wednesday morning.
It is proposed to despatch the Eagle from Sydney for the port on the 21st instant and thence for the Northern ports on Friday the 28th.
I have the honour to be,
Sir
Your obedient Servant
GEO D. Webb
A. W. Manning, Esq
Under secretary
Figure 5. 1861 Letter from Australian Steam Navigation Company to Postmaster General offering their services for one run from Rockhampton to Port Denison.
By October 1862, just a month after the arrival of the Murray, the newly formed Queensland Steam Navigation Company(2) (QSN) had commenced a regular service from Brisbane to Port Denison calling at Maryborough, Gladstone and Rockhampton en route. The ship used for the run was the S. S. Queensland. By August 1864, she had been replaced by the S. S. Lady Bowen. There is no evidence that either vessel held any postal contracts.
Murray Prior presented his report to the Queensland Parliament on the July 1863. However by the first edition of the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin appearing on the 9 July 1864(3), Byrnes Bassett, Quay Street Wool Stores, Rockhampton(4) are advertising as the Rockhampton agent for the Queensland Steam Navigation Company for the S. S Queensland on the Rockhampton to Brisbane route.
The Port Denison Times and Kennedy District Advertiser did not appear until 1864 and there is therefore no recorded data on the shipping activity of Byrnes Bassett from September 1862 to late 1863.
The Byrnes brothers sold the Murray to Harry Vince Blackham of Sydney on the 21 October 1863. We can therefore reasonably presume that, either just before or shortly after this date, it ceased to operate a shipping service out of Rockhampton for Port Denison. Richard E. Pym, the newly appointed Port Denison Sub Collector of Customs records receiving two packages from the steamer Murray, these having been dispatched from Brisbane on the 16 February 1863. Payment was demanded for their delivery, which would indicate that the mail contract may well have expired by the end of January 1863. This would place the period of operation of the ship on the Rockhampton/ Port Dennison route from September 1862 to February 1863, at best a six month period. This concurs with the £600 figure mentioned by Murray Prior. The S.S. Murray was onsold shortly after on the 22 December 1863 to John Broomfield, described as Shipowner of Sydney. By 15 September 1865, it was in the hands of a Nelson, New Zealand Grazier, Joseph Paul.
So, whilst the company had no ship, it continued to operate from offices in Rockhampton (and presumably) Port Denison. It may even have sold its interests to the QSN Company, and as a part of the agreement provided agency services for a short contractual period. Certainly by October 1864, its shipping agency had been dispensed with, and Richardson & Company, Quay St, Rockhampton were the new QSN Company agents for the Queensland. The Queensland is referred to as the “Mail Line”, but this may well denote its appointment on other routes, and not on the Rockhampton to Bowen run. The Government Gazettes of 1863 and 1864 do not record any further shipping contracts or subsidies being let by the Queensland Government for this service, except by land.
A letter dated the 19 February 1863 from Rockhampton to Bowen endorsed “Per Eagle”, could not have been carried on that ship (or at least not as a part of the official postal delivery service), as there does not appear to have been any mail contract with the ASN Company or with any other company for the carriage of mail to Port Denison from Rockhampton at this time. Port Denison officially changed its name to Bowen in 1865 to honour Governor Bowen. It was already referred to as Bowen, Port Denison. Note that the sender uses both Bowen and Port Denison in the address. Mail for this period into or from Port Denison is understandably scarce.
With the ASN Company holding the mail contract from Rockhampton to Brisbane no wonder the public were unsure of who carried the mail to where or by what means. The Port Denison Almanac of 1868 indicates that mail for this period was carried overland to Rockhampton via St. Lawrence, and not by sea. The journey took over a 7 day week, and was therefore inadequate for either business or social communication.
The Petition of 1865 seeking a subsidised steamer service for Bowen, indicates that mail for Rockhampton at least ceased to be sent by steamer sometime between 1864 and 1865.
Later in 1887 the QSN and the ASN companies were to combine operations to form the Australasian Steam Navigation Company (AUSN), but at this point in time they were bitter rivals for the Queensland coastal shipping trade, including the not insignificant wool trade to England. This included any mail carriage contracts that could be obtained from the Government, either to increase profits or to make a loss-making run profitable.
Postscript
Since completing this manuscript, new information has come to light. This new data elevates the Company to a two ship Line, but not much more. The principal store in Port Denison at this time [erected in 1862] was Byrnes, Bassett & Co. The owners were J. & W. Byrnes of Parramatta, Sydney and Dr. Bassett and the latter’s stepson Sutherland.
In Rockhampton they operated as Stock and Station agent, Woolbrokers and General Merchants. It acted as shipping agents for the, wool clipper barque Frowning Beauty in October 1862. This vessel had previously been represented by J & W Byrnes of Sydney. And in February 864 acted as shipping agents for the Woodbine, advertising it in as “The first direct ship ever laid on at Rockhampton for England”. The first James Byrnes purchased he Star of Australia in 1863. She commences services to Port Denison from Rockhampton on 5 November 1863 (under the command of Captain
D. J. Christenson, a month after the Murray was sold. Murray Prior was actually kind in his description of her, as the ship was described by others as “a wretched old craft”, “a gentlemen’s yacht” and in heavy seas was always forced to put into Keppel Bay for safety. The Star of Australia made two voyages to Sydney in January 1864 and 10 April 1864. Byrnes Bassett advertised its services as” Excellent passenger accommodation, and carries an experienced Stewardess in the ladies cabin”. By the time of its return voyage from Sydney in July 1864, Byrnes had chartered the ship to the QSN Company, and they had appointed Morgan & Allen, Rockhampton as their Rockhampton Agent. When the QSN Company failed to renew this charter, Byrnes sold the vessel to its rival, the ASN Company on the 14 January 1865. However the ship suffered the same fate as Byrnes, Bassett & Co and was lost on its maiden voyage form Sydney to Rockhampton in the same month. The wreck was never found. The Port Denison store had already been sold to McLeod, Carter & Co in the previous year. An era, however short, had ended!
Bibliography
Queensland Parliamentary Reports
Rockhampton Morning Bulletin
Various Queensland Government Gazettes
Brisbane Courier
Pugh’s Almanac
Port Denison Almanac 1868
Sydney Maritime Museum Library, Shipping Records
Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, Longreach, Library
H. Ling Roth, The Discovery and settlement of Port Mackay
N. McKellar, From Derby to Burketown: The A.U.S.N. Story
Notes
1. Queensland Parliamentary Debates
2. Established by mainly Queensland business interests as a rival to the Australian Steam Navigation Company (ASN) monopoly. The inaugural Ipswich meeting was brought about by the disquiet at the excessive subsidy sought by the ASN Company for the Rockhampton to Port Denison route
3. Rockhampton Morning Bulletin 7 July 1863
4. Part of this warehouse precinct still stands today, but the wool stores of Byrnes, Bassett & Co have long gone
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