Agricultural selections

Scene near Jericho

Land around small railway towns of Alpha, Jericho and the railway sidings of Drummond and Pine Hill was resumed in the late 1880s and 1890s as part of the Queensland colonial government policy to encourage agricultural production. All 2560 acres (1036 hectares) resumed near Jericho were selected, and of the 3760.5 acres (1522 hectares) made available near the two sidings, two-thirds of the 2550.5 acres (1020 hectares) were selected.

The largest area opened for the selection of small agricultural blocks occurred along the Alpha and Native Companion Creeks where 39,040 acres (15,799 hectares) were made available for small selections. Only 12,598 acres (5098.25 hectares) were selected before 1909.

While a few of the selectors cultivated small areas to grow corn, potatoes, citrus fruit and grapes, most of the selected land was used for grazing horses or cattle. By 1914 only 5 acres (2 hectares) was being used for agriculture – the lack of water and accessible markets became apparent.

Notes on database:

This database shows only the first holder of each small block selected, the total area held and the date they applied for the licence.

Occupation

Applicants generally included their occupation on the forms used to apply for a selection.

Parish

The selections in the Alpha Parish were resumed from Alpha Station; those in Jericho Parish from Burgoyne Station. The selections resumed from Beaufort station surrounding Pine Hill and Drummond sidings were located in Ashinhurst and Chantrey Parishes.

Application date

These selections were taken up between November 1889 to October 1908, before and after the severe drought years at the turn of the century.

References:

Information about the agricultural selections has been collected from the Queensland Government Gazette, The Gazettes to 1900 are accessible at Text Queensland. Some details of the majority of the selections in the period before they were purchased as free hold are available in the Series ID 14050 (Dead Farm Files) at Queensland State Archives,