QAG - Ballandean to New England

The Ballandean run was leased by Henry Nicol during Martens’s visit. It had been originally taken up by Robert Mackenzie, of Scottish origin, like many of the first white settlers on the Downs. Nicol, as manager for Mackenzie, had named Ballandean after a house in Perthshire, Scotland.

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Martens, Conrad
England/Australia 1801–78
Charley March 16th [1852] 1852
Pencil
14.9 x 28.5cm
Collection: Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales

This study appears to have been used for the lone horseman in Forest, Cunningham’s Gap. The annotation by Martens reads: ‘Blue shirt, straw hat, moleskin trousers, red handkerchief round waist, grey horse’. Ludwig Leichardt’s diary (1844) mentions an Indigenous companion also named Charley. It is tempting to think this is the same man.

Martens, Conrad
England/Australia 1801–78
Ballindean, H Nicol Esq, 1852 (1852) *
Pencil
18 x 30cm
Collection: John Oxley Library

* Martens's original spelling retained

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Photo 1979 a
Photo 1979 b

Martens, Conrad
England/Australia 1801–78
View at Balandean 1852*
Watercolour
28 x 44.5cm
Collection: Private

* Martens's original spelling retained

Commissioned in 1852 by the then leaseholder and manager, Henry Nicol, this watercolour shows a view from a position 400m north-east of the head station, looking across Pigsty Creek and a fenced wheat field. Apart from stockyards, generally near head stations, fences were unusual on the Downs at this time as the squatters mostly ran stock in huge unfenced runs. However, the sheep were moved into sheepyards (moveable hurdles) at outstations for safekeeping at night (protection against dingos and Indigenous people). Interestingly, the Indigenous people also built yards for the sheep that they captured.

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