Conrad Martens's Brisbane Indigenous Peoples The Squatter Families The Natural Environment Materials and Methods Martens under the Microscope		The Natural Environment of the Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a pastoral and agricultural El Dorado, one of the most fertile areas in Australia. Its rich, treeless grasslands once resembled the prairies of North America and the steppes of Mongolia, and were able to sustain the Indigenous populations with their natural abundance. Left to right: Headington Hill Station 1897; Clifton Station c.1875; Allora views 1873 Collection: John Oxley Library, Brisbane (111499; 145310; 17019) After arriving in Brisbane, Conrad Martens headed westward through the rainforests of the Great Dividing Range to the flat plains of the Darling Downs. These grasslands provided extremely good country for grazing sheep and cattle, which first attracted the squatters to the Downs and shaped their use of the land in the first half-century after settlement. Left to right: Cecil Plains Station c.1875; Westbrook Station c.1870 Collection: John Oxley Library, Brisbane (11750, 131574) In the 1860s, the government enacted legislation for the survey and sub-division of the large pastoral holdings on the Downs in order to encourage agricultural exploitation of the land. These land surveys required detailed mapping of the original vegetation patterns, including careful delineation of the grasslands. Martens’s works, many of which portray the grasslands, are some of the earliest visual records of the area. The jigsaw of these individual survey plans can be pieced together with Martens’s images to confirm the character of the original vegetation of the Darling Downs. Gould, John England 1804–81 Richter, H.C. England active 1800s (Collaborating artists) Lagorchestes Leichardti (Leichardt's Hare-Kangaroo) (from ‘The mammals of Australia' series) 1845–63, published 1963 Hand-coloured lithograph 35.5 x 50.5cm Collection: Queensland Art Gallery Gift of Wilson & Co. 1987 These historical sources have been critical for determining the original vegetation patterns of the Darling Downs. The redistributon of the squatters’ vast properties led to a denser pattern of settlement and a radical transformation of the district. The open grasslands have undergone the most dramatic upheaval, with ninety-nine per cent of the original area now cultivated for crops. Grazing is now less common on the Darling Downs – the fertility of the rich clay soil and the sub-tropical climate allow two crops a year: wheat or barley in the winter and cotton or sorghum in the summer. Today some remnants of the grasslands still exist as part of the stock route adjoining the major western highway through the district, and there is now an active effort to ensure the protection and management of the original grasslands. Dr Rod Fensham, Queensland Herbarium Print friendly version