One of my third great uncles was Kenneth George Budge (1842-1878), the son of Kenneth Budge (1813-1852) and Margaret Budge nee Gunn (1819-1863).
Kenneth Budge the father was a seaman who married Margaret Gunn in 1840. Kenneth and Margaret lived in Wick, Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. Their five children were:
- Daniel (1841-1895)
- Kenneth George (1842-1878)
- Alexandrina (1844 – before 1851)
- Margaret (1845 – 1912) my great great grandmother
- Alexandrina (1851-1911)
On 10 June 1854, Margaret remarried, to Ewan Rankin (1825- ?). With her four surviving children she emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, sailing on the Dirigo. The ship departed Liverpool on 10 July 1854 but returned because of a cholera outbreak. Sailing again on 9 August, they arrived in South Australia on 22 November. Kenneth George was then 12 years old.
In 1863 Kenneth’s mother Margaret died at Bookmark station on the River Murray near present-day Renmark. Margaret was 44.
In 1867, in Adelaide, Kenneth’s sister, Margaret, married James Francis Cudmore (1837-1912).
In 1870, in partnership with his brother-in-law James Francis Cudmore, Kenneth bought Gooyea, a cattle station, on the Bulloo River near the Barcoo River, Queensland. In 1875 Kenneth’s brother Daniel joined the partnership.
The Barcoo River near Blackall photographed in 1938
Musterers on Milo station, probably in the 1890s. Milo station was formed from several stations including Gooyea
In October 1871 Kenneth was in charge of a mob of 600 cows and 16 bulls travelling from Paringa, a Cudmore station, to Dowling’s Creek, at Gooyea. A herd of cattle this big could travel only about ten miles a day, so the journey from Paringa to Gooyea would have taken nearly three months.
Latest News. (1871, October 18). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 2 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197660614
It is 1,224 kilometres from Paringa to Gooyea via Wilcannia or 765 miles
A mob of cattle crossing the MacIntyre River from Queensland to New South Wales. Image retrieved from Wikipedia.
From the Wikipedia article on Drover (Australian):
Movement of large mobs of stock was traditionally carried out by contract drovers. A drover had to be independent and tough, an excellent horseman, able to manage stock as well as men. The boss drover who had a plant (horses, dogs, cooking gear and other requisites) contracted to move the mob at a predetermined rate according to the conditions, from a starting point to the destination. The priorities for a boss drover were the livestock, the horses, and finally the men, as drovers were paid per head of stock delivered. Drovers were sometimes on the road for as long as two years. The drovers who covered very long distances to open up new country were known as “overlanders“.
Traditional droving could not have been done without horses. The horse plant was made up of work-horses, night-horses and packhorses, with each drover riding four or five horses during a trip. The horse tailer was the team member responsible for getting horses to water and feed, and bringing them to the camp in the morning. A good night-horse was highly prized for its night vision, temperament, and its ability to bring animals under control when a “rush”, known elsewhere as a stampede, occurred at night.
The standard team of men employed to move 1,200 cattle consisted of seven men: the boss drover, four stockmen, a cook and a horse-tailer. Store cattle were moved in larger mobs, of up to 1,500 head, while fat bullocks going to meatworks were taken in mobs of about 650 head, i.e. three train loads. The stockmen will ride in formation at the front, sides and back of the mob, at least until the mob has settled into a routine pace. Cattle are expected to cover about ten miles (16 km) a day, sheep about six miles (10 km), and are permitted to spread up to 800 metres (half a mile) on either side of the road. A short camp is made for a lunch break, after which the cook and horse-tailer will move ahead to set up the night camp
A report in November 1874 mentioned 2,200 cattle head of cattle had been purchased and were en route to Gooyea.
HAY SHIPPING. (1874, November 11). The Riverine Grazier (Hay, NSW : 1873 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141197711
In June 1878 a newspaper article discussed the effort Kenneth Budge and J.F. Cudmore were making to establish a quality beef herd.
The Advertiser THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1878. (1878, June 6). The South Australian Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1858 – 1889), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article29603079
In April 1878 Kenneth Budge was appointed a Queensland magistrate.
On 6 November of that year, only 36 years old, he died suddenly of heart disease at Gooyea. He was buried at Gooyea, but two years later his body was exhumed, brought to Adelaide, and re-interred in West Terrace Cemetery.
The grave of Kenneth Budge at West Terrace cemetery photographed in April 2017
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People led hard and short lives in those days. I was interested to see the name Gunn mentioned as my son-in-law is a Gunn. His grandparents came from Adelaide and before that the family came from Scotland, Maybe they are related to Margaret.
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Hi Linda We May be related. Gunn cousins certainly came to Australia. There is a Gunn family history Society and quite a lot of work has been done on the combined family tree which can be found at this website http://andrew-g.com/gunnblog/publications/
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Hi Linda, yes it seems I am related to your son-in-law based on the comment on your blog under khaki 🙂
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Anne this family have left a great trai for you to follow. Such a long way to drive cattle
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Reading about the cattle drive reminds me of the tv movie “Lonesome Dove.”
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I haven’t seen the television show. For me the droving experience reminds me of the poem by Banjo Patterson called “Clancy of the Overflow” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clancy_of_the_Overflow
Clancy of the Overflow
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just ‘on spec’, addressed as follows, ‘Clancy, of The Overflow’.
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
’Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
‘Clancy’s gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are.’
. . . . .
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving ‘down the Cooper’ where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover’s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.
. . . . .
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the ‘buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.
And I somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal —
But I doubt he’d suit the office, Clancy, of ‘The Overflow’.
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What great family info you have discovered. Another interesting post.
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