The part of the Mitchell pastoral district that the new town of Barcaldine served was permanently settled by the time the railway arrived. The land was surveyed into consolidated holdings, administered by Kargoolnah Divisional Board (centred on Blackall) and apparently carrying a larger population than the area does now.
The occupations were of the time, and urgently needed to build up the then frontier of Queensland’s inland.
In the early days, when men were the ‘breadwinners’ and frontier builders, most of the employment activity was male. Women however did sell their services as midwives, dressmakers, cooks and governnesses – some no doubt also as prostitutes. Widows were many in such a dangerous landscape, and wife desertion not uncommon although punishable by prison.
Station Managers and Rural Occupations
Managers and owners of sheep stations were rural gentry with staffs of workers, including Aborigines, Chinese and Kanakas. They were often in charge of small villages miles from the nearest towns with their own butcheries bakeries. When shearing was in full swing, the populations of the stations would increase dramatically.
Carriers and Coachmen
Carriers and coachmen ploughed the dusty tracks linking the railway to the pastoral areas it served. The routes, lonely and hazardous but dotted with makeshift hotels and sly grog shops, grew shorted as the line advanced and the carriers’ livelihoods were reduced. When the railway reached Lagoon Creek where the town developed, Barcaldine became the place where they all waited for loading, living in large carriers’ camps on the north side. For three years it remained the terminus and the working class population mushroomed (Hoch, 2008, p.12).
A large carriers camp was set up from 1886 on the north-side of the railway line (remembering that the station was also on the north side until 1933). Carriers, their families, drays and teams of horses and bullocks were all part of the camp.
Smaller carrying concerns also operated in the town, carrying goods by means of lighter conveyances.
Shearers and Shedhands
For several weeks in the shearing season, large numbers of extra men were employed. These shearers and shed hands were nomads, carrying their swags from one place of work to another, plagued by fever and scurvy, and sometimes living only on fauna they caught or shot.
When McLaughlin’s and the Westbourne woolscours were operating, shearing was one of the available jobs. Some shearers daily rode their pushbikes out to Westbourne.
After motor vehicles became a viable form of transport, teams of shearers would travel on the back of small trucks to the shearing sheds sometimes over 100 miles distant. Road conditions meant they wouldn’t always get back home – a light sprinkle of rain on the tracks/roads meant the trucks would be stuck at the properties.
Light Industry and Factories
There were a number of light industries and factories operating in town over the years. Aside from the woolscours, there was a brewery, a soap factory, cordial/drinks factories, coach factories, saddlers,
Railway Workers
With the railway came scores of navvies, lengthsmen, plate layers and general hands who had toiled for years on the line, building an artery for commerce and travel. Most were hard drinking, hard fighting gamblers who lived in tents and shanties and could be hired and fired at will by their bosses, just as shearers and shed hands were. When work on the line stopped, they had to find other employment.
An influx of new workers came in September 1889 when the line was finally extended to Longreach. Contractors Rothwell and Langtree set up their first camp at Saltern with about 300 men and 50 women in tents serviced by a store, a blacksmith and a carpenter. Water was carted by train from Barcaldine bore. The itinerant workers brought the usual problems. ‘The town is full of bad characters’ reported the newspaper, ‘Petty larcenies, indecencies and drunkenness are rife’. But their money boosted trade and the town hummed with business (Hoch, 2008, p33).
Small Businesses
Many small commercial businesses came with white settlement. The owners of the businesses built up the first shopping precinct in Oak Street, with some businesses also operating in Ash and Beech Streets. Some moved location, some were burnt out in street fires and rebuilt, some gave up, some moved to Longreach when it opened up in 1892.
From 1886 in Barcaldine there was a full range of goods and services available befitting a small town with nowhere else to shop:
- hotels (12 at one stage)
- mixed grocery stores
- bakeries
- drapers
- bootmakers
- hairdressers/tobacconists/jewellers – newsagents
- builders and carpenters
- blacksmiths
- coach builders
- road transport coach drivers
- newspapermen
- solicitors
- forwarding and stock agents
- refreshments shop, restaurant and cafe proprietors
- chemists
- dressmakers and tailors
- midwives
- butchers
- hardware and furniture
- bankers
- market gardeners
- hotel cooks
- cleaners.
Hawkers
Hawkers travelled the roads out west for many years, some using teams of horses, others camel teams to move their goods and fares around. Afghan and Chinese hawkers were common. They sold everything it was possible to transport across the rough roads including carpets, pots and pans, jewellery, bolts of fabric and trimmings, toys.
