Among those who are to be reckoned as the oldest inhabitants of the Gulf country, was John Harrix, who came over with the first cattle of Mr. J. G. Macdonald from Bowen in 1864, and who owned some teams and a small station near Normanton. A partner of his named Macdonald came down the Flinders early in 1865. Percival E. Walsh, a nephew of Mr. W. H. Walsh, of Degilbo, helped to settle some runs in the Gulf country. He took up a run on the Dugald, naming it Granada, which was sold afterwards to Messrs. Hopkins Brothers. He also restocked Iffley after its desertion by its first owners, the Earle Bros., now of Yacamunda, on the Suttor River. The early citizens of Normanton include the names of Peter Armstrong, David Swan, Charles B. Hely, Charles Borck, John Edgar Byrne, for many years proprietor of "Figaro," and a hundred others who more or less helped to form this city of the Gulf. Many of them are now resting in the cemetery outside the town. R. Towns and Co. had forty thousand sheep on the Leichhardt, near Floraville, and a shearing shed near tidal water lower down the river, where a small steamer (the old "Pioneer," the remains of which are still to be seen at Sweer's Island), came for the wool. The country proving subject to terrible floods and unsuitable for sheep, the numbers gradually decreased until the remnant were finally removed. The Etheridge goldfield was opened in the early days of Normanton, and found occupation for many teams and much labour. Prices in the early days were at a really famine level; flour was often sold at £40 a ton, and other goods at a corresponding rate. The writer had experience of these prices when loading his own team in those early days. Normanton had many advantages over her sister settlement, Burketown, and when the port became known, all the station trade drifted there, and Burketown declined in consequence. Normanton was, in 1891, connected with Croydon by a railway ninety-four miles in length, which cost £211,000, and was constructed by Mr. G. Phillips, C.E., on a principle new to Queensland, the sleepers being of mild steel, instead of wood, on account of the ravages of the white ants. The line between Croydon and Normanton passes through a perfectly level and very uninteresting country, a melancholy sandy waste of ti-tree flats, covered with the innumerable pinnacles and mounds made by white ants; the pasturage is as poor as the country looks.