BOYD TOWN

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1933, Page 8

BOYD TOWN

? A TRAGEDY OF DEVELOPMENT ■ People who see no parallels in his- • tory are too tired to read (writes the . Brisbane correspondent of the Mel- , bourne ‘Age’). Something is about to , eventuate now that can be likened to events in the ’forties of last century, when Ben Boyd (sent to Australia to organise branches of the Royal Bank) decided that founding settlements, building a port, and owning a. large slice of the earth was a much better proposition. The plan for the development of the Northern Territory by certain companies includes the development of the pastoral industry, the organisation of a fleet of ships, and the building of a new port at the mouth of the M’Arthur River, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is to be hoped they get a better deal than Ben Boyd did. One can still find a trace of the ruins of Boyd Town

on Twofold Bay, where Boyd built huge factories, a whole town, wharfs, and a lighthouse to guide his fleet of ships into port. But the Government of the day, piqued at private enterprise daring to do what it was afraid to do itself, suddenly developed a building mania and built another town on the opposite side of the bay, and refused permission for the lighting of the lighthouse. Among other buildings erected at Boyd Town was a handsome church of Gothic architecture, the spire of which was visible twenty . miles out at. sea. But that did not ■ inspire the Government. It built the Custom House and other official offices at Eden.

Boyd Town was the port outlet of the great pastoral country of Monarco —or Maneroo, as it was called then — where Bon Boyd took up millions of acres and crossed to Riverina, where' millions more were taken up, and where in time there were countless herds of cattle and sheep. A fleet of ships cruised on the high seas in search of whales and also to carry cargoes of commodities. Cattle were driven down to Boyd Town to be treated for tallow, which appeared to be the most profitable use that the world at that time put their herds and flocks to. Between oil and tallow Boyd was on the highway to earn his financial backers the 6 per cent, he had promised them.

[ _ Rut the Government was too strong in the end, and Eden, the worst spot on the bay that could have been chosen, prevailed. In any case it contribut ed a. great deal to the downfall of a company that had the largest pastoral holdings ever organised in Australia. It is to be hoped that with the coming of the huge chartered settlement company there will be a better understanding.