QUEENSL’D CATTLE-RUSTLERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1945, Page 8

QUEENSL’D CATTLE-RUSTLERS

ARMED VIGILANTES PREPARE SYDNEY, September 4. Cattlemen on the big stations near Bowen, Queensland, 700 miles north of Brisbane, have organised vigilantes to deal with cattle rustlers who are preying on their herds. There is no evidence that the rustlers are operating as a gang and property owners suspect that the thieves, are small groups of Army deserters who have taken refuge m the hills and leave their hideouts to cut out a few head of cattle which they sell to unscrupulous dealers in the neighbouring towns.

When is was noticed that cattle were disappearing, station owners appealed to the State police. Mounted troopers were dispatched to the area, but the owners say they were inexperienced and were not provided with horses which could cope with the wild country in which the rustlers worked. The police failed to track a single rustler and cattle continued to disappear. The owners then organised cattlehands and jackeroos into vigilantes and mounted them on bush horses reared in the country. All skilled bushmen, hard riders, and crack shots, the vigilantes were ready at a moment’s notice to dash for the hills at the first report that the rustlers were again operating. The vigilantes work in pairs with their rifles at the ready. They have sworn to mete out summary justice if they catch up with the ' cattle thieves. They threaten to deal similar- i iy with traders who buy stolen cattle.