People: Henry Dennis - An Adaptable Irishman

Henry Dennis was never an owner or a manager of Jondaryan station, but he played a very important part in the beginnings of Jondaryan, for he was the first person to see and select the run. His is a story of remarkable tenacity and bushmanship, with a gift of the Irish blarney, but the luck of the Irish deserted him.

It was Henry Dennis who first recognised the potential of the site that became Jondaryan station.

Little is known about the early life of Henry Dennis. We know that he was born into a well-connected, successful northern Irish family. He was well educated, being a graduate of the University of London. He immigrated to Australia in 1838 when he was around 25 years of age and went to work for a family relative, Sir Richard Todd Scougall. Scougall owned property in the Liverpool Plains district on the Namoi River system, near where the town of Gunnedah now stands. He appointed Henry Dennis as a superintendent on this property.

By the beginning of 1840, Scougall was becoming very overstocked on his Liverpool Plains property and needed more land. He decided to send Henry Dennis on an expedition north to the Darling Downs, Cunningham's 'EI Dorado', with instructions to select land for him and two of his neighbours, Charles Coxen and Lieutenant Irving.

Henry Dennis, however, was ill equipped and poorly provisioned for such a along and arduous journey. He was only provided with one packhorse, a pack bull and what supplies the two animals could carry. Both animals being fully laden meant he was unable to ride and would have to walk until the supplies were used up.

Henry Dennis's sole companion on the expedition was an Aborigine named Warraby. Warraby's bush skills and knowledge of Aborigine customs would have been of great assistance to Henry Dennis, contributing in no small way to the success of the expedition. Warraby, however, was a member of a southern tribe. As such, he was well out of his territory and lacked any knowledge of the language of the tribes whose territories they had to pass through.

As an outsider, Warraby would not have been welcomed by any of the tribes whose territory they had to pass through and would have been in as much danger of attack as Henry Dennis.

Dennis, however, possessed an uncanny ability to be able to communicate his peaceful intentions to the Aborigines and never at any time during his life amongst them, did he have any conflict with Aborigines.

Henry Dennis and Warraby trekked northward up the Namoi and Manilla rivers and then overland to the Macintyre River, travelling north-west along its course to where the town of Goondiwindi now stands.

Striking north from there, they journeyed overland until they came to the Moonie River. They followed this to the east, eventually arriving on the Darling Downs in July 1840.

Unknown to Henry Dennis, the Leslie brothers had also set off from Sydney to select land for themselves on the Darling Downs around the same time that he had left the Namoi on his journey north.

In comparison to Dennis's slow moving party, the Leslie's expedition was one of the best-supplied and equipped private expeditions to ever set out in Australia. It was split into two sections, a light fast-moving forward section, which travelled on ahead to prepare the way for the slow-moving section with the livestock that followed behind.

The forward section lead by Patrick Leslie used Cunningham's maps, which enabled him to travel quickly to the Downs, arriving there in April 1840. Patrick Leslie was on the Downs well before Henry Dennis, who arrived there in July of that year.

Henry Dennis came on the Condamine River at a point where a large creek joined it. Dennis named this creek Oakey Creek. The land lying on the north-eastern side of the Condamine and to the north-west of Oakey Creek so impressed him that he decided to claim it as a run for himself

The area of land that Dennis chose for himself had another creek draining into the Condamine, as its north-western boundary. This creek he named Myall Creek. The Bunya Mountains formed the northeastern boundary of the run.

This was the same tract of land that later became Jondaryan station. The land lying beyond Myall Creek, west to the next creek draining into the Condamine River, he chose as a run for Charles Coxen, he named that creek Gimba Creek.

To eke out their meager supplies, the two men had lived off the land as much as possible. By the time they reached Gimba Creek they had use most of their supplies. This enabled them to ride their pack animals and travel more rapidly.

Beyond Gimba Creek lay a vast tract of rich black soil plains. Here Henry Dennis chose the huge Jimbour run for Scougall. The Condamine River formed its southern boundary, to the west, Cooranga Creek formed its boundary and the Bunya Mountains formed the northern boundary. West of Cooranga Creek, Dennis chose the Warra Warra run for Irving.

Henry Dennis travelled to where the town of Chinchilla is now situated, arriving there in December 1840. He had covered more than 500 miles, most of it on foot, without coming into conflict with any of the Aborigine inhabitants along the way. Eleven months had passed since the two had set out on their epic journey.

Having completed the task he had been sent to do, Henry Dennis and Warraby began their long journey home. By this time the last of their supplies had been used up and they were forced to live entirely off the land, considerably delaying their progress on the return journey.

Arriving back at Myall Creek, Henry Dennis set about marking out the boundaries of the run he had chosen for himself. He followed the course of the creek up into the mountains then travelled south-east until he came on the headwaters of Oakey Creek. This he followed down to just below where the homestead now stands on Jondaryan.

It can be imagined the surprise and disappointment he must have felt on finding Henry William Coxen living there, accompanied by Lieutenant Irving, with men and livestock to set up a run.

Coxen told Dennis it was feared he had perished on his journey, as it had been so long since his departure and there could be no word of his fate. He explained how Charles Coxen, fearing he would miss out in the rush for land, had sent him to the Downs to obtain a run for him.

By coincidence, he and Lieutenant Irving had selected the same area of land that Henry Dennis had chosen for himself The land had been registered in Charles Coxen and Irving's names.

Having lost his claim to Jondaryan, Henry Dennis continued on his way back to the Namoi, noting that settlers were arriving in large numbers to claim land on the Darling Downs.

He reported to Scougall about the land he had chosen for him and the situation with regard to the arrival of so many settlers on the Darling Downs. Scougall wasted no time in sending Henry Dennis back to the Downs to take possession of the Jimbour run for him. Dennis took possession of Jimbour in July 1841, but the station was not stocked until October 1842.

Cunningham's Gap and Gorman's Gap, the shorter route down the range to the coast, proved too dangerous to take loaded drays over. A new route was sought, and in January 1842, Henry Dennis joined with several of the most prominent settlers on the Downs to cut a new and safer route down the range, this became known as Hodson's Gap.

On 15 February 1842, Christopher Rolleston, Governor Gipp's new land commissioner arrived on the Downs, enabling all the settlers who had been squatters on their land, to register their runs. Henry Dennis registered Jimbour in the name of Scougall and Dunn and Jondaryan was registered in the name of Charles Coxen.

In August 1843, Richard Scougall arrived on Jimbour station to take over its management. Unfortunately, for Scougall and Dunn the collapse of the Bank of Australasia bankrupted them, forcing them to sell Jimbour.

In October 1843, Henry Dennis joined several landholders on the Darling Downs to explore the coastal country to the north-east of the Darling Downs. Setting off from Jimbour, they travelled north for about 25 miles, then turning east, crossing the range near where Durong now stands and followed a creek down to the Boyne River. They travelled down the Boyne to where it runs into the Burnett River. They followed the Burnett for 300 miles through heavily-timbered country eventually arriving at the coast. Not seeing any land they liked better than the Darling Downs, they returned to the Downs.

In the latter part of 1843, Lieutenant Irving attempted to settle Warra Warra station, but the Aborigines there were very hostile at his attempt, killing most of his shepherds and driving off all his sheep. He was forced to abandon the attempt and returned to Irvingdale, his run on the inner Darling Downs.

Early in 1844, Lieutenant Irving persuaded Henry Dennis to make another attempt at settling Warra Warra for him. No normal person would have taken on such a challenge after what had already transpired there, but Henry Dennis was no ordinary person.

By that time, his ability to get along with the Aborigines had become almost legendary and his skills were much sought after. He had no trouble when he came to establish the run. He not only persuaded the Aborigines to help him round up the sheep they had driven off but persuaded them to assist him in shepherding and looking after them. He continued to manage Warra Warra until the end of 1844.

A desire to have a run of his own remained strong in Henry Dennis. After leaving Warra Warra, he set out to find suitable land that had not already been occupied by settlers. He found a run to his liking on the lower Condamine, lying between the Condamine River and Macintyre Brook.

After his experience in loosing Jondaryan, he was determined not to loose his new run. He set about establishing permanent improvements on the run, before going to register it with the land commissioner at Cambooya. He must have fallen foul of someone, for they had reported him to the land commissioner for living on the land before he had registered it. It was probably someone who had their eye on the same area of land.

When he came to register the run, Commissioner Rolleston imposed a find on him, for living on the run without registering it. He remained on his run, stocking and developing it until the end of 1846, when he sold it.

Henry Dennis was betrothed to one of Thomas Bell's daughters. On 3 March 1847, be boarded the paddlewheel steamer Sovereign, intending to sail to Sydney to be married.

The ship was delayed for a week at Amity Point, because high seas made it too dangerous to cross the bar of the south passage between Moreton and Stradbroke islands. On the morning of 11 March, the captain judged the seas to had abated sufficiently for the ship to make the crossing safely.

All went well until the ship was half way across the bar, when the engineer reported that both engine frames had broken and the engines had to be shut down. The ship lost way at once and the breakers swung her round, the rudder chains parted and the ship wallowed helplessly as the seas crashed aboard, nothing at all could be done to save the ship.

All but 10 of the 54 people on board lost their lives, including Henry Dennis.