Dalby through the eyes of a long-term resident

The old lady had a remarkable memory and could recall events from the past with the greatest of ease. Barbara Stewart had seen Dalby and district change from wild unexplored country to progressive towns and beautiful homesteads and farms. She had been part of it, experiencing events and knowing personalities from the historic past. She had seen the Aboriginal tribes in their primitive state and had witnessed Ludwig Leichhardt leaving on his last fateful exploration. She became the last living member of a family of eleven.

For the past ten years she had been the keeper of the famous Dalby bore baths. But that had finally come to an end.

Her father, Hugh Ross, had come to Australia from Scotland with his wife and family and for a time settled at Oakey Creek where Barbara Ross was born in 1842. Two years later he took up the property Greenbank and moved there. Dalby did not exist at the time. The camping ground on Myall Creek took on a new turn when Samuel Stewart opened a bush hotel there. This must have interested Hugh Ross as in 1848 he moved to Myall Creek leaving his sons to run the property and established a second hotel. It was across the creek from Stewart’s and was about where the old RSL building now stands.

Little Barbara Ross came to Dalby in 1848 where she would spend most of her life. She said at that time there were only two hotels and a bark humpy. There were up to 40 teamsters camped on the creek. She recalled, “I have seen half a dozen free fights between the hotel and the creek for men lived hard in those days.”

It was about 1852 that Dalby began to go ahead as a storekeeper arrived in the place. During her absence in the west for three or four years, a lot more people came and settled there.

She remembered Brisbane as a small place. She used to go down with her brothers when they took their wool down to sell. It was a two and a half day trip and from Ipswich the last of the journey was made by boat. She found the boats dirty and uncomfortable until later a fine boat named the “Bredalbane” took up the run.

As a young girl Barbara Ross received her education in Ipswich. As she was finishing Separation was granted to Queensland. After a time her father gave up the hotel and her brother took over. Hugh Ross then took up butchering in Dalby. There were no fences or paddocks and when cattle were purchased from the stations they were rounded up on the wide plain and driven to Myall Creek.

In 1863, a year after her father died, Barbara married a son of Samuel Stewart.. She was proud of the fact that 25 of her great nephews fought in the Great War. Despite her age her eyesight was excellent as she is a prolific reader. This is borne out by a beautiful piece of crochet work. This was in the form of a table centre, with the Australian Coat- of-Arms beautifully worked in as a design.

Mrs Barbara Stewart passed away in October 1932 at the age of 90 years.