When the new Queensland Government, following separation from New South Wales in 1859, embarked on a program of land legislation in the early 1860’s, a rush to take up runs in the Maranoa and Warrego districts set in. Would be squatters came westwards via the Darling Downs; northwards along the Balonne and Maranoa; south-westwards from Rockhampton along the valleys of the Nogoa and the Comet – and later also from Fort Bourke following in reverse Kennedy’s dry route along the Warrego.
Significant run seekers included Walker (explorer), Wiggins, Mackenzie, Louis Hope (pioneer sugar grower), A.C. Gregory (explorer and later first Surveyor-General), Christopher Rolleston (Crown Lands Commissioner for the Darling Downs; William Kelman, (became areas second largest pastoral holding), James Tyson (became largest pastoral land owner in area), Denison, John Frazer, W. B. Copeman, Charles and John Monkton Brown, William Kelman (who discovered the pass through the Great Dividing Range), Charles and Henry Tom, Charles and William Haly, Kent, Wienholt, Thelwall, Dixon, Ernest Henry, Sanderman, Robert Martin Collins, Fullerton, William Francis Kennedy, Wilson, E.C.Elliott, Lethbridge, M.P.Elliott, McLlwraith.
Significant stations at the time included; Mt Abundance, Meteor Downs, Albinia Downs, Babbiloora, Westerton, Carnarvon, Dooloogarah, Barngo, Woura, Walla Walleena, Westgrove, Mount Moffat, Mount Ogilvie, Marlong, Crystalbrook, Forest Vale, Merivale, Myrtleville, Killarney, Lansdowne.
E.G. Heap, B.A. The Rangers Werye the Best. The Kenniff Story. Queensland Heritage.