NEWS FROM THE PAST

It is now nineteen years since we first saw Toowoomba, then a small hamlet, peopled only by a few families, whose chief support was splitting and fencing for the surrounding stations. Now it has grown into a town of large dimensions, its population numbered by thousands and enjoying all the advantages that flow from advancing civilization. Those who see the Toowoomba of today can hardly realised what it was when it formed an appanage (sic) of Drayton and was spoken of only as “The Swamp.” No town in Queensland unsupported by a gold field or a strong mining community, has advanced with such rapid strides, and if the past is any guarantee for the future, Toowoomba must occupy the position of being the largest, most important, and most increasing inland town in the colony.

The Show that closed on Thursday evening not only revealed the wealth of the pastoral interest, but it also exemplified how rapid has been the improvement in the breeding of sheep, cattle and horses by those who a few years ago would have laughed at any one who had predicted such a vast improvement in pastoral enterprise.

Who that remembers the miserable weeds of horses for sale, but what must have felt the liveliest satisfaction at the splendid collection of draught and blood horses that were assembled on the Show grounds on Wednesday. And the same remark applies to the sheep and cattle, and which have so largely improved of late – mainly through the instrumentality of the Royal Society’s annual Exhibitions – as to give additional fame to the already well known grazing capabilities of the Darling Downs.

Toowoomba Chronicle and Queensland Advertiser, August 7, 1875