Obituaries Australia

Albert White, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 15 August 1914

One of North Queensland's best-known pioneer squatters in the person of Mr. Albert William Duckworth White, of Bluff Downs, Charters Towers, died last month. Wherever he was known, and that was fairly widely in Queensland, the late Mr. White was universally respected for his many excellent qualities, for his business capabilities, for his generosity and ready help, and for the pluck and perseverance that carried him through droughts, tick troubles, and the many vicissitudes that beset the pioneer pastoralist.

He was born in Queensland at Old Beaudesert Station, on the Upper Logan in 1847, and was educated at Macquarie Fields, N.S.W. In 1872, in partnership with his father and brother Ernest, he took up Bluff Downs, and stocked it with cattle from the Logan. Bluff Downs was originally stocked with sheep by William Hann some years earlier, but had been abandoned by him. About 1876 the late Mr. White travelled west, and took up the country he named Beaudesert, after the old place on the Logan. Some years later he amalgamated with the adjoining runs of Eulolo and Strathfield, and formed the partnership of Collins, White and Co., which still exists in the same families.

In 1885 and 1888 the Bluff herd was almost wiped out by drought, and again in 1896 by tick fever. In 1898 the adjoining run Mulla Mulla was purchased, in 1902 Christmas Creek, but resold in 1906; Fanning River Station was bought in 1903, but resold; in 1907 the adjoining run Toomba was purchased, in 1912 Miall, and in 1913 Curragilla, portion of old Lammermoor.

Practically the whole of his time Mr. White devoted to the breeding and improvement of cattle and horses; in fact, his hobby was breeding horses, both draught and thoroughbred. In 1885 he found the Devon cattle withstood the dry seasons and conditions on the basalt tablelands better than Shorthorns, and to-day the Devon herd at Bluff Downs and Mulla Mulla is probably one of the best and largest in existence. He also realised the merits of the Shorthorns when reared under better conditions, and kept a portion of the run set aside to breed them pure.