Birnam author’s book a hit in the Territory

Joe’s book, A station on the Barkly: Brunette Downs in the early days, follows the journey of his grandfather Jerry Connolly and managers Jim Hutton and Pat Kelly as they developed the station in the 1880s.

Working for the owners who lived “down south” the trio were integral in developing Brunette Downs into the powerhouse station it is today.

Joe said his original intentions in 2010 were to research his grandfather and keep the book for his family.

“I like to know the background of my ancestors and I knew very little about him so I started exploring,” Joe said.

“Almost nothing was known about him except that he was head stockman on Brunette Downs.”

Spanning more then 12 thousand square kilometres on the black soil plains of the Barkly Tableland, Brunette Downs is one of Australia’s most famous and important cattle stations.

Now owned by the Australian Agricultural Company the station has one of the company’s biggest breeding and backgrounding herds and home to the famous Brunette Downs races.

However, like most NT cattle stations, Brunette Downs started from humble beginnings with no fences, no bores and a strained relationship between European settlers and Indigenous Australians.

Joe became captivated by this harshness in the early years of Brunette Downs and made the book a recollection of the famous station.

After sending the book away to press, Joe had more copies than he needed for his family so he sent the book to a friend in Beaudesert.

“Lex Dunn was his name and he liked it so he ordered a couple of copies for people around Beaudesert,” he said.

Joe sent a copy of the book to the NT library in Darwin and it became a hit in libraries and living rooms across the Northern Territory.

This history has captured readers from across Australia after Scenic Rim author Joe Baker delved into the station’s history in his newly published book.

For a copy of the book email Joe Baker at joebak@bigpond.com.