However, it was not until 1847 that an official record exists, confirming his application to the NSW Government for a
squatter's licence, to cover his previous occupation of approximately 200 square miles, of the district.
To quote from the 1950 publication "Wilderness to Wealth" by Murphy & Easton.
"What is now the populous and closely-settled district of Blackbutt was, prior to 1889,
the more densely scrub covered and, hence, least payable, portion of the historic "Taromeo" run.
In contrast with most areas in the adjacent South Burnett basin, the history of closer settlement
began comparatively lately. When all available land in the Brisbane Valley was taken up,
intending selectors looked to the wide tracts of the South Burnett and Wide Bay Creek falls.
After a period in which these new terrains were reached by way of Kilcoy and Durundur Creeks
and the Conondale Ranges, a track was cut from Colinton to Goode's Inn in 1856.
This primitive swathe cut through a belt of rich scrub land, which, for nearly four decades, was ignored.
Even Walter Scott of "Taromeo" saw little of its possibilities when, in 1889, in voluntary surrender,
he offered as a resumption to the Government the area which comprises the greater part of the Blackbutt
district of to-day.
"