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cease for Buchanan until in separate expeditions many years later, he overlanded cattle in the far west of Western
Australia. In the meantime, he had been in the vanguard of cattle overlanding to the Northern Territory.
In 1859 the Landsborough and Buchanan exploration to the eastern edge of the west and northwest Queensland
plains almost ended in tragedy. They were close to starvation and reduced to eating stew from boiled down
greenhide hobble straps, when rescued by a search party. In 1861 Buchanan and Cornish reached the Diamantina
and found fresh traces of the Burke and Wills expedition on its way to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Lake Buchanan and
the Landsborough River, a tributary of the Thomson River, were named. Exploration with Landsborough included
the Gregory, Barcoo and Warrego rivers and the naming of the Barkly Tableland.
Following this period of exploration, Landsborough, Cornish and Buchanan, with Morehead and Young,
formed the Landsborough Company to lease land in the area. Bowen Downs Station on the Thomson River near
Longreach was taken up, initially as a sheep station, in 1863, with Buchanan as manager. An adjoining area named
Mount Cornish became a cattle station. Buchanan continued to explore surrounding country, to travel further west,
and north to the Gulf, and to assist other settlers. His reputation was firmly established as a bushman and cattle
drover.
In the same year, he married Katherine Gordon, daughter of John Gordon, manager of Ban Ban Station near
Maryborough, and took his bride from the port of Bowen back to Bowen Downs Station, by buggy, 500 kilometres
through bush country. Many of Buchanan’s later expeditions were in association with his bachelor brothers-in-law
Hugh and Walter Gordon. His son Gordon Buchanan was born at Ban Ban Station in 1865.
In 1867, due to poor seasons and prices, Buchanan was forced to abandon Bowen Downs Station to the Scottish
Australian Company that had been financial backer of the operation. He farmed with his brothers on the Bellingen
River and engaged in tin mining at Watson’s Creek for some years, before taking up the management of Craven
Station near Emerald in Queensland.
A run of good seasons in the 1870s meant a renewal of interest in pastoral development in western Queensland
and the Northern Territory. Ludwig Leichhardt had reached Port Essington via the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1845,
A C Gregory explored the Victoria River in 1856, John McDouall Stuart crossed the continent from south to
north in 1862, Palmerston (Darwin) was established in 1869, Ralph Milner, John Ross and Alfred Giles were
droving sheep into the Northern Territory from South Australia, and in 1872 the Overland Telegraph Line was
completed. There was fierce competition between South Australia and Queensland over the occupation of pastoral
lands.
In the mid 1870s, Buchanan explored the Georgina and guided a mob of cattle from Burketown to Rocklands
Station on the Queensland/Northern Territory border, near the present town of Camooweal. Such journeys involved
up to 12 months on the road. At that time the land between the Rankine and the overland telegraph was unknown.
On 10 October 1877 Buchanan set out, with Sam Croker (Greenhide Sam) and crossed the well-pastured, but
waterless, Barkly Tableland to join the Overland Telegraph at Powell’s Creek Telegraph Station. Buchanan Creek
and Croker’s Lagoon were named during this expedition. Subsequently Buchanan used the more northerly
Leichhardt Track of 1845, skirting the Gulf of Carpentaria to move cattle from Queensland to the Northern
Territory. In 1872 Darcy Uhr had used this route to overland a small mob of cattle to the Pine Creek goldfields,
but no properties were stocked prior to 1877.
At Powell’s Creek, Buchanan and Croker telegraphed about their explorations but found that most land had
been taken up ‘on spec’ by southern speculators. Buchanan obtained the lease of one block near the Overland
Telegraph Line that he later resold. The country that he had explored now includes Brunette Downs, Alexandria
Downs, Alroy and Avon Downs stations. Buchanan and Croker profited very little from this journey, but this
circumstance was repeated many times during the following years.
Buchanan’s first major droving enterprise into the Northern Territory was in 1878 when, with Hugh and
Wattie Gordon he took 1200 cattle from Aramac in Queensland to stock Glencoe Station on the Adelaide River
near Darwin for Travers and Gibson. This was the first station established in the Top End of the Northern Territory.
The droving party consisted of seven white men (Buchanan, the Gordon Brothers, Travers, Bright, Hume and
Brebner), and one or two Aborigines. There were three drays, 60 horses and provisions estimated to last 12 months.
The journey was estimated at 2 200 kilometres, mostly through trackless country through which a passage had
to be made for the drays and the group averaged eight to 20 kilometres per day. Buchanan played the role of
scout, riding out each day alone about 30–40 kilometres in advance of the party and circling back to the camp.
His purpose was to find the best route, good pasture and places to water the cattle.
When the parry reached the Limmen River, pasture for the cattle was good, but food for the men had run short.
Buchanan and Wattie Gordon rode ahead to the overland telegraph and returned with extra rations. The party
moved on, but was delayed again by the onset of the Wet in March 1879. This delay had the advantage that the new
calves had a chance to grow and travel on with the herd. This trip via McArthur River, Roper River and Katherine
was a most successful venture and formed the pattern for a succession of later drives from Queensland to the
Northern Territory. Many other overlanding parties followed the route blazed by Buchanan.
In 1881–82 Buchanan followed the same general route with 20 000 cattle for C B Fisher who purchased
Glencoe Station after Traver’s death. The Gordon, the Farquarson and the Cahill brothers, with Walby, Furnifull,
Sayle and Hedley, accompanied him this time. Some of the cattle went on to Victoria River Downs.
Buchanan and the Gordon brothers founded Wave Hill Station in 1883, with the Gordons and Sam Croker
droving 500 heifers from Dalgonally Station in Queensland. Buchanan in 1883 took 4 000 cattle through the
Victoria River district to the Kimberleys to form the Ord River Station.
In 1886 Buchanan pioneered the hazardously dry Murranji Track linking Newcastle Waters and Top Springs,
a shorter route to Wave Hill than through Katherine. The stocking of the Northern Territory leases continued