Packhorse Mailman Jim MacDowall
From Waler Data Base @ FaceBook. Image: Wheatbelt Tribune and Koorda Record (W.A.) 14th April 1948
Jim (James) MacDowall was a legendary mailman who did the Laura to Coen run north of Cooktown in Queensland – riding one horse and taking several packhorses.
He did this mail run for over 17 years from 1934. He took nine to twenty packhorses, starting from Laura where the railway terminus was – the train brought mail from Cooktown. Took the mail via several stations to Coen – over 170 miles one way.
Packhorse mail at Coen Cape York Peninsula – showing horses with mail. Contactor was Jim McDowall who had the Coen to Laura run. On horseback he covered 182 miles of trackless bush Coen to Laura and 164 miles back by another route in 13 days in the dry season. During the wet it took six or more weeks to complete the run. He took over the run in October 1934 and carried out the job continuously until June 1951. He was killed by a fall from his horse while on the track June 1951.
National Archives of Australia.
He did this mail run for over 17 years from 1934. He took nine to twenty packhorses, starting from Laura where the railway terminus was – the train brought mail from Cooktown. Took the mail via several stations to Coen – over 170 miles one way.
The return delivery took two weeks in good conditions – mail deliveries for 13 days and on the 14th day, usually a Tuesday, Jim stayed at Coen for a day shoeing his horses and overhauling their harness. He never had a single day’s holiday in his working life. On Wednesday at 6 a.m. he was in the saddle, packhorses loaded, returning to Laura. His son also named Jim, started working full time with him when aged thirteen from 1934 when they took up the mail contract. Other sons also helped as they were old enough. During the war years all his sons joined up, so Jim was left alone to manage. At Coen he paid two Aboriginal helpers to look after the horses when he was away.
For four months of the year torrential rains made the trip arduous and dangerous – at times croc-infested rivers were two miles wide. Sometimes he was trapped for weeks waiting for floods to subside and cyclones to blow away. The mail run took several weeks in these conditions. Other times it was incredibly dry for long stages. Several people perished on the Coen track. Jim found one man who’d died of thirst.
He was also a carrier, taking goods such as station rations, hence the need for so many horses, and also took passengers – they rode a packhorse (without a pack of course).
Later in life Jim added an extra mail run to Moreton Telegraph Station – right at the top of Cape York. He hired another mailman for this leg, at times his son Jim did it for him; Coen being the halfway point now, however Jim looked after all the horses himself – fifty of them – and the harness. In 1947 he briefly lost the mail contract to Fred Gostelow of Violet Vale station, however he regained the contract a few months later. He’d also gained the contract to the Wenlock area that year. A gold rush to the Wenlock area (then known as Batavia River goldfields) meant at times the mail carried gold, at risk of bushrangers. The previous mailman had been robbed of bags of gold (culprit was caught).
Jim was born in Cooktown in 1889, his father managed Bluff Downs. Sadly, Jim was orphaned by age seven. At ten years old he began work on Lakefield Station, as the horse boy, for O’Beirnes. They also had a butchery at Cloncurry and Jim worked there for a bit before returning to station work. He grew up doing station work and was managing Lakefield Station before gaining the mail contract Laura to Coen.
He married a Cooktown woman, Susan, and they had six sons. In 1951 Jim died unexpectedly, aged 64.
Very few photos of Jim, so included news clippings. Buddy Thompson recorded a song about him called Packhorse Mailman, can’t find it, if anyone can please let us know. There were many other packhorse mailmen, stories for another time!
Images: Townsville Daily Bulletin, 26th June 1951 – 1 of 3 clippings
Jim never regained consciousness and died in hospital. It was found he had a cerebral contusion, concussion and a dislocated left collar bone. It appears he fell from his riding horse which had been given or loaned to him at Violent Vale and was from Mareeba, and green. I can’t find whether this horse was ever found, news articles all say it couldn’t be found but that was at the time. It may have turned up later.
