Cuttabunda 1870 - 1896

No photos of Cuttabunda are known. This photo is of a homestead "Wirra Warra" which was only 700 metres away from Cuttabunda Homestead. The photos show the Saunders Family in mourning over the death of the eldest son "Willy" in 1886. - Photo from the Jack Saunders Collection

In 1870 Thomas Jnr and his three brothers Matthew, John and Absalom purchased the pastoral lease for a 16,000 acre property 90kms north of Brewarrina.

In the mid 1880s younger brothers William and Edward became part of "The Spencer Brothers Pastoral and Homestead Lessees" when two more properties were added. They then controlled over 30,000 acres between the Bokhara and Narran Rivers.

Initially they ran cattle but jumped on the wool boom in the late 1880s.

By mid 1896 the combination of low wool prices, flood, fire and drought, all on top of the very sever 1890s economic Depression took their toll.

They were sued for their accumulated debt of over 10 thousand pounds and lost the property.

There is a ton of material on Cuttabunda which will be added over the next few months.