History: Bylong Station

Bylong Station 1896

Bylong home-station itself, is not of any means in keeping with the reputation of such a bull-breeding establishment as this run has, there being no resident but an elderly housekeeper, who is very kind indeed to all visiting the place. Fences, stables, and the house itself have a neglected look, though the interior is comfortable enough, so far as furniture goes. The garden is a wilderness of thistles and other choke-alls, asserting themselves triumphantly like all useless things, and would mean a lot of hard work to lick it into shape. Mr. Lee seldom visits the place and his family never, which accounts probably for the moth and rust, and the bulls that break through and steal.
When the owner of Bylong condescends to pay the place a visit he is more like a physical telegram than a human being, the idea evidently being to beat the record between Bathurst to Bylong and back again. Here is an instance of what the squire, who is now 72 years of age, generally does. Leaving Bathurst in the evening by the mail train, he travels all night until Rylestone is reached in the grey dawn, where a fast horse is saddled and waiting to convey him to Bylong, a distance of thirty miles, which he accomplishes without drawing rein, in something under two hours. Then without waiting to swallow more than a cup of tea, the active Mr. Lee mounts a second horse - already waiting - with his trusted stockman in attendance, and away he cuts over hill and dale at a hand gallop with dogs barking and whips cracking to the yards where the bulls are mustered, and the day's work begins in earnest. This never terminates before sunset, when Mr. Lee races home again, dines, and retires, only to be up again at 5 a.m. to make the best of his way to Rylestone in time for the early train and back to Bathurst, all within a little over 36 hours.
So quickly is everything done, that he seldom has time to speak, unless in dotted crochets and semibreves, and is said to have tired every well-bred horse on the station. In earlier times these escapades would have been considered quite lazy, for it is recorded that he used often to come across from Bathurst to Bylong - before the railway was made - more than 100 miles - in the day. It is well for men that ride so hard as Mr. Lee, that horses feet in this lime-stone country are about as good as can be seen anywhere. The firm straight appearance of the hoof denotes that the soil is well suited to the feet, and makes them as sure-footed as goats.
Hanging in the dining room at the homestation are two well executed oils of Bylong and Cossack - noted 'cracks' in their day - and showing the quality of horse that was introduced into these parts in the early days. Mr. Lee, who has gained for himself such wide-spread fame as a breeder of bulls, has, no doubt, like many another successful man, become surfeited with fame and prize-taking, and, of course, is indifferent to eulogistic accounts in the press of what his bulls are made of. They are good stuff, and he knows it but what troubles him at the present time is the cheapness of such good articles, consequently preparing a beast for the show is a waste of time, trouble, and money. It is almost impossible to visit any first-class station without seeing some descendants of the famous Bylong herd scattered about in all parts of Australia, so that nothing too laudatory can be said in reference to father and son who have done so much in their time at Bylong to raise the standard of Australian cattle. They have set an example to stock owners that not many can hope to rival, and very few indeed surpass1 .