Gins from the verandah of the quarters, Alpha 1884

During her time on Alpha Station, Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe recorded tableaux of remote Australian station life — the flora and fauna, horse breaking, kangaroo shoots, family picnics and events at the station and its outstations, as well as the lives of the Indigenous people. During the late 1800s, squatters hungry for land took advantage of the Unoccupied Crown Lands Occupation Act 1860 passed by the newly-formed Queensland Parliament. The land holdings of many station owners were acquired in this way and, as a result, prime land previously occupied by Aboriginal people was annexed by white settlers. By 1884, the majority of available land had been claimed, resulting in the displacement of the Indigenous population.