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merchant or journalist dares squeak without his permission’. He had extensive land interests, including Kulkyne Station. Kenyon says that in Miller’s time Pine Plains Station became famous for horses bred there, being ‘synonymous for hardiness, endurance, and plenty of temper’. In 1887 Miller sold to W.C. Carter who, Kenyon says, sank a well on Wirrengren Plain. Pine Plains was taken over by the National Bank and auctioned in 1901 but apparently did not sell. Pine Plains was abandoned from 1903 until 1905 when the Poultons of Cambacanya took it on, together with grazing rights over the Wonga Lake run. The Poultons owned Pine Plains until 1917. They connected Cambacanya and Pine Plains with a single-strand telephone line of fencing wire running past Lake Brambruk. The telephone line was relocated along the old bullock track between Rainbow and Pine Plains about 1915. In 1934 it was removed when Pine Plains was connected to the Baring exchange near Patchewollock. Owen (‘Hugh’) O’Sullivan and Michael Francis Kelley were registered as owners of the freehold property in 1917 although they had probably taken possession earlier, possibly in 1915. With the freehold went grazing licences over 1052 sq. miles of Crown land, including Wirrengren Plain. Michael Kelley moved his family into the old homestead in 1919 and they lived there until 1922. Kelley became so concerned about bird poaching that he had himself appointed as a Wildlife Warden. Hugh O’Sullivan lived in Rainbow where he opened a butchers shop. Hugh O’Sullivan knew the area well. He was living with his parents at Albacutya Station when, in 1883 and aged only 14 years, he commenced a mail route from Dimboola, the then railhead, to Cow (or Kow) Plains Station, now Cowangie, on the Mallee Highway between Underbool and Murrayville, and rode it twice weekly along the old bullock track. He spent Saturday and Sunday nights at home, rode to Pine Plains along Outlet Creek via Bullock’s Head, Maiden Swamp, Black Flat, Wonga Lake and Bracky Well on Monday, to Kow Plains on Tuesday, back to Pine Plains on Wednesday, to Albacutya on Thursday, to Dimboola on Friday, and returning Owen (‘Hugh’) O’Sullivan (1869–1929). home on Saturday. He did this every Source: O’Sullivan family