My Mate Bruce Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Bruce is a tiny railway station at the southern end of the main Flinders Ranges with a current population of four (give or take) and a range of animals to make up the numbers.
The first European settlers arrived in the 1850s. And Bruce was officially laid out and declared a town in 1876. The town was named after a well-known farmer in the district although there is a view (rumour?) which says it was named after a friend of Governor Jervois.
Bruce is in the centre of the Willochra Plain. The plain was opened up for intensive settlement in the 1860s. The land was from large sheep runs and each settler, was allocated 640 acres (a square mile) of land.
They had to commit themselves to putting a dwelling on the land within two years. At the time it was covered with acacia and the first thing the farmers did was clear the land. This was based on the optimistic and inaccurate belief that 'rain followed the plough'.
There was a tremendous drought from 1864-66 and there was further droughts in the 1880s and 1890s. By the 1890s any hope of making the Willochra Plain the granary of Australia was over.
The plan was that Bruce was going to be the largest town on the plain. It was expected to be larger than Quorn. However by the 1860s-1870s there were 500-600 men working on the railways and living in Quorn.
The railway finally closed down in 1972. The last scheduled service was a goods passenger train and that was believed to be a wheat train.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
ybat nezf
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