Title: Disputed Plain: Armstrongs and their Magnificent Horses
Author: Keith McLeay
Publisher: Richmond River Historical Society 
Printed by: Northern Star Print (066 24 4000)
ISBN : 1 86252 555 2 
56 pages, 28 photos, 1 map

The author Keith McLeay had an auctioneering business on the North Coast, for some 48 years, and had business dealings with the Armstrong  family. The "Disputed Plain" property has been in the Armstrong  family since 1866 .... and is thought to be still owned by their descendants.

No Index or Contents page

Categories/Chapters

 Part One :
 * The Armstrong Family Origins
 * The Armstrongs
 * Alexander Armstrong's Death

 Part Two :
 * Disputed Plain
 * Law Suit Between Ward Stephens and Shaw
   & Leycester over "The Disputed Plain"

 Part Three :
 * The Armstrongs at Disputed Plain

 Part Four :
 * Racing Success at Brisbane
 * The Stinging Tree
 * Disputed Plain Racing Contingent Cross Flooded Creeks
 *Arrival at Brisbane
 * Through Brisbane City to Eagle Farm
 * Beaten by a Length
 * The Return Journey
 * The Curlew Chorus
 * Kate Meets the First Taxi at Disputed Plain
 * Kate Armstrong's Funeral
 * Kate and Maggie Armstrong
 * Maggie's Medico
 * Alick's Monument
 * Rebecca Armstrong
 * James Armstrong
 * Ralph Morgan
 * William Armstrong
 * Ellenour Armstrong
 * The Versatile Alick
 * Darcy Powell
 * Charlie Jarvis
 * Death of John Martin
 * Dr. Robert Kellas
 * Effects of Mechanisation
 * Monte (aboriginal identity whose tribal name was Warrigal)

 Three poems from local poets about the famous Disputed Plain horses:

 "She is Not Dead" by Jack Moses
 "Musselman's Grave" by John Sommerville
 "Australia's Champion" by Millie Gorton

Acknowledgement

"For the Disputed Plain story the writer acknowledges the  invaluable co-operation and assistance of Mrs Christine Armstrong, without whose efforts the historical records  of the Armstrong family at Disputed Plain might have been forever lost, which would have been a thousand pities. 

For identification of old photos at Disputed Plain, the clear and retentive memory of Bill Noble of Eureka, has been invaluable, as have been his recollection of events.  Bill's remarkable memory concerning the records of Disputed Plain horses for over 60 years has also been of great assistance.

Others who have been most helpful are : Selwyn and Shina Martin (long time neighbours of the Armstrongs), Walter Hicks and Chas Ball of Fernside, Earl Creighton, Meg Timbrell, Edna Tucker and Mary Secombe of the Lismore Historical Society and others too numerous to mention, who readily helped in the rather difficult task of obtaining corroborative accounts of the early pioneering history of Disputed Plain.

Posthumous acknowlegement should also be given to the late Darcy Powell, whose reminiscences of the Disputed Plain history as told to him by the pioneering Armstrong brothers has been drawn upon".

I am a distant relative of the Armstrongs - through Alexander Armstrong's wife, Margaret McDonagh (McDonough), who was my great-great-grandmother's sister.

The "Disputed Plain" property has been in the Armstrong family since 1866 .... and is still owned by their descendants (I think).

Contributed by: Diane

Diane is a relative of the Armstrong family through Alexander Armstrong's wife, Margaret McDonagh  (McDonough), who was her great-great-grandmother's sister.