Occupation (Pastoralist) FROM 1864
Took up eight runs in the Maranoa district of Queensland with his lifelong managing partner Joseph C. Smyth. Troubled by drought, breeding problems and low prices, McIlwraith & Smyth lost some of their runs; he responded by exchanging sheep stations for cattle runs and by seeking more British and Melbourne capital. In the early 1880s he incorporated all but one of his many stations in the Darling Downs and Western Land Co., the North Australian Pastoral Co. and the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Co., in order to live as a financier and deploy his capital more flexibly.