 While this eased the pastoralists' financial situation in the short run, it exacerbated the problem in the long term as the grossly oversupplied market caused extremely low cattle prices at the end of the 1870s.By 1880 north Queensland cattle numbers were estimated at 450,000 - almost three times the 1874 figure.The Townsville boiling down works re-opened in 1880 to deal with the excess.