The town of Evandale was progressively built on land previously belonging to Collins and Barclay from the 1820s and it was around this time that free land grants ceased. The 1820s were a violent period, with depredations from bushrangers and aborigines a constant threat to outlying farms and to travellers. The Brady Gang were involved in a shoot out at nearby Glendessary and the murderer and bushranger Jeffries was captured by John Batman, Anthony Cottrell and the Aboriginal William 'Black Bill' Ponsonby at Jeffries Creek, near modern-day Logan Road.