Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:07:02.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Transition from Shepherding to Fencing in Colonial Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2007

JOHN PICKARD
JOHN PICKARD*
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University NSW 2109, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The transition from shepherding to fencing in colonial Australia was a technological revolution replacing labour with capital. Fencing could not be widespread in Australia until an historical conjunction of technological, social and economic changes: open camping of sheep (from about 1810), effective poisoning of dingoes with strychnine (from the mid-1840s), introduction of iron wire (1840s), better land tenure (from 1847), progressive reduction of Aboriginal populations, huge demand for meat (from 1851) and high wages (from 1851). Labour shortages in the gold-rushes of the early 1850s were the final trigger, but all the other changes were essential precursors. Available data are used to test the alleged benefits of fencing: a higher wool cut per head; an increased carrying capacity; savings in wages and the running costs of stations; less disease in flocks; larger sheep; higher lambing percentages, and use of land unsuitable for shepherding. Many of the benefits were real, but some cannot be verified. By the mid-1880s, over ninety-five per cent of sheep in New South Wales were in paddocks, wire fences were spreading rapidly, and the cost of fences was falling. However, shepherding persisted in remote northern areas of Australia until well into the twentieth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , October 2007 , pp. 143 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

‘A Pioneer’ [John Phillips]. 1893. Reminiscences of Australian Early Life (London).Google Scholar
Abbott, Graham J. 1971. The Pastoral Age: A Re-Examination (South Melbourne).Google Scholar
Anon. 1853. Australia: Its Scenery, Natural History, Resources, and Settlements. With a Glance at its Gold Fields (London).Google Scholar
Anon. 1880. The Australasian Sketcher 1880 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Anon. 1951. ‘Pastoral Development in North-Eastern South Australia. The History of Mutooroo’, The Pastoral Review and Graziers’ Record, 61 (16th July), 752–3.Google Scholar
Archer, Sean. 2002. ‘Technology and Ecology in the Karoo: A Century of Windmills, Wire and Changing Farming Practice’ in South Africa's Environmental History. Cases and Comparisons. ed. Dovers, S., Edgecombe, R. and Guest, B.. (Athens), pp. 112–38.Google Scholar
Bell, C. 1973. ‘The Acquisition of Agricultural Technology: Its Determinants and Effects’ in Science, Technology and Development: The Political Economy of Technical Advances in Underdeveloped Countries. ed. Cooper, C. F.. (London), pp. 123–59.Google Scholar
Blainey, Geoffrey. 1982. A Land Half Won (South Melbourne).Google Scholar
Bolton, Geoffrey C. 1992. Spoils and Spoilers: A History of Australians Shaping their Environment (North Sydney).Google Scholar
Bowes, K.R. 1963. ‘Land Settlement in South Australia 1857–1890’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of History, Australian National University, Canberra).Google Scholar
Boyd, Benjamin. 1843. ‘Evidence before the Select Committee on Immigration, 27 September 1843’, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, pp. 41–45.Google Scholar
Brodribb, William A. 1976. ‘Recollections of an Australian Squatter’ in Recollections of an Australian Squatter by William Adams Brodribb & Account of a Journey to Gipps Land by Lavinia Hasell Bennett (Melbourne), pp. 1–167.Google Scholar
Brown, Philip Lawrence. ed. 1959. Clyde Company Papers. 4, 1846–50 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Brown, Philip Lawrence. ed. 1963. Clyde Company Papers. 5, 1851–3 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Brown, Philip Lawrence. ed. 1968. Clyde Company Papers. 6, 1854–8 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Bruce, Alexander. 1875–6. ‘Report of the Chief Inspector of Stock’, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales 5, 719–28.Google Scholar
Butlin, Noel G. 1962. ‘The Growth of Rural Capital, 1860–1890’, in The Simple Fleece. Studies in the Australian Wool Industry ed. Barnard, A. (Parkville), pp. 322–39.Google Scholar
Cannon, Michael. 1973. Life in the Country. Australia in the Victorian Age: Volume 2 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Carter, Tom. 1987. No Sundays in the Bush. An English Jackeroo in Western Australia 1887–1889. From the Diaries of Tom Carter (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Coghlan, Timothy A. 1887. The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales 1886–87 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Coghlan, Timothy A. 1890. The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales 1889–90 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Coghlan, Timothy A. 1893. The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales 1893 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Coghlan, Timothy A. 1902. The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales, 1900–01 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Coghlan, Timothy A. 1918. Labour and Industry in Australia from the First Settlement in 1788 to the Establishment of the Commonwealth in 1901 (London), volumes 2 and 3.Google Scholar
Cornish, Henry. 1880. Under the Southern Cross (Madras).Google Scholar
Cunningham, Peter. 1827. Two Years in New South Wales; A Series of Letters, comprising Sketches of the Actual State of Society in that Colony; of its Peculiar Advantages to Emigrants; of its Topography, Natural History &c. &c. (London).Google Scholar
Curr, Edward M. 1824. An Account of the Colony of Van Diemen's Land, principally designed for the Use of Emigrants (London).Google Scholar
Curr, Edward M. 1883. Recollections of Squatting in Victoria then called the Port Phillip District (from 1841 to 1851) (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Deem, S.L., L.H. Spelman, R.A. Yates and R.J. Montali. 2000. ‘Canine Distemper in Terrestrial Carnivores: A Review’ Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 31, 441–51.Google ScholarPubMed
de Satgé, Oscar. 1901. Pages from the Journal of a Queensland Squatter (London).Google Scholar
Dingle, T. 1984. The Victorians: Settling (Sydney).Google Scholar
Fetherstonhaugh, Cuthbert. 1917. After Many Days. Being the Reminiscences of Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Fitzherbert, John. 1534. The Book of Husbandry (London).Google Scholar
Ford, Margaret. 1966. Beyond the Furthest Fences (London).Google Scholar
Forth, G. 1985. ‘The Battle to Unlock the Lands’, Royal Historical Society of Victoria Journal, 56, 29–39.Google Scholar
Fyfe, Christopher. 1983. The Bale Fillers. Western Australian Wool 1826–1916 (Nedlands).Google Scholar
Garran, John C., and L. White. 1985. Merinos, Myths and Macarthurs. Australian Graziers and their Sheep, 1788–1900 (Canberra).Google Scholar
Gilbert, Henri. 2000. A Frenchman's Walk across the Nullarbor. Henri Gilbert's Diary, Perth to Brisbane, 1897–1899 (Carlton South).Google Scholar
Gordon, Patrick R. 1867. Fencing as a Means of Improving our Pasture Lands and its Advantages to the Stock-owners and the Colony, with Suggestions for a Fencing Bill, and the Improvement of Pasture by Means of Sapping (Sydney).Google Scholar
Gregson, Jesse. 1907. The Australian Agricultural Company 1824–1875 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Gregson, Jesse. 1984. ‘Memo Regarding Wire Fencing’ in P. McMichael, ed., Settlers and the Agrarian Question: Foundations of Capitalism in Colonial Australia (Cambridge), Appendix 10, pp. 274–6.Google Scholar
Hamilton, James C. 1923. Pioneering Days in Western Victoria: A Narrative of Early Station Life (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Hart, John F. 1998. The Rural Landscape (Baltimore).Google Scholar
Hartwell, Ronald M. 1954. The Economic Development of Van Diemen's Land 1820–1850 (Carlton).Google Scholar
Hawker, Frankie and Rob Linn. 1992. Bungaree. Land, Stock and People (Adelaide).Google Scholar
Howitt, William. 1855. Land, Labour, and Gold or, Two Years in Victoria with Visits to Sydney and Van Diemen's Land (London), Volume 1.Google Scholar
James, Thomas H. 1838. Six Months in South Australia; with Some Account of Port Phillip and Portland Bay, in Australia Felix; with Advice to Emigrants; to which is added a Monthly Calendar of Gardening and Agriculture. Adapted to the Climate and Seasons (London).Google Scholar
Joyce, Alfred. 1949. A Homestead History, being the Reminiscences and Letters of Alfred Joyce of Plaistow and Norwood, Port Phillip, 1834–1864 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Lange, R.T., A.D. Nicolson and D.A. Nicolson. 1984. ‘Vegetation Management of Chenopod Rangelands in South Australia’, Australian Rangeland Journal, 6, 46–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macpherson, C.R. 1920. ‘Wild Dogs’ [letter to the editor] The Pastoral Review, 478.Google Scholar
McKay, Anne. ed. 1962. Journals of the Land Commissioners for Van Diemen's Land, 1826–28 (Hobart).Google Scholar
McKeon, Greg, W. Hall, B. Henry, G. Stone and I. Watson. eds. 2004. Pasture Degradation and Recovery in Australia's Rangelands. Learning from History (Brisbane).Google Scholar
McMichael, Philip. 1984. Settlers and the Agrarian Question. Foundations of Capitalism in Colonial Australia (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mundy, Godfrey C. 1852. Our Antipodes: or, Residence and Rambles in the Australasian Colonies with a Glimpse of the Gold Fields (London), Volumes 1–3.Google Scholar
New South Wales. 1887. ‘Crown Lands Act of 1884. (Classes of Fencing and Amended Regulations Nos. 97, 33, and 134)’. Journal of the Legislative Council of New South Wales 1887 (Second Session), 471.Google Scholar
Palmer, Joan. 1972. William Moodie – A Pioneer of Western Victoria (Mortlake).Google Scholar
Peel, Lynette J. 1974. Rural Industry in the Port Phillip District 1835–1880 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Pickard, John. 1992. ‘Technological Change in Fences and European Pastoral Heritage in Western New South Wales’, The Rangeland Journal, 14, 190–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, John. 1998. ‘Trespass, Common Law, Government Regulations, and Fences in Colonial New South Wales, 1788–1828’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 84, 130–9.Google Scholar
Pickard, John. 1999. ‘The First Fences: Fencing the Colony of New South Wales, 1788–1823’, Agricultural History, 73, 46–69.Google ScholarPubMed
Pickard, John. 2001. ‘Safe Carrying Capacity and Sustainable Grazing: How Much Have We Learnt in Semi-Arid Australia in the Last 170 Years?’ in A.J. Conacher, ed., Land Degradation (Dortrecht), pp. 275–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, John. 2005. ‘Post and Rail Fences: Derivation, Development and Demise of Rural Technology in Colonial Australia’, Agricultural History, 79, 27–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, John. Forthcoming. ‘Shepherding in Colonial Australia’, Rural History.Google Scholar
Piesse, Robert L. 1960. ‘Recalling the Past: Fencing in the 1840's’, The Pastoral Review and Graziers’ Record, (16th December), 1363–5.Google Scholar
Richardson, Norman A. 1925. The Pioneers of the North-west of South Australia 1856 to 1914 (Adelaide).Google Scholar
Rothery, Frederick M. 1970. Atlas of Bundaleer Plains and Tatala, eds. Noel G. Butlin and J.N. Jennings (Canberra).Google Scholar
Rusden, George W. 1897. History of Australia (Melbourne), Volumes 1–3.Google Scholar
Shumack, Samuel. ed. 1967. An Autobiography, or Tales and Legends of Canberra Pioneers (Canberra).Google Scholar
Simon, J. 1999. ‘Naming and Toxicity: A History of Strychnine’, Studies in History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 30, 505–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
South African Select Committee on Fencing or Enclosing of Lands. 1889. Report of the Select Committee on Fencing or Enclosing Lands (Cape Town).Google Scholar
Telfer, William J. 1980. The Wallabadah Manuscript. Recollections of the Early Days by William Telfer Jr. The Early History of the Northern Districts of New South Wales (Kensington).Google Scholar
Thompson, Jack and John, Perkins. 1987. ‘The Evolving Technology of Vermin Control in Colonial Australia’, Prometheus 5, 111–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, J.W. 1942. History of Livestock Raising in the United States, 1607–1860 (Washington).Google Scholar
Walker, R.B. 1957. ‘Squatter and Selector in New England, 1862–95’, Historical Studies Australia and New Zealand, 8, 66–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Jan. 1988. Jondaryan Station: the Relationship between Pastoral Capital and Pastoral Labour (St Lucia).Google Scholar
Ward, Russell. 1978. The Australian Legend (Melbourne).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterson, Duncan B. 1968. Squatter, Selector and Storekeeper: A History of the Darling Downs 1859–93 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Whitington, E. 1897. The Story of the Drought through the North and North-East. (Adelaide).Google Scholar
Widowson, H. 1829. Present State of Van Diemen's Land; Comprising an Account of its Agricultural Capabilities, with Observation on the Present State of Farming, &c. &c. Pursued in that Colony: and other important Matters connected with Emigration (London).Google Scholar
Williams, Owen B. 1962. ‘The Riverina and its Pastoral Industry, 1860–1869’ in The Simple Fleece. Studies in the Australian Wool Industry, ed. Alan Barnard (Melbourne), pp. 411–34.Google Scholar
Wilson, Alan D., G.N. Harrington and I.F. Beale. 1984. ‘Grazing Management’ in Management of Australia's Rangelands, eds. Graham N. Harrington, A.D. Wilson and M.D. Young. (Melbourne), pp. 129–39.Google Scholar
Winslade, S. 1994. ‘Wire-Fencing Investment in Eastern Australia: 1858–1914’, Australian Economic History Review, 34, 22–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, Charles D. and Co. 1847. Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Iron and Wire Work (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Young, Charles D. and Co. post-1851. Description (with illustrations) of Iron and Wire Fences, Gates, etc. etc. adapted specially for Australia. Invented and manufactured by Charles D. Young and Company (London).Google Scholar