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THE TECHNOLOGY OF OPEN-RANGE CATTLE FARMING IN EARLY EUROPEAN AUSTRALIA
Abstract
The technology of open-range cattle-farming in early European Australia was notable for a simplicity that bordered on the primitive. It was far less sophisticated than contemporary farming in the British Isles. Some of the techniques used were identical with and may have been borrowed from New Spain. Others, in particular the use of the stockwhip and the development of an effective cattle dog were Australian innovations.
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NOTES AND REFERENCES
Beef, rather than mutton, formed the basic meat supply of workers and the allocated rations were extraordinarily large, at seven to ten lbs. a week per person. Cattle provided settlers with dairy products that supplemented a diet based on beef and bread. In the form of greenhide or leather, hides were used to produce a range of equipment such as ropes, saddles, harness, hobbles, whips, packs and boots. It was also widely substituted for metal hinges on doors and for nails in the construction of buildings and fences. (D. Mackenzie, Ten Years in Australia, 3rd ed., London, 1852, p. 94). The tallow of cattle was used to produce candles, soap and axle grease, and as the base of salves used to cure ailments in beasts and human beings. Bones and hooves were boiled down locally to produce glue and also neatsfoot oil for softening and preserving leather.
Howard R. W.. , ed. 1957. . “‘What is “The West”’. ”. In This is the West . p. 7 New York :
D. Dary, Cowboy Culture, New York, 1982, p. 69; J.H. Cook, Fifty Years on the Old Frontier as Cowboy, Hunter, Guide, Scout, and Ranchman, New Haven, Conn., 1923, p. 110; F.L. Fugate, ‘Origins of the range cattle era in south Texas’, Agricultural History, 35, 3, 1961, p. 157; J.C. Dykes, Western High Spots, unpublished, 1977, p. 89; W.M. Dusenberry, The Mexican Mesta, Urbana, Ill., 1963, pp. 21–2, 41. See also J. Mora, Californios, New York, 1949, passim.
I.H. Nicholson, Shipping Arrivals and Departures Sydney, 1826-1840, 2nd ed., Canberra, 1977, passim.
Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales, 1800-1806, is known to have visited ports of the La Plata region, and perhaps the Pampas, as a naval officer. In 1805 he lamented the lack of acquaintance in Australia with ‘the Spanish Mode of cutting their untamed Animals’, which he thought could have been usefully employed to obtain meat from the large herds of wild cattle that then roamed the cowpastures to the south of Sydney Town. (Historical Records of Australia: Series 1, 5, p. 592; King to Camden, 1 November 1805). The ‘Spanish mode’ involved the use by the mounted gaucho of a semi-circular scythe attached to a lance which was used to hamstring cattle. (See M. Dobrizhoffer, An Account of the Abipones, An Equestrian People of Paraguay: Volumes 1, 2 and 3, London, 1822, I, 221). This technique was never to be employed in Australia.
Thompson J. and Perkins J.. 1992. . ‘The wild cattle of the cowpastures revisited’. . Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society . , Vol. LXXXVII((Part 4)): 3––19. .
Wellman P. I. . 1974. . The Trampling Herd . p. 266 New York : Agricultural Historyop. cit.
Atkinson J.. 1826. . An Account of the State of Agriculture and Grazing in New South Wales . p. 60 London :
J.P. Townsend, Rambles and Observations in New South Wales, London, 1849, p. 48. Ewe-necked is descriptive of a horse with a thin neck that is not arched like one of ‘good appearance’. A goose-rumped mount has a posterior that drops sharply toward the base of the tail, rather than being nicely rounded. Another source from the mid-1820s describes “the majority of horses” in the colony as being “of various colours and not very sightly in appearance, fall off much from the rump to the tail, low-necked and large-headed”. (Atkinson, op. cit., p. 60-1).
Byrne J. C.. 1848. . Twelve Years Wanderings in the British Colonies From 1835 to 1847: Volumes 1 and 2 . p. I London : The Horse
Townsend, op. cit., p. 47.
Weir R.. 1899. . Riding . p. 178––9. . London :
Breton W. H.. 1833. . Wanderings and Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia and Van Diemens Land During the Years, 1830, 1831 and 1832 . p. 336 London : The Three Colonies of Australia
Dobie J. F.. 1941. . The Longhorns . p. 230 Boston :
Adams A.. 1903. . The Log of a Cowboy . p. 15 Boston : Life on a Ranch
Dixon Library (Sydney), MS Q372, J.B.M., ‘Reminiscences of experiences as the Hunter River and Barwon River and at the Forest Creek goldfield in Victoria’, 1849-1852, I, 94-5.
Townsend, op. cit., p. 47.
Dixon Library, MS Q372, op. cit., I, 95.
A. Carswell, Hints from the Journal of an Australian Squatter, London, 1843, pp. 30–1; J. Henderson, Excursions and Adventures in New South Wales: Volume 1 and 2, London, 1852, II, 49.
Mention of the use of a bugle for this purpose is to be found in Mitchell Library (Sydney) A2068, Tindal Letters, C. Tindal to F. Tindal, 20 December 1847; and in Townsend, op. cit., p. 190.
Townshend R. B.. 1923. . A Tenderfoot in Colorado . p. 195––6. . London :
Haygarth, Bush Life in Australia, op. cit., p. 60.
Baden-Powell G. S.. 1872. . New Homes for the Old Country . p. 189 London :
Henderson, op. cit., p. 274; Townsend, op. cit., p. 45; G. F. Mundy, Our Antipodes, 3rd ed., London, 1855, p. 154.
H. Gibson, The History of the Sheep-Breeding Industry in the Argentine Republic, Buenos Aires, 1893, pp. 68–9. According to one source, dogs were not kept on ranches in the US west because they “so nearly resembled the wolf that their presence always disturbs the cattle”. (T. Carson, Ranching, Sport and Travel, London, 1911, p. 108).
Henderson, op. cit., II, 44.
Mitchell Library, A2968, Tindal Letters, C. Tindal to F. Tindal, 20 December 1847.
R. Kaleski, Australian Barkers and Biters, Sydney, 1914, p. 35; The Complete Dog Book, New York, 1985, p. 576; M. Hamilton-Wilkes, Kelpie and Catle Dog, Sydney, 1967.
Kaleski, op. cit., p.35.
ibid., p. 85.
ibid.
R. Kaleski, ‘The cattle dog’, Walkabout, 15, 1949, p. 32.
Dixon Library, MS Q372, p. 98.
Bonwick J.. 1887. . Romance of the Wool Trade . p. 124 London :
Hamilton-Wilkes, op. cit., p. 67; Kaleski, Australian Barkers, op. cit., p. 35-6.
Merle is the term used to describe the appearance of smooth-haired Collies with blue-mottled coats. (Australian Encylopedia, Sydney, 1984, p. 190).
Hamilton-Wilkes, op. cit., p. 92; The Complete Dog Book, New York, 1985, p. 576; Kaleski, Australian Barkers, op. cit., p. 36.
Hamilton-Wilkes, op. cit., p. 576.
J.R. Thompson, Cattle and Cattlemen in Early New South Wales, (Ph.D. Thesis, University of New South Wales), p. 186.
ibid., pp. 186–7.
Dary, op. cit., pp. 21, 23.
Cook, op. cit., p. 15. See also Wellman, op. cit., p. 109; Dobie, op. cit., p. 116. In Arizona at least one corral consisted of “solid stone walls”. (Carson, op. cit., p. 61).
Siringo C. A.. 1927. . Riata and Spurs . p. 25 Boston :
Dixon Library, MS Q372, op. cit., I, 104.
Henderson, op. cit., I, 297.
Haygarth, op. cit., p. 57. See also Sidney, op. cit., p. 310, where cattle are reported as known to “head back forty, fifty and even two hundred miles”.
Henderson, op. cit., I, 313.
Hodgson, op. cit., pp. 40–2; Mitchell Library, MSS 1213, F. Holland to A. Caswell, 1 December 1929.
Haygarth, op. cit., p. 68.
ibid, p. 6809.
Dixon Library, MS Q326, Edward Morey, ‘Reminiscences of a pioneer in New South Wales’.
Mundy, op. cit., p. 141.
Haygarth, op. cit., p. 70.
Hodgson, op. cit., p. 115. In US corrals built of vertically placed logs bound together with rawhide, a snubbing post, about two feet in diameter set in the ground in the centre of the corral, was used for the purpose of securing a roped calf. (‘Cowboy's hard work’, Georgetown Courier, 28 August 1890, cited in C.P. Westermeier, Trailing the Cowboy, Caldwell, Idaho, 1955, p. 67). This technique would have made it impossible to use a branding panel.
Hodgson, op. cit., pp. 115–6.
Caswell, op. cit., p. 37.
Dixon Library, MS Q372, op. cit., II, 161.
G. Hall, The Road to the River, Lismore, 1977, p. 3.
Mundy, op. cit., p. 141; A. Harris, Settlers and Convicts, London, 1847, p. 28.
Harris, op. cit., pp. 164–5.
Haygarth, op. cit, p. 15. This description of outback cattle-slaughtering draws upon the personal experience of one of the authors.
Cunningham, op. cit., p. 146.