Pastoral & Agriculture
Written by Graham Wilson
Australian Theme - developing local, regional and national economies.
NSW Theme - agriculture.
Local Themes - activities related to the cultivation and rearing of plants and animals.
Hay barn, shearing shed, cattle yards, silo, dairy, rural landscape, vineyard, homestead, fencing, shed, market garden, common.
Australian Theme - developing local, regional and national economies.
NSW Theme - pastoralism.
Local Themes - Pastoral station, shearing shed, slaughter yards, homestead, pastoral landscape, fencing, common, grassland, well, water trough, wool store, windmills.
Australian Theme - working.
NSW Theme - labour.
Local Themes - activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour.
Aboriginal labourers and Chinese miners, shearer’s quarters, shearing shed, nurses station, offices, hotel with an occupational patronage.
Photograph 2 (left): Landscape of a former small farm on the Keera Road, Blake & Wilson 2006.
Once Allan Cunningham’s exploration journals were made available to the public, squatters moved in ever increasing numbers northwards from the Hunter Valley and the Liverpool Plains. Men of capital saw the potential for agriculture and particularly wool growing throughout the northern parts of the state. The question arose: how were government authorities able to control expansion beyond the boundaries of settlement?
An initial act was passed in 1833 by the Legislative Council to protect the Crown Lands of the colony. There was little prospect of preventing squatters moving into the interior. A further act was passed in 1836 that required pastoralists beyond the limits of location to pay an annual license fee of ₤10 to depasture their stock. The act also divided the interior into seven squatting districts. District no. 5 comprised Liverpool Plains and stations to the north on all tributaries of the Peel and Namoi Rivers. Commissioner Alexander Paterson’s headquarters was located at Jerry’s Plains.
Violence between squatters and Aboriginal people continued culminating in the brutal Myall Creek massacre of 1838. In 1839 Governor Gipps attempted to bring some order to the colony by introducing the Crown Lands Act. The act increased the powers of the Commissioners, divided the squatting areas into nine pastoral districts and authorised a tax on cattle depastured beyond the boundaries to meet the costs of the new police force. Whilst policing the bush was the responsibility of the mounted police based in the settled areas, the border police were now responsible to the Commissioners of Crown Lands.
The 1839 Crown Lands Act created the pastoral districts of New England and redefined the Liverpool Plains, now district no. 3. The base of the New England region was established by George Macdonald at the junction of the ‘Saumarez’, ‘Tilbuster’ and ‘Gostwyck’ squatting runs; hence Armidale was created. In the Liverpool district Edward Mayne replaced Alexander Paterson as Commissioner for the Liverpool Plains. Initially based at Pages River (Murrurundi), he moved to a station near Somerton on the Peel River. In 1843 he was dismissed and replaced by Francis Allman, junr. Roderick Mitchell, son of Surveyor General Sir Thomas Mitchell, was appointed Assistant Commissioner on 23 August 1843. Allman was plagued by bad health and Mitchell became Commissioner. Richard Bligh was appointed Assistant Commissioner on 27 July 1846.
On 21 December 1857, Richard Bligh was appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands for the district of Gwydir, no.10 The Police District of Gwydir was the boundary for the district.
Pastoralists had already reached the Gwydir River by 1836 and were beyond it in 1837. Consequently runs were established from the late 1830s and some of these names still survive today. To trace the history of pastoral settlement is a complex task and this Thematic Study only indicates the early presence of pastoralists and major runs.
Records indicate that early settlers included: James Glennie, ‘Gineroi’ c1836; Henry Dangar ‘Myall Creek’ c1837; George and Daniel Dight ‘Boonal’, ‘Tucka Tucka’ and ‘Yetman’. As noted by Barker, there is some obscurity in determining the beginnings of the ‘Warialda Run’. Originally ‘Warialda’ and ‘Gournama’ were part of ‘Gragin’ that was occupied by Captain John Pike about 1939.
George Hall selected some 40,000 acres and gave his new property the name of ‘Bingera Station’ in about 1834. The station was sold to Alexander McIntosh in 1889 and in 1896, it was taken over by the Commercial Bank, subdivided and sold.