IT is often stated that not only were the early European settlers in Australia hell-bent on making a little Europe/England, but also that the farming systems used since are still part of such an attempt and therefore should be abandoned…
[In fact] the settlers were quite prepared to use things native: local trees for timber and honey, their bark for tanning; kangaroos for meat, native fish for food; but above all, native grasses for what was for nearly a century to be their mainstay, the sheep industry. They greatly valued these grasses, and soon called them by local names—kangaroo and wallaby grasses…
Some make much of the kangaroo foot being softer than the sheep—ignoring the enormous damage done by the softest foot of all, the rabbit! It is grazing habit and pressure that matter…
I’m quoting from a new piece at Quadrant Online by David F. Smith, Melbourne University, entitled ‘Green Myths About Australian Farming’. You can read the complete text here:
https://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2009/4/green-myths-about-australian-farming
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
For the last 30 to 40 years “white settlement” history hasn’t been taught in schools.
My kids, who are approaching 50, never learnt it and subsequently recent generations have little knowledge of, or pride in, this history.
In the ’40s and ’50s my school mates were the children of the “local yokels” and now, 60 years on, we still meet up and these once ragged, barefoot kids have done some great strokes for their country.
The Wogs and the Reffos included. Most particularly!
One school was near an army camp where many refugees were housed in old nissen huts and many of those kids [now retired] became great citizens.
I have great memories of Loretta, a beautiful barefoot Italian girl showing me how to cultivate a corn paddock with horse and moulboard plough.
But that was how this country developed even 200 years ago and many of the convicts of those days were clever and capable people.
The bulk of the population were mainly farmers with incredibly limited facilities and education, and the focus should not be on their mistakes [which were inevitable] but on how rapidly they overcame their difficulties and raised themselves up by their bootstraps.
Very good article, and timely.
This whole load of crapolla about farming ‘Roos will disappear over night when someone delivers a B-Double load of Eastern Greys to the Sydney Botanic Gardens and lets them loose. The world media will have an absolute field day covering the chaos they cause to city traffic as teams of EPA dillburies spend days trying to “muster” them in the CBD.
By about the third day of chaos the public will be screaming at the EPA for its lack of progress and for exposing the metrocentrics to the realities of roadkill and vehicle damage. And the moment the crowds depart the shooters will move in to clean up the mess.
Sheep or cattle would present nowhere near the same problems.
And maybe then the wankigentsia might realise that one cannot ‘farm’ a species unless one can easily, cheaply and safely (to themselves and to humans) round them up, fence them, yard them, vaccinate them, examine them, tag them, selectively breed them, divide them, transport them, present them for sale, trade them, and transport them again either to another farm or to processing.
So if anyone wants to help put this crap to bed once and for all just let me know. One will never change ignorant urban mindsets with a subtle message.
More denialist rot from the denial-o-sphere. Just ignore all the evidence as usual. And written by some retired bloke from Victoria too – the usual south-centric view of the world. Mexicans go home!
Try and find big mobs of kangaroo grass in grazing systems these days.
Ian , I remember seeing a landline program years ago on attemps to domesticate Roos for farming. It was being done at the Gatton research station of QUT IIRC.
Couldn’t have been successful as we haven’t heard from them since 🙂
“Try and find big mobs of kangaroo grass in grazing systems these days.”
Luke, I’m up to my ass in kangaroo grass [and up to my knees in clover]. Truly. But it IS dying out due to, mainly, weed and exotic grass infestation. That rotten molasses grass murders it.
I eat kangaroo and love it but would not want to farm them.
For one thing you could not bang-tail muster ’em. They’d all fall over.
For another, imagine farming a thousand prizefighters and getting punched out daily.
you may be interested in this research then Spangled.
http://www.anbg.gov.au/anpc/kangaroo_grass17(1).html
In my area they are currently trying to harvest the local grass seed to fullfil contracts with Dubai who use the seed to establish fodder for their circular irrigated dairy farms. Unfortunately the rain isn’t helping.
“the settlers were quite prepared to use things native: local trees for timber and honey, their bark for tanning; kangaroos for meat, native fish for food”
Oh really? You mean they didn’t choose to starve to death sleeping out in the open? I bet they even used Aussie sand in their mortar. What compelling evidence that they totally understood the Australian natural landscape and how best to look after it!
And by the way… “honey”?
From European bees, whose effect on Oz insect and plant biodiversity has been a shocker.
“but above all, native grasses for what was for nearly a century to be their mainstay, the sheep industry”
Wow! Farmers like free fodder that already grows here? You’re kidding! I guess that means cutting down all the trees was a really sensitive practice, and not at all to do with deliberately changing the landscape to what they were comfortable farming.
“Some make much of the kangaroo foot being softer than the sheep—ignoring the enormous damage done by the softest foot of all, the rabbit!”
Yeah, when did you last hear an environmentalist worrying about rabbits? Oh wait, they do it ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
“It is grazing habit and pressure that matter…”
Yep, which means kangaroos are best at not destroying native grasses. Followed by rabbits, who eat lots but still have soft feet so don’t stuff up the pasture, merely chow down on it (but were introduced by people who wanted to hunt something familiar from home, and subsequently outcompeted local mammals and marsupials with disastrous results). Worst of all – sheep (well, cows).
Who is this moron? I sincerely hope for his sake and Quadrant’s that Jennifer’s picked out the stupidest parts of the article.
*checks the whole thing*
Nope, just standard Oddrant fodder. Build a strawman, attack it with weak assertions and obvious truths, and hope the readers are dumb enough to just get off on having their prejudices fondled.
“What compelling evidence that they totally understood the Australian natural landscape and how best to look after it!”
FDB,
No one is claiming they did. Only that they made their own arrangements as anyone with half a brain would, who has no other choice.
Probably even you, with your wealth of philosophy, knowledge and resourcefulness would have done likewise.
Come on guys – Aussie agriculture has eroded it’s fair share of soil, caused enough salinity, soil acidification, spread enough weeds to not make us proud.
The place only continues to farm due heaps of external energy and nitrogenous fertilisers.
But hey if you like to eat you are involved in agriculture. So no point in being too precious but yes farming roos is silly.
But to pretend it’s all hunk dory is grade A denialism. What’s wrong with a full assessment of good and bad – and a commitment to do better? Better farming systems, better landscapes.
An excellent article by David Smith. Commenting on the ‘Native is Always Best’.
Some decades ago, my husband and his brothers chained thousands of acres of mallee scrub to develop for cropping land. With the first winter rains the understory saltbushes and grasses, sparse in standing scrub, germinated massively to create a stunning productive pasture. So they slowed down their developing for cropping, switched to grazing that standing, self replacing haystack, and never had to cut hay again. Basically, this was a grazing system based on altering the ratio of endemic native species. It created large bushy plains within scrub areas, carried about the same sheep per ha as cleared arable land, carried much more wild life than monoculture arable land. And a greater species diversity than standing mallee scrub. With careful management of that pasture and our stock numbers, our sheep enterprise was close to drought proof.
With the introduction of the native vegetation laws, activist bureaucrats, exceeding powers, tried to prohibit what was by then a well established, productive grazing system. It was quite a fight. Long drawn out, threatening, and nasty.
“Native is Always Best” is only valuable as a hyped, unattainable goal. Success by a farmer will be attacked.
Good points FDB.
“And maybe then the wankigentsia might realise that one cannot ‘farm’ a species unless one can easily, cheaply and safely (to themselves and to humans) round them up, fence them, yard them, vaccinate them, examine them, tag them, selectively breed them, divide them, transport them, present them for sale, trade them, and transport them again either to another farm or to processing.” – Ian Mott
Isn’t that what you propose the japs do with the whales Ian? Ha ha!
Poor old Des, still hasn’t figured out that there is already a range of domesticated alternatives to Kangaroos that already outcompete them in the market place. As there is no domesticated marine alternative to whale hunting then any move towards sustainable husbandry (like tag and release systems to identify surplus males for harvest) would be an improvement.
Your ignorance knows no bounds, FDB. My grandfather was compelled to clear some of the best trees on the planet by what was, even back in 1922, an urban dominated government. If he failed he would have forfeited his land title and all the improvements he had done over the best 15 years of his life. Kids often went hungry because clearing trees took legally enforced precedence over the veggie garden.
My other grandfather avoided this trap by purchasing a forested block with his payout from 4 years on the Western Front. His plan for a small timber mill and a few acres of orange orchard came unstuck when a bushfire burned out the orchard. But the only remaining source of finance was the Dairy Co-op so he had no choice but to clear the lot and switch to dairy cattle.
In those days life was “nasty british and short”. Hunger was a regular visitor to many people’s homes. And what you now regard as some sort of ecological crime was the response of reasonable men and women to a widespread crime against humanity. What you would now regard as child neglect was the one shot at hope and self respect for parents without choice.
Cleared land was the only welfare system they had. You know jack $hit fella.
FDB, there are several species of native bee in Australia, that produce a very fine honey. As to the affect the italian bee has had on Australian natives can you tell us whatthat has been, thank you. Bill Murdoch
“But to pretend it’s all hunk dory is grade A denialism. What’s wrong with a full assessment of good and bad – and a commitment to do better? Better farming systems, better landscapes” Luke
What the hell do you think has been going on beyond the artificial world of the city lights for many decades now. There has been an honest assestment of the good & bad in farming systems upon the Australian landscape. Yes there were practices in the past with poor outcomes and it may not be totally perfect now but agriculture in Oz has made huge steps forward. The landcare movement was warmly embrased by Oz farmers and it’s upfront vision is to have a balanced ecosystem in wich soils, water and native flora & fauna species are maintained together with sustainsble production from the land.
What is grade A denialism is to hang onto the myths about Australian farming, that nothing has changed & it’s all bad. Nothing is going to kill off future progress of Oz farming than vindictive attitudes unhinged from any reality & cynical politians taking the big stick approach to farmers to gain a green vote.
and now saltbush fed lamb is a delicacy and fetches premium price doesn’t Helen 🙂
Ian M – I remember asking an old timber cutter in the Whian Whian forest back in the 70s when did they start clear felling. His answer was when some university bloke with a forestry degree from Sydney arrived and taught them how!
If native bees are so good, why are they not used commercially? With regards to environmental effects, European bee species push out other species ranging from invertebrates to birds and small mammals. There is ample info available. but if you want to follow the lead of so many here, don’t bother looking it up.
Janama, a bit off topic, but even old saltbush mutton is pretty good too. Just ask our visitors. Now back to topic, and the habit of farmers observing, asking questions and adapting. I have noticed that all of our sheep have somewhat of that saltbush taste, even those that have not been on the saltbush country. So does our somewhat salty stockwater (groundwater, 3-4,000ppm salt) contribute? Now I wouldn’t like to stuff up a very nice niche market for a top quality product, but you know what curiosity is.
It is not only farmers who observe, ask questions and make a difference. Years ago a Pastoral Inspector noticed a saltbush mat along the run in to a recently constructed dam. He wanted to know what had happened. My husband explained that in packing that runway they only had a homemade sheepsfoot roller, which they had used to pack the dam itself. It left indentations. The inspector took photos, went away and made the first prototype seed pitter, an importand land reclamation tool. A pitter makes small indentations which act as seed collectors and when it rains also concentrates water to help germinate those seeds.
I could go on about information and changed practices coming from just one property, but we are not unusual. There are many more like us. Thousands of incremental changes over the last two centuries add up to a very impressive story of on going adaptions and improved efficiencies. Far from trying to transfer european systems to Australia, we knew from the start many would not work, and had to find our own solutions. Obsevation and opportunism have been just as much the mother of invention as has been necessity.
How odd that you don’t censor Ian’s posts Jennifer. The same selectivity you demonstrate with everything on this weblog. You’ll never get to number 1 that way.
Hmmn, one can always tell when we are kicking some goals on this blog when a sequence of first posters start trying on a wedge campaign to pit Jen against me. It is usually choreographed by the greenpimp network and always includes some gratuitous advice on how to succeed at blogging. The classic was a few days ago when one clown dumped on me for ad homs that never took place, then dumped on Jen for not censoring the non-existent ad homs, all as a blatant excuse to let fly with a real spleen vent of his own.
One thing is certain. They wouldn’t bother if we weren’t getting some traction.
I have both native and commercial bee hives and can confirm that as far as native bud, fruit and seed production goes, the natives just are not up to the job. Native regrowth forests expand faster and support more wildlife when commercial bees are present to maximise flower fertilisation and seed production.
And frankly, the greens and the ALP don’t deserve the biodiversity we already have. They deserve nothing better than to inherit the industrial slums that spawned them in the first place.
Keep deluding yourself Ian. Don’t worry, Jen will never be without her prize corgi by her side!
The point was that there are native bees (honey) that was used by the early settlers, and there is a small cottage industry selling native bee honey, offen at farmers markets. As to the impacts of the italian bee on Australian fauna and flora some is good some is bad, however the italian bee is necessary for the fertilizing of a range of crops that mankind need to survive. One point is the rabbit was introduced for sport in Vic, and has nothing to do with farming as such, like lantana, prickly pear and rubber vine which were brought in as garden plants and spread to farm lands and open country. Yes there are weeds , mainly in southen Australia that were introduced by the early settlers to remind them of “home” . A well written article.
The last figure I saw was that weeds cost Australian agriculture more than $4 billion each year. Almost all of them have been introduced by urban Australians and have spread to the rural community who now wear the cost. It averages out at about $30,000 for each farming family.
But in the new reality of the brave new green utopia, weeds are good. Poorly conceived and callously implemented native vegetation controls have produced a situation where weeds are the only form of ground cover that a landowner can use to put a paddock to fallow without losing the right to farm that paddock in future. If they allow native nitrogen fixing species like wattles to grow on a fallow field then that field will be declared to be native remnant and any further agricultural contribution from that land will cease.
In Queensland they have just come up with the term, “endangered regrowth”, to justify the prevention of normal pasture maintenance on over 1 million hectares of pasture. They imposed a moratorium on regrowth clearing during the Autumn following a La Nina wet season. And the departmental scum have gone so far as to alter the maps that form legal contracts between government and landowner under the supposedly secure “PMAV” system. It is a criminal offense to do such things but it is just another day in Qld NRM.
Weeds impair the spread of native vegetation and enhance the capacity of wildfires to destroy adjoining stolen native forest. They impair the spread of threatened species onto private lands and thereby ensure that future development rights are not extinguished.
A well maintained pasture is the best defence but if that is not always possible then a good cover of weeds or exotic trees is second best. From here on, folks, even a single tiny native seedling in the grass is a direct threat to a landowners capital base.
It didn’t have to be that way but farmers have had no influence over policy direction for two decades or more. The urban greens produced the policy settings and all we can do is respond to tyranny as best we can. And the metrocentrics are getting the environment they deserve.