Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official InformationQueensland
History
Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information
Queensland
Queensland -- History
Crossbred lambs three to four months old bring 10s. in Brisbane, the
railage costing from 1s. to 1s. 3d.
So far little mention has been made of cattle. It may be generally
stated that where country is suitable for sheep, or, more accurately
speaking, where they can be profitably run, cattle are only depastured
in very small herds. The coastal belt and the Northern Gulf region are
exclusively cattle country, and in the extreme West, although sheep
thrive excellently, the long carriage causes cattle to be preferred,
the expense of cattle management being much below that of sheep. The
product of these distant pastures travels on the hoof to market, the
Western cattle being noted for their great weight of flesh and the
distance they carry it without great waste. Most of the herds have
been improved to a high degree of excellence by importation of some
of the best blood in England, and high-class stud herds have been long
established in the different States from which drafts of herd bulls
are drawn as required at from about 10 to 15 guineas per head.
With a population of little over half a million occupying a territory
of 670,500 square miles, it will be realised that the yearly cast of
"fats" greatly exceeds local requirements. The Southern States take a
large number. New South Wales and Victoria are the best customers, as,
with a combined population of roughly five times that of Queensland,
the total of their cattle is only slightly in excess of the Queensland
herd. South Australia is also a regular buyer of "fats." The "stores"
that go South to be fattened beyond the State are almost exclusively
bullocks of three to four years. Amongst the "fats" of ripe ages is
a proportion of dry cows, and a limited number of breeders and mixed
cattle also find sale with Southern buyers. But these outlets would
have been quite inadequate for the absorption of the Queensland annual
surplus had not meat-preserving come to the rescue of the stock-owner.
Before freezing works were established, boiling down was the one
resource, the tallow, hides, and sheepskins giving a meagre return,
whilst the valuable carcass went to the pigs. The late Sir Arthur
Hodgson, a leading pastoralist, used to relate with humorous comments
his experiences with a first draft of sheep from his Darling Downs
station (Eton Vale), brought to Brisbane to be boiled down at the
Kangaroo Point works. During the process the owner--educated at Eton,
and subsequently a Minister of the Crown in Queensland--went round
daily with a handcart selling the legs of mutton at sixpence apiece.
Such commercial enterprise has long fallen into desuetude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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