South Australia and Western AustraliaTrollope, Anthony
History
South Australia and Western Australia
Trollope, Anthony
South Australia; Western Australia
I have said that Adelaide has been called a city of churches. It has
also been nicknamed the Farinaceous City. A little gentle ridicule
is no doubt intended to be conveyed by the word. The colony by the
sister colonies is regarded as one devoted in a special manner to the
production of flour. Men who spend their energy in the pursuit of gold
consider the growing of wheat to be a poor employment. And again the
squatters, or wool-producers of Australia, who are great men, with
large flocks, and with acres of land at their command so enormous that
they have to be counted, not by acres, but by square miles, look down
from a very great height indeed upon the little agriculturists,--small
men, who generally live from hand to mouth,--and whose original
occupation of their holdings has commonly been supposed to be at
variance with the squatters’ interests. The agriculturists of Australia
generally are free-selecters, men who have bought bits here and bits
there off the squatters’ runs, and have bought the best bits,--men,
too, whose neighbourhood, for reasons explained before, has not been a
source of comfort to the squatters generally. In this way agriculture
generally, and especially the growing of wheat-crops for sale, has not
been regarded in the colonies as it is certainly regarded at home. The
farmers of South Australia are usually called “cockatoos,”--a name
which prevails also, though less universally, in the other colonies.
The word cockatoo in the farinaceous colony has become so common as
almost to cease to carry with it the intended sarcasm. A man will tell
you of himself that he is a cockatoo, and when doing so will probably
feel some justifiable pride in the freehold possession of his acres.
But the name has been given as a reproach, and in truth it has been and
is deserved. It signifies that the man does not really till his land,
but only scratches it as the bird does.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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