GIRL FARMERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 60, 12 March 1937, Page 9

GIRL FARMERS

A REMARKABLE FAMILY

NORTHERN TERRITORY RUN

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, February 18.

The problems of settlement of the Northern Territory by white people

would be easily solved if there were more Australian families of the type reared by Mr. and Mrs. "Bill" Sargeant, of Stapleton, about 90 miles from Darwin. Early in the present century, Sar-geant-and his young wife took up a grazing lease of nearly 3000 square miles. They had no capital and no 'assets other than strong determination to succeed. In a rough bush humpy there, fourteen children were born, Sargeant himself carrying out the duties of midwife at each confinement. The children comprise eleven daughters and three sons.-

At an age when most children are learning to read and write the youngsters were put to work; Sargeant preferring the labour of his own children. Today the property is run solely by Sargeant and his daughters, the sons having taken up other occupations in Darwin. Sargeant and his daughters have carried out the most comprehensive scheme of farming yet attempted in Australia. The property is entirely self-supporting, every need of, the family being produced within its boundaries. The girls milk their own herd and produce high-grade butter, which is supplied to Darwin. They grow tobacco, cotton (from which they make their own cloth), maize, vegetables, fruit, and peanuts. The girls raise cattle, pigs, and poultry. They a'<!" do their own killing. Each of the girls is an expert horsewoman. Payable tin has been discovered on the property by the girls, who work their own mine.

Some of the girls have never seen a train, and to them the ocean is a myth. Their unfailing bush instinct enables them to predict the weather days before as accurately as ■ any meteorologist. Father and girls are satisfied with their lonely life, and do not desire to leave Staplclon.