WOMEN FARMERS IN AUSTRALIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 4 January 1918, Page 3

WOMEN FARMERS IN AUSTRALIA.

SOME INTERESTING HISTORY.

Ever since the white man superseded the colored race in Australia, women have done a very large share of the farming; and, although it is only since the war has made organisation a sacred duty that the Government has seen the necessity of scientifically teaching women as well as men the practical details of making the earth yield to its uttermost, yet there have been hundreds of cases where women have run farms, and have employed little or no male labor, says a writer in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In the very early days the population consisted of a great preponderance of men; but, in spite of this, the condition of the country was such that women had to do rough out-door work such as even the country man of to-day would shrink from; and, worst of all, they had to teach themselves how to do it, with no scientific farming books to guide them, no labor-saving implements and often with an insufficiency of grain and stock with which to make a start.

Mrs Elizabeth Macarthur was' the first woman farmer, who took in the cultivation of land on a large scale, being practically unaided by a man in her management, for some years, during which her rather turbulent husband, Captain John Macarthur, was recalled to Englaud over the Bligh rebellion and other matters connected with Imperial rule here. Records show that Mrs Macarthur, although a clever, remarkably well-educated, and cultured woman for her times—indeed, for any times—personally carried on a large farm, with wheat-growing and' cattle raising, as well a s all the minor industries connected with farming at Parramatta, and she extended the scope of her work to Camden, when the family removed to what was then known ,by the railway suggestive name of the CowpaStures. It was on the Elizabeth House Farm that the first horse-driven plough superseded the spade and the heavy hand hoe, and it showed that a capable woman could move with the times equally as well as a man, when Mrs Macarthur expended capital upon machinery instead of keeping to the almost free convict labor, which was less efficient and less re-pro-ductive, but more easily obtained. When, after a career as Naval and Port Master of Sydney Harbor, Captain Piper retired to a private life on his farm near Bathurst, his .wife andi daughters undertook the charge of the j dairy farm, and ; from being the leaders of fashion and society in the then ex-' elusive official Sydney, became known' throughout the entire Australian settlements as the makers of the "Piper" cheese, which is spoken of by an early writer as "a very wonderful local farm product that had no equal in the coun- | try." Long after the death of Captain I Piper, the special make held its own, and Miss Jane Piper, who lived on North Sydney in her later days, and was full .of delightful early reminiscences, was equally proud of her cheese-making as of having been the first to introduce and teach the polka in Bathurst, when she says that even the young naval and military officers came to her for lessons. Although in the early days there was less reason than now for women learning what is looked upon as a man's work in farm life, such as driving a team or reaping and binding by machine, yet there were many cases where the head of the house died on his farm, I and, until his s 6ns were able to assume responsibilities, the widow stepped into the gap and piloted the entire family into financial success by her skilled work an f ] managment. Hundreds ol such cases might be quoted if space allowed, but the idea that doing such work as practical farming of any kind made a woman unfeminine or unfit to become a farmer's wife was never entertained in early days. Now, a greater necessity than ever, existed in Australia prevails for women to become the real "mate" of men; to take on any work that will jointly help them to become economically independent and helpful to teach others; and if the State training farms and colleges are to be of material value in helping women to become practical scientific farmers, with prospects of successful careers, there can be no question raised about what is a man's and- what is a woman's i work.