A TRANSFORMATION: AN OBJECT LESSON IN AUSTRALIAN SALTBUSH COUNTRY.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 9

A TRANSFORMATION : AN OBJECT LESSON IN AUSTRALIAN SALTBUSH COUNTRY.

(By W. Thohold Grjjjt, in the Eastoraliats' - ' Review.) ■» Away to - the west of Lake Torrens, in South "Australia— the vast salt lake which baffled all the early explorers— -there - are situated enormous areas of very rough and stony i saltbush tableland, backed vi with stretches of • mulga 6crub, sandhills, and sandy fiats, rich -with cotton and_ saltbush, and,' during such a phenomenal season as the present, teeming with grasses. A eoun- ■ try whose .chief characteristic* is much- salt water .above and below ground, and very little fresh, an. average rainfall for the past 25 years of 6in, and a general reputation 6i- being as dry as i* is healthy. Years ago all A ths country for many- thousands of square miles was oeupjed by sheep farmers, ahdf improved to . its full extent by ■ firms that had made a. success of the. industry elsewhere. Experience, however, gained elsewhere 'was of very little use here ; an .ordinary dry "-.-summer was regarded as an exceptional drought; men Were ill-pre-pared to* cope with the Tinheard-of difficulties which iaced them on the west side; those -who had most means at their'" disposal wherewith to search for water seemed to suffer the_-most; 90 per cent, of the trial shafts sunk for fresh water bottomed on salt. • * ■

—The Crime of 1888. — Bad legislation in disposing of the 2888 leases at auction, followed by cash payments for all improvements of the 1894 and 1896 leases, hastened the departure of nearly all the old lessees — some by force of circumstances; others, of "gratitude at an opportunity to escape "without losing their all,, till of the original^ pastoral firms, three only remained — Hawker Bros, (of CarrieTverdoo), W. T. Mortlock (of Yudnapinniejj and Robert Bruce {of Ooondambo). Among those who fled can be enumerated: — Main, SeHsf & Go, , the Willowi© Pastoral Company, Tarlton &, Rischbieth, W. B. Sells &Go., -Thorold and Butler, Bowman Bros., H. J. Rtchman, Price-Maurice, C J. Maslin,, A."D. Sawers, T. L. Browne, Simms and Golley, \Davies,l-'To3d, and Co., Crawford' and Sons, the Queensland .Mortgage Company, H&nry Scott, and several others. On the majority of 'these abandoned sheep ?3&tions caretakers were placed by the Government, "and 'the dingo and rabbit took possession, whilst improvements, especially /wells, 'and tanks, went ho jrum. But in a fw solitary instances blocks of the country were taken^ up by a new class of sheep fax- - mer, ex-overseers and «x-enaployees, who, having saved a few pounds, and knowing of no other opening,, made efiort to succeed with' their small means where their predecessors and employers, with all their wealth, had more or l&ss failed. How some of these fared on assuming their new responsibilities as sheep farmers, and that notwithstanding a eerie* of drier seasons than previously recorded some have lasted long enough to prosper, and reap the benefit of the huge jnereajein the value of stock, is the purport of this article. — The Brothers Greenfield.— The best example of all is to be supplied in the case of two brothers, reared from boyhood among sheep, and serving the- one firm only so long as their employers retained any interest in sheep farming. When however, -finality was- reached in 1895, and the South Gap Run was abandoned, these brothers — William and George Greenfield — with some £500 at their bacSc, decided to start on their own account, and took "up a block of the deserted station. The fact that they both had families born and reared on the station in no small measure influenced their deciion to remain in the district, and turn the experience of past years gained there to profit, of which they knew nothing. Out of their small capital much bad to be done-yhorses and plant to be procured, rent paid in advance, and stock to be purchased, foi. they were starting from bedrock. The rent alone amounted to £130, and in 1896 more country was taken «p, and the rent increased to £305. (A paternal Government has since then amended the rent difficulty, and in lieu of £305 the sum of £70 16s lid only is now levied.) Stock was the next consideration, •rad, by watching their chances, a line of cheap ewes was purchased down country, at the Burra, and the lot (4500), which had cost a few pence per head, was safely ir'™- I '-^ mc to await the seasos.'s develop-

wienis. Unfortunately, the first year of this partnership (Greenfield Bros.) Jed off witli only 3in of rain, and 1500 of their sheep were" lost, whilst the remaining 3000 had to be sold to meet liabilities. This enterprising firm now found itself back at scratch with 32 sheep only (and of these seven were rams), and a few pounds in cash. In 1897 an unexpected thunderstorm pui water in their only dam, and news came equally unexpectedly to hand that 4000 breeding ewes were travelling down the stock route for sale some 80 miles away. George went off to inspect, and inquire the price — "2s per head, the whole lot or none." Even at this price no business could result, as the brothers could not possibly finance more than 2000, whilst the condition of the sheep in itsslf was none too reassuring. So back he virent empty-handed to" the elder brother. The latter had been laid up with some form -of fever, anc 1 was still ill; but so convinced was he that this was the chance of their lives (and so it subsequently proved), that oeaseless efforts were made to fix up some form of a deal, and at last an arrangement was arrived at with an absentee, whose country had also benefited by the thunderstorm, to join in "purchasing the whole lot of 4000 ewes. And this was done, one condition of the arangement being that the absentee was to be free from all trouble in looking after his half. Some months later the parties divided 3500, and having ' obtained: 400 lambs from 500 of their ,best ewes,, -the brothers brought up their numbers, to 3000. Eighteen hundred and ninetyeight was- a good year, a jjood clip resulted, money was raised, and fresh stock purchased, till the total reached 5000. — 'Success at Last ! — From this onward a series of the driest seasons _ t ever known, even in these dry regions, set in. In 1900 the numbers were down to 4000; in 1901, 2800; and in 1902 all would have been lost but for the timely purchase jf another block of country to the north-west, on which there was a splendid well of fresh water. During that year a little over l£in of rain was the record for 12 months, and for a. period of 44 -months less than lOin svas registered. The rainfall since the Greenfield Bros, embarked in sheep-farming is sufficiently unique to be appended:— lB9s, 5.19; 1896, 3.09; 1897, 3.97; 1898, 10.20; 1899, 4.10; 1900,. 3.60; 1901, 3.35; 1902, 1.68;- 1903, 10.63; 1904 (10 months), 9.*53. Such an event as two good seasons in success has never previously been known. The season of 1902 killed all the ealtbush, and was commencing .kill the mulga; the heaviest fall of rain during this year was one .shower of 0.25. In 1903 .-he brothers brought thei numbers up by purchases and natural increase to 5000, and at the end of the current year to 10,000. That they now rank as men of means and independence goes without saying; for not only have they got a high class of sheep, "but they also have the satisfaction of knowing that such an article " to-day' is worth three times what it was 10 year. ago. But pages could" be written about their trying experiences and desperate fight with the demon drought — how first one brother and then the other would go away and earn a few pounds droving and shearing 1 to keep the pot boiling at home; how, when their horses failed them, they tramped around on foot, - their small boys and girls working oh the run watering, helping in the yards, - and labouring with the ceaseless energy of their hard-working parents from daylight till dark/ That these frantic efforts have been crowned witH well-deserved success is very -gratifying to themselves, and must "be all the more so owing" to the keen interest with which the jareei of tw«. such determined battlers had been followed by those who knew or had heard of them. "If ever mortal men deserved io get on, those two did," has been the jen&ral verdict for many years. Financial institutions are none too ready to help ev2n the most .deserving, and their ase wa no exception. The denial of help, which would have made recovery more prompt at a critical time, was not so much resented by the elder brother as -the gratuitous advice given by a. managing director at the same time as the refusal to "turn their attention to market gardenings" "Give up now; affer years of experience among sheep f Why, even in that dry country more could be made in two good years than out of any market garden ir 20 years. Keep your money; we'll manage without it"; and so they did. „ — Object Lessons. — To further appreciate the colossal struggles of these two brothers, turn to the experiences of some of their neighbours. In 1896 27,000 sheep, 300 cattle, and 200 horses were -sent up" on to a newly-aequirer 1 block of country by one who proposed to make things- hum ! During that year 16,000 were shorn and 4500" sent away. In 1897 the following" survived: — 700 sheep, 5 attle, 13 .horses ! And it wa's no new chum gaining experienct as a squatter, but one who had been toiling and dealing for years ; he certainly -succeeded in making things hum — with blowflies ! Again, in the "same district, in- 1895, four ex-employees clubbed together £2000, and started operations. By 1900 they had 30,000 sheep, and two members retired with £3800 a-piece. About this period the success of the quartet was held up in the South Australian House f Assembly as an example of what could be dor>e- with that much-maligned pastoral coun--try. In 1902 10,000 were sold, and 6500 only remained. In 1903 the wild dogs necessitated shepherding, and me member was compulsorfly retired by the firm's financial supporters. In 1904, after two good seasons, 11,000 have been shorn, and a new partner taken into the concern ; and, if only dogs and rabbit permit, success is within reach. Much country of this class and well improved, still remains unocupied. To get tenants for the- whole of it at any nominal rental should be the aim of all legislation far aliead of any new land acts. Then human energies can ope with the dogs and he rabbits; and, with such an object lesson as above recorded of the brothers Greenfield, human courage can rise superioi io dry seasons.