1 Agricultural Production Aims and Policy, Department of Commerce and Agriculture, Canberra, 1952
2
Including 42 femals. 23 of whom were engaged in domestic employment.
3
C. S. Christian. et al., Survey of the Barkly Region. Northern Territory and Queensland 1947–43. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. Land Research Series. No. 3, Melbourne. 1952.
4
The carrying capacity of the Darwin-Katherine region is estimated on the area of useable grazing land with a developed capacity of from 3 to 12 beasts to the square mile. Land with a carrying capacity of less than 3 beasts to the square mile was eliminated.
5
C. S. Christian and C. A. Stewart, General Report on Survey of Katherine-Darwin Region, 1946. Land Research Series No. 1, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Melbourne. 1962.
6
See W. M. Maze.
Settlement in the Eastern Kimberleys. Western Australia.
The Australian Geographer, Vol. V. No. 1. June 1946.
This paper contains a more detailed review of soils climate and production problems in the Eastern Kimberleys.
7
The Channel Country of South-West Queensland, Bureau of Investigation. Technical Bulletin No. 1, December 1947, Brisbane. See especially P. J. Skerman. “The Pastoral Aspects of the Cooper Country”, Ibid, Chap. VI. The Annual Reports of the Bureau of Investigation also contain much valuable information relating to beef production in Queensland.
8
Areas predominantly covered with brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) forests. For distribution of these areas, see J. N. Farmer. S. L. Everist. and
G. R. Moule.
The Climatology of Semi-Arid Pastoral Areas.
Queensland Journal of Agricultural Science, Vol. 4. No. 3. September 1947, p. 52.
See also P. J. Skerman.
The Brigalow Country and its Importance to Queensland.
Journal of the Australian lnstituts of Agricultural Science, VoL 19. No. 3. September 1953.
9
The gaps in the inland North-South connection between Longreach and Charleville and between Cunnamulla and Bourks are particularly important in limiting the effectiveness of existing railway transport.
10
H. R. Seddon. Diseases of Domestic Animals in Australia Part 3, Tick and Mite Infestations. Department of Health, Service Publication No. 7. Canberra. 1951.
11
Some measure of the serious damage caused by the cattle tick in the north is given by the proposed offer to be made by the United Graziers' Association in 1963 of a reward of £500.000 for an effective cure for the tick.
12
Say head stockman £500: two white stockmen at £450 each: cook £500; mechanic, £500: six aborigines at £200 each. “Keep” would be added in each case.
13
Royal Commission on Abattoirs and Meatworks (Queensland). Government Printer, Brisbane 1945. p. 19.Estimate# by Kinsman indicate that the six major droughts in Queensland between 1920 and 1950 caused an average annual loss of beef spread over the 30 years of some 6-6.5 per cent in addition to the normal annual loss of cattle from local droughts and other “normal” causes of loss. K. L. Kinsman.
Incidence of Drought Loss.
Quarterly Review of Agricultural Economics, Vol. VI. No. 1. January 1953.
These losses are of such a high order that it may prove to be feasible economically in some areas where nutritious grass feed is available. to conserve fodder for use in droughts. The success of such a scheme would be founded on mechanization of bay making and new mechanical procedures for this work may enable drought losses to be reduced. In any case the losses are so severe as to warrant further inquiries along these lines.
14
The Report of the Royal commission on pastoral Lands settlement (Queensland).1951, indicated its views on the optimum size of holdings in these terms: “A bix proportion of the State's cattle lands has not yet, however, reached a stage where wholesale subdivision for new settlement is desirable. In these regions large holdings must remain but we incline to the opinion that considerable wastage, both of land and of stock, occurs through some holding being too large to allow proper supervision and sund management. We would recommend that, in future, areas to be worked as one property be limited in size—where this is practicable—to sufficient country to run comfortably a mixed herd of 10,000 cattle in the northern parts of the State and 6,000 head in the western districts thereof.”
15
J. H. Kelly, Report on the Beef Cattle Industry in Northern Australia, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Canberra. 1952 (mimeo.) p. 78.
16
W. L. Payne and J. W. Fletcher, in Report of the Board of Inquiry Appointed to lnquire into the Land and Land Industries of the Northern territory of Australia (Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, 1937), wrote: “The stations in this section of the Territory are generally too large for effective handling, …. Generally the holdings are insuffciently improved for effective management. The difficulties of working such large holdings in £isolated locality, and in the face of continuous poor returns for cattle, are indeed very great, Whilst these difficulties are recognized it must be stated that the existing methods will never produce creditable results. In our opinion considerable changes will have to be made in the system of working there properties before satisfactory results can be obtained by the lessees, or the holdings be financially successful” (p. 51)
17
See the Annual Reports on the Administration of the Northern Territory, Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, for further information on the public administration of the Territory.
18
Commonwealth parliamentary debates, House of Representatives, 29th June, 26th, 30th July, 24th August 1923; and 23rd, 28th, 30th, May, 4th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th June 1924; 2nd July 1924.
19 Commonwealth Gazette, No. 44, 26th, June 1952, p. 2, 924.
20
An Ordinance to Amend the Crown Lands ordinance 1931–52, Northern Territory of Australia, 1953. In 1947, the Commonwealth Parliament passed the Northern Territory Administration act which provided, inter alia, for the creation of a Legislative Council for the Northern Territory, and that all future Ordinances for the administration of the territory must originate in the Council.
In 1948 the Council passed a crown Lands ordinance which provided for extension of existing leases as “pastoral development leases”, under which firm conditions of improvement of properties were to be imposed as a condition of the lease. In the course of the debate, the Administrator of the northern Territory, who is ex office President of the legislative Council, Said: “… I am impressed by the fact that the companies referred to in the debate have done all they should have done according to the conditions of their leases. I do not say that they have done all they should have done. The pastoral laws have been bad. they must be improved.”—Northern Territory Legislative Council Debats No. 2, 12th August, 1948, p. 245. This bill received the Governor-General's assent but did not become law as regulations under the Ordinance were never gazetted.
In 1950 another Crown Lands Ordinance was passed by the Council, provding for extension of existing leases with perpetual leases for home maintenance areas for resident landholders. Objections to this ordinance were raised by the Northern Territory Pastoral Lessees' Association, and the bill was not submitted for the Governor-General's assent. In 1953 the Legislative Council passed a new bill which is now the law. It is this Ordinance which is referred to in the text.
21
For additional comments on the Queensland land tenure system, see also W. A. Beattie, A Survey of the Beef Cattle Industry of Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Divisional Report No. 5, Series B (iii). Melbourne, 1952.
22
of Payne and Fletcher's finding in 1937: “The financial institutions have not operated to any extent in Central Australia and have not made a practice of advancing to settlers, for improving their holdings. Generally. few debts, other than current working expenses, have been incurred by settlers. Most of them, therefore, are not involved financially but they possess little or no spare capital with which to improve their country, In the circumstances the much-needed development is slow.” Op. cit., p. 40.Payne and Fletcher expressed the view that a credit system would be more effective in encouraging development than the system of subsidization of bores which wan in force at the time.
23
The Annual Reports of the Australian Meat Board provide an excellent description of changing marketing arrangements each year, as well as a review of conditions in the meat industry.
24
The position Was well stated by Payne and Fletcher in 1937: “Viewing the railway position as it exists today it can be readily seen that the development of the Territory was commenced at the wrong points …. If development had been attempted from the east and west, instead of from the north and south and railways had been constructed from Cloncurry in Queensland on the one side and from Derby or Wyndham in Western Australia on the other, the development and financial history of the Northern Territory would have been vastly different, as the best lands of the Territory would have bean traversed” Op. cit., p. 27.
25
For additional discussion on the railway problem. see Sir Harold Clapp's Report on Standardization of Australia's Railway Gauges. Government Printer, Melbourne, March 1945. In Appendix 6 to this report views of the Department of the Army on the relative priority of standardization of different lines are reproduced. From a defence viewpoint the Mt. Isa-Birdum connection should take second place to other strategic lines. including connections by standard gauge from Port Pirie to Broken Hill, from Kalgoorlie to Fremantle, and from Bourke Through Western Queensland to Townsville and Mt. Isa. Since that time the position has been radically changed by discovery of uranium ores in the Northern Territory. clapp was strongly influenced by defence considerations but he also supported the Dajarra-Birdum link on economic grounds, e.g., “The justification for standardization of gauges must, of course, rest primarily on defence rather than on economic grounds.” (p. 11). But the Dajarra-Birdum connection “… concerns both defence and the development of the Northern Territory … the construction of this railway is A work which should have been carried out year ago in the national interests.” (p. 12).
26
OP. cit. p. 234.
27
Income Tax for Farmers and Graziers. Issued under the authority of the Commonwealth Treasurer, the Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Fadden, K.C.M.G., M.P., and the minister for Commerce and Agriculture, the Rt. Hon. John McEwen, M.P., 1953
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