| Show U A-U T S L r J-r 6 i j S I no nm Driving Australian Sheep to Pasture Prepared by National t Geographic Society Washington D. D C. C G C. Service 1 AUSTRALIA Is almost as J big as the United States but its vast face presents presents presents pre pre- a striking contrast to the American landscape This ancient eroded land mass massI has no extensive mountain I ranges no great river systems The granite ridge of Mount Kosciusko feet above sea level in the southeastern southeastern southeastern south south- eastern corner of New South Wales is the highest point on the continent For miles along the southern coast there flows not a single river Many other miles are little better served as existing stream beds are often dry for many months The Murray Darling is the one large river system of the continent From its source in the Queensland highlands less than a hundred miles from the coast to its mouth at the sand reef of the southeast of Adelaide the stream travels 2310 miles Except for length however it is no Mississippi Its drainage area is much smaller and much of the water Is lost before before before be be- fore it reaches the main channel Where American pioneers In n their westward march from the Ute Alleghenies Alleghenies Alle- Alle progressively found well- well watered fertile lands awaiting their plows Australian pioneers were baffled baffled fled by sterile inland areas where they could find not even water to drink Lakes that were only colossal salt saltpans saltpans saltpans pans rivers that were dry or stagnant stagnant stagnant stag stag- nant with brine and vast rocky and sandy wastes wastes such such were the reports that Sturt Shirt Eyre Stuart and other Australian explorers brought back from the interior where their parties had suffered untold untold untold un un- told privations and harrowing hard hard- ships Leichhardt marched inland and vanished Burke Durke and Wills wms perished of starvation on Coopers Cooper's creek Coastal Belts Kelts Are Fertile But Out Australia Is by no means entirely entirely en en- desiccated Indeed along the coastal belts and extending for several several sev seve eral hundred miles inland the land landis is flushed with fertility A broad broadband broadband broadband band of vegetation extends along the north east and southeast edges of the Ute continent covers a wide triangle triangle tri trl angle in the southwest corner of Western Australia and blankets most of Tasmania Its development is a fascinating story Here ere within the short span of a century resourceful Australian settlers have carved out farms and pasture lands so big and productive that they help to fix the price of the worlds world's bread and meat and cloth cloth- ing Here they have reared bustling commercial marts with world wide interests and growing population population- Sydney and Melbourne claim more than a million people each Frontiers move farther inland but even the most conservative authorities authorities ties estimate that in already developed developed de de- de lands the present population population population tion could be quadrupled without congestion A striking feature of Australia today is the concentration of more than 62 per cent of her entire population population population lation in the six capital cities clUes and the urban centers enters Yet paradoxically paradoxIcally paradoxically paradox paradox- beyond the cities clUes and extending extending extend extend- ing to the far horizons of way out outback outback outback back are found the commonwealths commonwealths commonwealth's commonwealths commonwealth's common common- wealth's chief resources Mobs of sheep are grazing across endless plains plaIn cattle are bawling beside water holes and kicking up long banners of dust as they move on muster seas of golden wheat ripple beneath sunny skies in eucalypt eucalypt eucalypt eu- eu forests axes ring and from in the earth earthmen earthmen earthmen men are bringing up minerals to feed factories and amid gold to be stacked in the worlds world's vaults An improbable dream of a visionary enthusiast such enthusiast such was the libel Ubel that Australia's first settlers attached to the idea that the Ute country might become a II prosperous sheep land Some were positive that the flocks docks could not thrive on Australian I grasses which are dry during the summer months and even if it they did the wool would deteriorate to scraggly hair in the hotter climate of the continent How It Became a Sheep Land Dut But Capt John Mac MacArthur Arthur onetime onetime one one- time of the New South Wales Corps and somewhat 0 of a POlitiCal politico firebrand fire brand in the Ute infant period of Australia's Australia's Aus settlement thought other other- wise Therein lies the romance of ofas an as industry that has few tew parallels in commercial history Wool has been to Australia what cotton has bas been to the American South Today a fifth MUt of the country country's country's coun coun- try's try productive wealth Is U carried curled on the backs of her sheep From the meager flocks with which MacArthur MacArthur MacArthur Mac- Mac Arthur and other pioneers began their systematic breeding there has grown the amazing total of more than Utan million animals which supply supply supply sup sup- ply between a fourth and a third of the worlds world's wool requirements The generations of sheep breeders that followed MacArthurs MacArthur's s 's footsteps have taken their flocks over wide areas of the continent Through increased increased in in- creased watering facilities by means of artesian bores millions of animals now are ranging In regions once considered useless As the worlds world's wool-hungry wool mills have increased their demands so station ranch owners also have increased the weight and quality of the fleeces Today the average clip including lambs has risen to half eight pounds twice that of pioneer days but you see some wrinkle-necked wrinkle old merino rams that are carrying the equivalent of seven suits of mens men's clothing on their bodies In length fineness and strength of Its fiber Australian wool is unsure I passed Life Lite on the S Sheep Range A sheep ranch is a complete community community com com- in itself It usually has its own post office telegraph station and power plant Although not on the sumptuous scale of some of the palatial residences of the Argentine pampa many of these commodious station homes surrounded by flowering flowering flow flow- ering gardens are perfect in every appointment and convenience In some respects they are the Australian Australian Austra Austra- lian Ilan equivalent of old English manors Beyond each central residence is clustered a full complement of barracks barracks bar bar- racks and houses for the station hands and families also stables blacksmith and machine shops laundry butchery and bakery And out lying those are the long con col wool sheds and stock pens Life is unhurried in these nerve nerv centers of the country's chief indus Indus- try The manager seldom assigns more than one task a day to hi his men Some days they do little but they are always ready to work long fatiguing hours when the occasion demands By Dy the sweat of their own brows most owners have built and managed managed managed man man- aged their own estates While there are some absentee owners by far the majority know the meaning of ol work Sons too grow up in the business On many stations one finds these young workIng working work work- ing lag to fit themselves to become station station station sta sta- sta- sta tion managers With perhaps forty men under his direction a managers manager's life is a busy one There are always inspection inspection tion trips to see the condition of water wa wa- water ter and grass on the runs repairs tobe to tobe tobe be maintained and a multitude of other tasks to keep the station go go- ing Here in the saddle most of f Australia's Aus Aus- polo players gain their training train train- ing The men also find recreation in hunting or tennis Culture Is Not Lacking The wives of the managers are cultured and many have traveled widely In the outback it is rather surprising to find people so conversant con versant with the latest books music and of course the races Before telephones and radios came station life was more ed Motorcars and even airplanes in many places have brought distant dis dis- tant towns next door One of the most remarkable things thing as you travel through the sheep districts is the comparative absence of sheep on the landscape When you comment on it up in Queensland a station man explains ins that he h has s traveled a thousand miles mlles through one region where there were a million sheep being pastured yet on the whole trip he has not seen a single sheep I At where there are about a hundred thousand animals the plains seem empty The flocks are broken into up smaller groups and have their own separate runs but even on the fertile grasslands grassland of that station there is less than one sheep to the acre In more arid and regions the is jS considerably greater reater As you speed across the rolling rOIlIng plains of one station tation in an Amer ican lean truck you see dozens of kangaroos kangaroos kan kan- rise up like posts above the grass and then take to their heels as you approach Propelling themselves with only their powerful hind legs with their tiny undeveloped front legs held high their running seems uncanny But Dut as your speedometer touches 45 miles an hour some old kan keep pace beside the car |
