Table Of ContentSheep and their wool, the strong backbone that
helped colonial Australia walk upright, have a proud
place in Australian hearts and in the national
record. But the romance of wool has often shrouded
the hard facts, and the myths developed by and
around the pioneers have distorted an important
story.
John Garran, sheep-breeder and historian, was
convinced that the history written from the study
chair be corrected from the farm. He brought a
critical eye, practical experience and a great interest
in genetics to tracing the origins and development
of sheep in Australia. This approach was comple
mented by the political economist Leslie White.
The particular focus of myth has been John
■> ja. .'i
Macarthur and the purity of the Merino breed. Aus
tralians have been taught that their nation has
ridden to prosperity on the sheep’s back, and that
early sheep-breeders made a unique contribution in
developing a pure breed — beliefs aired in contro
versies about the export of Merinos. But the earliest
sheep in Australia were hairy sheep from the Cape
of Good Hope and Bengal which had with an under
coat of fine wool, and these provided the base from
which, by cross-breeding with Saxon Merinos and
other breeds, the Australian Merino became so
successful.
It is generally, but wrongly, assumed that all
Macarthur’s stud sheep were pure bred, unmixed
descendants of Spanish Merinos he obtained from
King George III. Macarthur has been credited with
having a vision of a great Australian industry, and
working untiringly to establish it on a permanent
basis, and has gained a carefully fostered but
unmerited reputation as a scientific breeder, a know
ledgeable grazier and a producer of superior sheep.
None of these assumptions is tenable, and Merinos,
Myths and Macarthurs demolishes once and for all the
claims by Macarthur and later advocates to his being
the father of the wool industry in Australia. What is
more, it was his wife Elizabeth who carried the
burden of his sheep enterprise. Macarthur at last is
shorn.
jacket: Interior of woolshed at 'Beverly', Boorowa
Sheep and their wool, the strong backbone that
helped colonial Australia walk upright, have a proud
place in Australian hearts and in the national
record. But the romance of wool has often shrouded
the hard facts, and the myths developed by and
around the pioneers have distorted an important
story.
John Garran, sheep-breeder and historian, was
convinced that the history written from the study
chair be corrected from the farm. He brought a
critical eye, practical experience and a great interest
in genetics to tracing the origins and development
of sheep in Australia. This approach was comple
mented by the political economist Leslie White.
The particular focus of myth has been John
■> ja. .'i
Macarthur and the purity of the Merino breed. Aus
tralians have been taught that their nation has
ridden to prosperity on the sheep’s back, and that
early sheep-breeders made a unique contribution in
developing a pure breed — beliefs aired in contro
versies about the export of Merinos. But the earliest
sheep in Australia were hairy sheep from the Cape
of Good Hope and Bengal which had with an under
coat of fine wool, and these provided the base from
which, by cross-breeding with Saxon Merinos and
other breeds, the Australian Merino became so
successful.
It is generally, but wrongly, assumed that all
Macarthur’s stud sheep were pure bred, unmixed
descendants of Spanish Merinos he obtained from
King George III. Macarthur has been credited with
having a vision of a great Australian industry, and
working untiringly to establish it on a permanent
basis, and has gained a carefully fostered but
unmerited reputation as a scientific breeder, a know
ledgeable grazier and a producer of superior sheep.
None of these assumptions is tenable, and Merinos,
Myths and Macarthurs demolishes once and for all the
claims by Macarthur and later advocates to his being
the father of the wool industry in Australia. What is
more, it was his wife Elizabeth who carried the
burden of his sheep enterprise. Macarthur at last is
shorn.
jacket: Interior of woolshed at 'Beverly', Boorowa
This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991.
This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried
out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press.
This project aims to make past scholarly works published
by The Australian National University available to
a global audience under its open-access policy.
Merinos,
myths and
Macarthurs
Merinos,
myths an d
Macarthurs
Australian graziers and their sheep, 1788 -1900
J. C. Garran and L. White
s
Australian National University Press
Australian National University Press is a division of Pergamon Press Australia and a
member of the Pergamon Group of Companies.
AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press (Australia) Pty Ltd, 19a Boundary
Street, Rushcutters Bay, N.S.W. 2011, Australia
U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
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First published in Australia 1985 by the
Australian National University Press.
Copyright ' 1985 Winifred Garran and Leslie White
Cover design by Adrian Young, ANU Graphic Design
National Library of Australia Cataloguing in Publication
Data
Garran, J.C. (John Cheyne), 1905-1976.
Merinos, myths and Macarthurs.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 08 032972 1.
1.Merino sheep — History.2. Wool trade and
industry — Australia — History.3. Sheep —
Breeding — Australia — History.I. White. Les.II. Title.
338. T76368'0994
Library of Congress No.: 82-71410
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of Per
gamon Press (Australia) Pty Ltd.
Endpapers photograph by courtesy of NSW Government
Printing Office, Australia.
Contents
Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
1 The early settlement 1
2 The founding flock 18
3 Eight small sheep at Norfolk Island 27
4 The first Merinos 36
5 The lucky combination of breeds 44
6 The early sheep of Van Diemen’s Land 58
7 Philip Gidley King: from flax to wool 64
8 How Marsden almost succeeded 75
9 The unimportance of John Macarthur 90
10 The hollow triumph of the Macarthurs 110
11 William Cox: a new direction 123
12 Saxon sheep 129
13 Saxon breeders at Mudgee 139
14 William Hampden Dutton, agricultural scientist 150
15 The Australian Agricultural Company 159
16 Wool in Tasmania 171
17 Late arrival of sheep in Victoria 176
18 South Australia 190
19 Pioneering problems 200
20 Expanding frontiers and new sheep 211
21 The end of the beginning 218
22 The Peppin Merinos 227
Appendixes
A Specimens of wool grown in New South Wales 237
B Wool samples selected by Rev. Samuel Marsden, 1804 (plucked),
from exhibit at Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences 239
C Political administrations in the United Kingdom and New South
Wales 1788-1856 241
vi Contents
Abbreviations 2,43
Notes 244
Bibliography 261
Index 271
Illustrations
Map of southern Australia showing significant places mentioned in text
1 John Garran x
Sheep similar to these were in New South Wales by 1804
2 Africander fat-tailed ram 9
3 Native sheep from Bangladesh 9
4 Early South African Merino ram 10
5 Southdown ram 10
6 Teeswater ram 11
7 First cross Africander x Merino sheep 11
The land
8 Sydney Cove, August 1788 16
9 Swampy land typical of early coastal settlement 25
10 Scanty vegetation of pastoral region 34
11 Heavily stocked improved pastures 34
12 Raby, a farm belonging to Alexander Riley in the 1820s 41
13 A nineteenth century homestead 50
14 Yamburgan homestead, 1950s 57
Pioneers of the wool industry
15 Philip Gidley King 65
16 Simeon Lord 73
17 Samuel Marsden 82
18 Elizabeth Macarthur 93
19 Act of Queen Elizabeth I forbidding export of live sheep from England
20 Cartoon by Tandberg 108
21 John Macarthur 112
22 William Cox 125
23 George Peppin jnr 137
viii Illustrations
Pioneering problems
24 Drought in north-west New South Wales 140
25 Sheep threatened by flood 144
26 Sheep drowned by flood 145
27 Angora doe with twins 147
28 Sheep burnt in bushfire 154
29 Rabbits in eaten out pasture 156
30 The dingo 157
31 Blowfly maggots on dead sheep 163
32 Sheep suffering from large-stomach worms 168
Work on a sheep station
33 Kelpie dog working sheep 174
34 Mustering by motor bike 177
35 Hand blade shearing 180
36 Machine shearing 181
37 Tossing newly shorn fleece 185
38 Wool sorting and classing 186
39 Manually operated wool press 194
40 Modern wool press 194
41 The finished bale 195
42 Trudi Anesbury, a skilled shearer from South Australia 198
43 Counting wethers after shearing 203
44 Taking the wool across a river by horse team 207
45 Sheep in the ‘long paddock’ 209
46 A big mob on the move 212
47 Taking wool to market 214
48 The unchanged pastoral scene 224
The changing Merino
49 Ram imported from Saxony 1824 231
50 Peppin Wanganella stud ram 1874 231
51 Prize-winning wrinkled Vermont ram 1899 232
52 A Collinsville stud 1919 prize-winning ram 232
53 Wanganella 1983 Woolmaker ram 233
54 Mr and Mrs Jim Toll with a Collinsville ram 233
55 Booroola Merino ewe with quintuplets 234
56 A modern Merino fleece 234
57 Wanganella/Boonoke stud ewes 235
58 A Wanganella/Boonoke ram 235
