The beginnings of the sheep and wool industry in Australia
Reviewed by Wendy McLeish, formerly of DPI&F
The first sheep came to Australia with the First Fleet in 1788. Governor Phillip had obtained them from the Cape of Good Hope on the voyage to the new colony. With their hairy fleeces and fat tails, they were suitable for food, not for wool production. Additional small lots of these Cape Fat Tails came subsequently, but the few that survived the voyages did not last long. They were obviously unsuited to their new environment.
In 1797 Captains Waterhouse and Kent arrived at the Cape of Good Hope from Port Jackson, intending to return with cattle. At the time, 26 Merinos were up for sale. They were descendants of two rams and four ewes that the King of Spain had presented to the Dutch Government eight years earlier. Waterhouse and Kent each bought 13 - surely a lucky number in the history of the Australian wool industry.
Kent's sheep were believed lost. Waterhouse distributed his among Kent, Macarthur, Captain Rowley and the Reverend Samuel Marsden and probably others. Macarthur obtained four ewes and two rams. We know little about the quality of these sheep. However, they were certainly the ancestors of the present-day Camden Park flock in New South Wales. They were believed to be Escurials, the royal flock of the King of Spain.
As early as 1794, Macarthur had bought 60 Bengal ewes and lambs, and had later added two Irish ewes and a young ram. He had found that, after crossing the two breeds, the lambs of the Indian ewes bore a mingled fleece of hair and wool. Thus the idea came to him of breeding to produce fine wool. His acquiring the Cape Merinos gave him his unique opportunity.
Credit must be given to the Reverend Samuel Marsden, Captain Waterhouse, Mr William Cox and others for their pioneering role in fine-wool production in New South Wales. However, Macarthur transcended their work. By his vision, his practical experimentation and his persistent work in London as propagandist for Australian Merino wool, he has left a name that will always be remembered in connection with the industry in this country.
Explorers fanning out from Port Jackson began to discover undreamed of grazing lands in the new continent. The crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 revealed ideal pastures and good rivers to the west. Soon, sheep were grazing there. Settlers followed the explorers further and further south and north. In Van Diemen's Land, the sheep industry had been established soon after the formation of the new settlement in 1803. When the first overlanders arrived at Port Phillip in 1837, they found that sheep had already been shipped there from the island. Meantime, in 1834, the Hentys had settled at Portland Bay in south western Victoria.
The great sheep drive extended northward into what is now Queensland where, at Moreton Bay, official settlement had begun in 1824; and in 1838 the first overlanders arrived with stock at Adelaide, which had been settled two years before. In 1829 the Swan River settlement, separate from the eastern system, was founded in the west and grazing began there.
By the end of the 1830s, in an amazing series of explorations and settlements, the sheep industry had been established in every colony. From those first few Merinos brought from the Cape of Good Hope in 1797, the sheep and wool industry grew. Today, Australia produces most of the world's fine apparel wools and is the world's largest wool exporter.
See also The sheep and wool industry in Queensland.
Information contained in this publication is provided as general advice only. For application to specific circumstances, professional advice should be sought. The Department of Primary Industries Queensland has taken all reasonable steps to ensure the information in this publication is accurate at the time of publication. Readers should ensure that they make appropriate inquiries to determine whether new information is available on the particular subject matter.
File No: SW0078 . Created: November 2001 . Revised: N/A