26 Australian GeographicPart of the Defining Moments in Australian History project.
To find out more: nma.gov.au/definingmoments
SLNSW /FL16693671895–1903: Australia’s worst drought since European settlement
T
HE FEDERATION DROUGHT
affected almost all of Australia
and is widely considered the
most destructive in our recorded history,
based on the huge stock losses it caused.
So named because it coincided with
Australia’s Federation, the drought
ended squatter-dominated pastoralism
in New South Wales and Queensland.
By the end of the 1840s, about
280,000sq.km – almost all of eastern
Australia – was occupied by at least
2000 squatters on Crown land.
To control them and encourage
closer settlement, the eastern states
introduced land reforms in the 1860s,
hoping to break up large runs into
smaller blocks for farming and grazing.
This was not always achieved because
squatters found ways to hold on to
productive country. Nevertheless, many
selectors took up ‘homestead’ blocks, in
north-west Victoria’s Mallee district in
the 1870s, and from 1884 in the
Western Division of NSW.
Meanwhile, expanding railways were
enabling agricultural development,
particularly wheat growing. Bores were
sunk to access underground water,
allowing stations to expand further into
the semi-arid interior of NSW and
central Queensland. At this time, most
pastoralists carried high stock numbers,
even in low rainfall areas. Sheep were
cheap, water was available and graziers
had saltbush and other scrub to provide
quality feed when overgrazing
destroyed perennial grasses.
Rabbits had been introduced to
Victoria in 1859 and by the time
drought set in they had reached plague
proportions across most of south-eastern
Australia. They dug up the roots of
native bushes and ringbarked trees
and shrubs. Between the rabbits,overstocking and drought, pastoralists
had nothing left to feed livestock.
With ground cover gone, exposed
topsoil was lifted in huge dust storms,
a feature of most droughts in Australia.
In 1892 the country had 106
million sheep. By 1903 the national
flock had almost halved to 54 million.
The nation lost more than 40 per cent
of its cattle over the same period.
Drovers sought feed for hungry
animals along travelling stock routes- the ‘long paddock’ – or moved them
to pastures on the east coast and
southern mountains with less dire
conditions. Droving took an immense
toll on sheep and cattle with losses of up
to 70 per cent recorded. In 1902
newspapers reported that more than
2000 steers lay dead along Queensland’s
Goondiwindi–Miles route.
Pastoralists buckled under mounting
costs of buying feed, controlling rabbits
and repairing dust storm–damaged
infrastructure. And, overwhelmed by
debt, many graziers walked off their
land. Some 20,000sq.km of leasehold
country in the NSW Western Division
was reported to have been abandoned
between 1891 and 1901.
No state government then had a
formal drought-relief policy, and,
despite royal commissions and inquiries,
they were slow to consider practical
measures.The NSW government
declared a public holiday on
26 February 1902 for people to“unite
in humiliation and prayer” for the end
of the drought. Government offices
and most businesses closed and
religious services were held. The new
federal government refused to reduce
duties on fodder or provide other
assistance. Drought relief was seen as a
state responsibility, which didn’t change
until 1939 when the Commonwealth
assisted Tasmania to recover from
bushfires during another severe drought.
In October 1902 Melbourne’s Lord
Mayor opened a public appeal for
Victoria’s drought-affected areas and
within a year attracted almost
£19,000 ($2.7 million today) and
helped 1670 families. Sydney’s Lord
Mayor began a relief fund in January
1903 that collected just over
£23,000 ($3.3 million) in a year.
In the 1880s, many individual
stations in NSW and Queensland were
up to 3000sq.km and carried hundreds
of thousands of merino sheep. By the
drought’s end, many huge stations had
been resumed or foreclosed by banks,
and, under further land reforms aimed
at encouraging closer settlement and
the development of agriculture, were
partitioned and opened up to selectors.
Smaller properties and sheep flocks
became the norm and mixed farming
was widely adopted. It would be
another 50 years before the national
flock recovered to pre-Federation
Drought numbers.Buggies and sulkies in the dry bed of the
Murray River during the Federation Drought.Federation Drought