TY - JOUR
T1 - Shepherding in Colonial Australia
AU - Pickard, John
N1 - Copyright 2008 Cambridge University Press. Article originally published in Rural history, Vol. 19, Iss. 1, pp. 55-80. The original article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0956793307002300
PY - 2008/4
Y1 - 2008/4
N2 - Shepherds were a critical component of the early wool industry in colonial Australia and persisted even after fencing was adopted and rapidly spread in the later nineteenth century. Initially shepherds were convicts, but after transportation ceased in the late 1840s, emancipists and free men were employed. Their duty was the same as in England: look after the flock during the day, and pen them nightly in folds made of hurdles. Analysis of wages and flock sizes indicates that pastoralists achieved good productivity gains with larger flocks but inflation of wages reduced the gains to modest levels. The gold rushes and labour shortages of the 1850s played a minor role in increasing both wages and flock sizes. Living conditions in huts were primitive, and the diet monotonous. Shepherds were exposed to a range of diseases, especially in Queensland. Flock-masters employed non-whites, usually at lower wages, and women and children. Fences only replaced shepherds when pastoralists realised that the new technology of fences, combined with other changes, would give them higher profits. The sheep were left to fend for themselves in the open paddocks, a system used to this day.
AB - Shepherds were a critical component of the early wool industry in colonial Australia and persisted even after fencing was adopted and rapidly spread in the later nineteenth century. Initially shepherds were convicts, but after transportation ceased in the late 1840s, emancipists and free men were employed. Their duty was the same as in England: look after the flock during the day, and pen them nightly in folds made of hurdles. Analysis of wages and flock sizes indicates that pastoralists achieved good productivity gains with larger flocks but inflation of wages reduced the gains to modest levels. The gold rushes and labour shortages of the 1850s played a minor role in increasing both wages and flock sizes. Living conditions in huts were primitive, and the diet monotonous. Shepherds were exposed to a range of diseases, especially in Queensland. Flock-masters employed non-whites, usually at lower wages, and women and children. Fences only replaced shepherds when pastoralists realised that the new technology of fences, combined with other changes, would give them higher profits. The sheep were left to fend for themselves in the open paddocks, a system used to this day.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=41549146870&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0956793307002300
DO - 10.1017/S0956793307002300
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:41549146870
VL - 19
SP - 55
EP - 80
JO - Rural History: Economy, Society, Culture
JF - Rural History: Economy, Society, Culture
SN - 0956-7933
IS - 1
ER -