1 88 K£JV SOUTH WALES. 



soutli. In fact it liad possession of the wliole Soutli Coast. Distinct 

 dairy lierds were formed by sucli slirewd progressive gentlemen as 

 Alex. Berry, of Shoalhaven (who was exporting butter in quantity to 

 California in 1849) ; Henry Osborne, of Marshall Mount, A. McGill, 

 De Mestre, and others ; and thousands of acres of the richest 

 lands were specially devoted to dairying. The discovery of gold, 

 and the consequent largo influx of population, enabled farmers of all 

 classes to obtain remunerative returns for their labours, and the 

 writer has very frequently, during the fifties, both bought and sold 

 fresh butter at 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. per lb. wholesale. Sometimes extra- 

 vagant rents were paid for lands in favoured localities, even as high 

 as 50s., 55s., and OOs. per acre were not unknown. Consequently the 

 increased dairy production was such that, notwithstanding the rapidy 

 increasing population, the supply during the summer months exceeded 

 the local demand, and prices receded to perhaps Gd. per lb. The 

 surplus was then exported to the other colonies, chiefly Victoria, and 

 was 79,990 lb. in 1855, valued at £6,636. There does not appear to be 

 any authentic records showing the actual quantities of the dairy pro- 

 ducts of the colony at this time, but from data which may be taken as 

 reliable, I estimate the output of butter for 1855 at 1,300 tons, the 

 greater part of which was from Illawarra, or the strip of coast country 

 between Bulli and Shoalhaven. 



One matter which tended greatly to the extension of the industry 

 was the system of '' clearing leases,'^ which found much favour in 

 Illawarra at this time. By it, any respectable family with an aptitude 

 for, or knowledge of, dairying, could obtain virgin lands on lease from 

 landed proprietors to convert into dairy farms. The intending settler 

 or lessor, who was generally a new arrival in the country, took a lease 

 for seven or ten years of, say, 20 or 60 or perhaps 100 acres of rich, 

 well-timbered bush or forest land, undertaking to clear and g-rass the 

 same, to erect such fences, yards, buildings, &c., as he might need to 

 work the place. He would usually have the place rent free for the 

 first half or more of the term, and pay to the lessee probably 10s. per 

 acre during the latter part. Conditions, of course, varied with indi- 

 vidual cases, and at the expiration of that lease the lessor generally 

 stayed on the land as tenant at £1 or more per acre per annum. Under 

 this system many hundreds of acres of heavy brush lauds were brought 

 into profitable work without the outlay of a single pennj- by their 

 owners, and many poor but industrious families that went on those 

 lands with almost nothing, soon found themselves in very independent 

 positions. Upon the advent of '' Free selection ^' under the Land Act 

 of 1861, many of the best men of the coast districts, who held either 

 clearing leases or rented farms, now felt the landowners' demands 

 upon them to be too heavy, and determined to make a move to 

 obtain lands for themselves. They spread out north, west, and 

 south, taking with them their herds, and the industry which had 

 proved so profitable to them. By these means some of them obtained 

 what are now princely estates. 



From this time until the advent of the factory system of dairying, 

 a quarter of a century later, the industry struggled along with varying 

 vicissitudes, through seasons of prosperity and of adversity, times of 

 luxuriance and abundance, and spells of drought, when the pastures 



