CATTLE PROSPECTS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA 207 



CATTLE PROSPECTS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 



Western Australia is so big a country, and subject tc so many 

 differing conditions, that any general description of the cattle 

 industry is impossible ; the only way to gain a clear understand- 

 ing of the position is to take the divisions of the State separately. 



When the last statistics were published at the end of 1917, the 

 State possessed 958,484 cattle, as compared with 863,930 at the 

 end of 1916, and 754,377 in 1907. There has then been an ap- 

 parent steady increase during the last 10 years, but this increase 

 is almost wholly in the Kimberley division, which lies in the 

 extreme north of the State ; and, as a matter of fact, the main 

 North-west division, which has been discarding cattle for sheep 

 for many years, has gone back in its numbers. 



Kimberley is the cattle end of the country, as will be shown by 

 the following table : — 



statistical Division. Cattle at 31st Dec, 1917. 



East Kimberley . . . . . . . . . . 265,604 



West. Kimberley • • 408,366 



North-west . . . . • ■ . . . . 61,917 



Gascoyne 49,890 



Murehison and Goldfield 73,349 



Agricultural Areas . . . . . . . . 99,358 



958,484 



The figures show that East and West Kimberley now possess 

 673,970 cattle, or more than two-thirds of the herds of the State. 

 The growth in Kimberley has been rapid, as at the end of 1907 

 the totals were 463,735 for the two Kimberleys, so that the in- 

 crease in the ten-year period has been roughly fifty per cent. 



Kimberley has been one of the most neglected corners of the 

 earth. Blest with magnificent soil and noble rivers, it has been 

 cursed by misgovernment and neglect. Wlien freezing works 

 and canning plants years ago might have given the country a 

 market, cleaned up all the aged cattle, and encouraged the lessees 

 to open out the country, the Kimberley squatters have only been 

 able to market some 25,000 cattle annually, by shipment to Fre- 

 mantle, 6 days' steam southwards, or to occasionally get rid of a 

 few thousand store bullocks to Queensland. 



The absence of markets has been pronounced, and has for many 

 years induced a condition of things closely akin to stagnation. 

 Owners have kept down their breeding, as it was no use going 



