64 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



Yet between the Dividing Range and the sea, or even 

 within the limits of the nineteen counties to which 

 the Colony was extended, there was no sufficient scope. 

 If it was to become a national industry it must spread 

 out into the unknown wilds. Mc Arthur made, and 

 Commissioner Bigge supported, the proposal to form a 

 joint-stock company that would seek unhmited range 

 for the flocks in the interior, " not approaching nearer 

 to the settled estates than five miles." The proposal 

 met with little encouragement from the Government, 

 and Bigge confessed that he found little eagerness on 

 the part of stockowners to leave their estates in the 

 settled districts and repair to those in remote localities. 

 Against this we have the statement of W. C. Wentworth, 

 made still earlier, in 1819, to the effect that local pastoral- 

 ists within the pale were under the necessity of sending 

 out their flocks beyond the boundaries " in order to 

 preserve them in health," or rather, we should incline 

 to affirm, because there was no longer room for expan- 

 sion. 



This was the real beginning of a new kind of landed 

 tenure — that by occupancy. After the pubhcation of 

 Commissioner Bigge's three masterly reports in 1822-3 

 an ever-increasing stream of superior immigrants flowed 

 over the boundaries of the settlement and gradually took 

 possession of that — the greater — portion of New South 

 Wales that lay outside of the pale, then of (the future) 

 Victoria, and in time of (what was to be) Queensland. 

 These it w^as who constituted the great body of the 

 pioneer pastoralists. These were the true " squatters " 

 in the later acceptation of the term, and they it was 

 who formed the haughty caste that long lorded it over 

 Australia. These built up the pastorahst system and 

 largely founded a commonwealth of their own. They 

 acknowledged, indeed, the suzerainty of the Government 

 so far as to pay £10 a year for their license, though it 

 was not always paid, and several runs were lumped 

 together as one ; but, as happened with the feudal 

 vassals, the mere right of occupancy tended to harden, 



