CHAPTER XXX 



SUBSIDIARY INDUSTRIES 



Various subsidiary industries came to the rescue of 

 the hard-driven squatter in his extremity. Dr. Lang 

 denounces the practice of boihng down sheep and cattle 

 for the sake of their fat, which can thus be converted 

 into fat ; yet he lauds H. O'Brien, of Yass, who invented 

 boiling down. There cannot be a doubt that the dis« 

 covery of its practicability saved the pastoral industry 

 of New South Wales at a crisis, and perhaps oftener 

 than once. At times when sheep and cattle were un- 

 saleable in any market — ^when the distance from a 

 market was so great and the roads so bad that stock 

 was untransportable, this precious resource, wasteful 

 though it seemed, fell like manna from heaven and 

 saved the squatter in many cases from the extinction 

 that overtook others that lived too soon. 



Other industries sprang out of the pastoral. An 

 innovator in many fields, Thomas Sutchffe Mort ranks 

 Avith Alexander Berry as one of the pioneers of dairying 

 in Australia. About the middle fifties, in copartnery 

 with Joseph Hawdon, the famous overlander and 

 pioneer squatter, he purchased an estate of 14,000 acres 

 at Bodalla, in the Moruya district, on the east coast, 

 200 miles south of Sydney. There he bred cows, and 

 sent their milk and butter to Sydney. The under- 

 taking was a great success, and in 1860, when the estate 

 had expanded to 38,000 acres, and he had expended 

 £100,000 on it, he bought out his partner. The busi- 

 ness is stated to be the most extensive in AustraUa, 

 and its products are said to be equal to the best Enghsh 



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