FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



however, beginning to devote more attention to beef raising, whereas 

 those breeders who were settling in Illawarra and the South-western 

 tableland districts still adhered to the milk breeds. To those men his 

 advice was to continue with the South Wales and Yorkshire (Holder- 

 ness) Shorthorns and Longhorns for crossing on the colonial cattle. 

 Heifer- were being purchased in Illawarra at 3 to 4 per head for 

 the A. A. Company's station at Port Stephens. At this point Mac- 

 arthnr grants amounted to 30,000 acres. Mr. 11. Macarthur had decided 

 iblish a small Devon herd as an experiment. 



!8 : 8. The first model farm established in New South Wales was owned 

 by Captain (afterwards Admiral) King, and known as " Dunhaved.'' 

 Captain King was the father of P. Gidley King, M.L.C. The manager 

 of the estate was a Mr. William Hayes, who for a term of years 

 managed it successfully, and was superseded by an Irish agriculturist 

 named Flanagan, who raised not only a large and valuable stud of 

 horses, dairy cattle, and sheep, but a large family of sons and daugh- 

 ters. Lady King arrived in 1829 with her six sons, the seventh being 

 with the captain, assisting him in exploring the coast of Australia. 

 Under the management of Flanagan the farm became celebrated and 

 a pattern to be imitated by the other colonists. The sires used in 

 raising hor,ses were Lawson's Steeltrap, Lane's Hector, Sir John 

 Jamison's Camerton. Hector and another horse, not named, were kept 

 on the estate. The cattle used were imported Shorthorns, Ayrshires, 

 and Guernseys. At this period 1828 to 1836 within a radius of 

 twenty miles of the county of Cumberland there were at least thirty 

 big estates, most of them well managed, employing from 100 to 150 

 prisoners each, besides managers and overseers. Strange as it may 

 seem, where all these men once resided in affluence, there is scarcely 

 a stone le-ft upon another to mark the scenes of their former posses- 

 sions ; and most of their descendants have disappeared ; names once 

 so familiar are now almost obliterated from memory. The good work, 

 however, of the King family was not lost, as many of those men, and 

 women, too, who hnd to spend a few vears of their Hves in compulsory 

 employment, learned lessons in farming and dairying which were not 

 only useful to them, but their neighbours, when they got an oppor- 

 tunity o.f settling down for themselves 1 n other districts. The Illa- 

 warra and Shoalhavcn Valley districts benefited by not a few such 

 settlers. 



1829. Drs. Alexander and John Osborne and Air. Henry Osborne 

 came to reside in Illawarra, having received grants of land each. Mr. 

 John Wylie's Ayrshire herd are reported to be adapting themselves 

 admirably to the climatic conditions of Illawarra. His estate com- 

 prised 4000 acres. The first sale of Alderney and Jersey cattle is 

 reported from Windsor, when Mr. G. T. Palmer's herd, comprising 

 200 head, were sold at satisfactory prices. The,se cattle are said to 

 have laid the foundation of Howe's (Glenlee) and other dairy herds. 

 A two-year-old imported Durham bull was sold by auction in Sydney 

 at 8p. In this year an important proclamation is issued proclaim- 

 ing Five Islands, Kiama, Gerringong, Shoalhaven, Coolangatta. and 

 I'lladulla townships. The Brooks Bros., A. B. Spark, Hughes & rloa 

 kin<. and other* sent large numbers of stock to the South Coast. The 

 increase of horned cattle in New South Wales is stated to be con- 

 siderable, being at the rate of 30,000 head per year. At present the 

 estimated number of horned cattle in the colony is over 600,000 head. 

 Speaking of the drought that was being experienced, a gentleman 

 l -;'i'l ' ' N' - w Snth \Vale- must expect these visitations occasionally ; 

 sin- mu-t e\i< ct depressions ; they are portion of every territory be- 

 m-alh the sun ; but she will triumphantlv surmount "them all and 

 become the .jin-eii of the half of the southern hemisphere." Mr 

 Alexander Berry resigns from the secretaryship of the New South 

 Wales Agricultural Society, and Mr. A. P.. Spark is annointed. Tn 

 the diiimrx of th.- Agricultural Sorietv published in iSjo an article is 

 published - n the increase of the dairying industry in the colony owing 



