FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



in appearance and quality. The pasture of New South Wales suited 

 these animals, and when the cows were crossed with Ayrshire bulls 

 of good quality it was surprising to see how the hump on the shoul- 

 der and the heavy dewlap disappeared. In a few generations the 

 progeny of these " Bos Longifrons" cows assumed the appearance of 

 neglected Jerseys. This led many of the old New South Wales native- 

 born to exclaim when they saw the first Jersey cattle on exhibition 

 thirty or forty years ago, " Many a score of those bulls were to be 

 found in the ranges when we were boys." These native cattle had a 

 variety of color, and it would be interesting to follow the varied de- 

 scriptions given of the lost, stolen, or strayed animals of the breed 

 given in the '' Police Gazette" ; black sides with white faces, cream 

 color, piebald, grey and white were very common descriptions. They 

 were to be found in all the settled districts throughout New South 

 Wales until the beginning of the forties, when they gradually gave 

 place to the more -fashionable breeds of Europe. A Mr. William 

 Wilson, who lived at Fairy Meadow, near Wollongong, and a.fter wards 

 at the Five Islands, had one of these bulls in 1835. Mr. Wilson called 

 the animal Punch. His color was described as cream, and by all ac- 

 counts was recognised as a valuable animal by the small settlers 

 around that part of the district, as a fee was charged for his service. 

 This bull was afterwards stolen from his owner and never returned. 



It. would probably have been extremely interesting, as well as in- 

 structive, to our present-day scientists had the popu:ation cf Australia, 

 with its flocks and herds as they existed in 1807 been cut off from 

 the outer world, and the higher intelligence been thus cast on its own 

 resources to work out a destiny for a future Australian nation. We 

 do know, from the knowledge obtained from those who have studied 

 the black population of Australia that they are the descendants of la.' 

 higher intelligence. We know, however, that the crossbred buffa'n cattle 

 that escaped from their keepers shortly after being landed by Captain 

 Phillip soon found their way into good country at the " Cowpastures" 

 now known as Camden. They increased and multiplied, and even- 

 tually formed themselves into groups, each with a warrior bull at its 

 head. They soon dri-fted back to their semi-aboriginal shapes and 

 habits. They drove the blackfellow out of the locality, and it is said 

 that no blackfellow could be induced to go near them. The spears, 

 boomerangs, and waddies of the blacks prevailed not when an old 

 bull was in the vicinity. 



These wild cattle, as they were afterwards called, defied for years 

 capture by armed bodies of whites with three successive Governors 

 and the civil and military officers at their head ; in fact, these wild 

 cattle were never captured ; they simply drifted away in small mobs 

 when disturbed into the mountain fastnesses, and the gorges and 

 valleys adjacent thereto provided them with food and protection until 

 they became a source of annoyance and a pest to the smaller settlers, 

 whose crops were constantly in danger of being destroyed by their 

 nightly visitations. The sawyers and timber-getters used to shoot 

 them they of course shot more than " buffaloes" in those days and 

 the station holders used to offer bushmen i for the horns and part 

 of the skull of all the bulls. By this means the young -females were 

 crossed by good bulls, and th<^r progeny converted into profitable 

 animals. Therefore it may be truthfully stated that the blood of the 

 cattle of New South Wales was in many instances largely impregnated 

 with the blood of these " Lorgifrons" right up to the forties and 

 fifties ; and it does not appear from the records kept that an infusion 

 of this " Lo-ngifron" blood is objcctiorahle, the reverse is the Tin. re 

 probable. 



"Looking/ 1 says an eminent authority, "at the great diversities 

 which present themselves in the different races of the bovine family, 

 a natural curiosity prompts us to inquire whether they are one species: 

 and whether, on the assumption that they are one species, they have 

 sprung from the same stock, and spread over the earth from some 



96. 



