FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Agriculture commenced in Illawarra and the Shoalhaven Valleys 

 with the arrival of the cedar getters in the twenties, when the wood- 

 man's axe laid low the giant ecdars that abounded in every fertile 

 nook and valley ; yea ! in many instances on the hilltops. A Govern- 

 ment farm was established on the cleared ground near the Five 

 Islands, Wollongong, for some years, and formed, as it were, the base 

 of settlement, witli Messrs. Kinmett ist Dalrymple Jiul, as managers. 



In entering upon the occupation of the wild bush, and the uncul- 

 tivated lands of Illawarra and the Shoalhaven Valleys, the first opera- 

 tion to be performed was to clear it of the timber and the brushwood 

 with which it was. generally speaking, lightly clothed, according to 

 the situation. The early settlers in these districts found the country 

 one vast and apparently interminable woodland, with a few treeless 

 exceptions. The dense forests were confined to the hills, and the 

 thick jungles and cedar clumps were, as a rule, confined to the banks 

 of the numerous streams, creeks, and rivers, and the slope- surround 

 ing the scores of ravines that lay towa'rds the <i'ace of the mountain 

 ranges. This is still the character of a few of the reserved gullies. 



As the quickest mode of clearing the land, and of obtaining a re- 

 turn -from it, the undergrowth was brushed, and the trees cut down 

 about a yard from the ground, and the timber not required for com- 

 mercial purposes burnt on the spot. The stumps were thus left stand- 

 ing, dead and naked, to encumber the soil with their roots. This plan 

 of clearing was largely persevered in where the settlers had to tind 

 their own labor and capital. 



Agricultural operations were long conducted in the roughest style 

 and with the rudest instruments, such as the hoe and reaping hook. 

 On this half cleared land ploughing was a difficult process, owing to 

 stumps, stones, and roots. Wooden ploughs answered the best, drawn 

 by a team of bullocks. Threshing was done by flails, and the maize 

 was shelled by hand. The land was enclosed by log -fences for years 

 before post and rail fencing came into use. These enclosures had 

 not that ornamental appearance that our British visitors had been 

 accustomed to see in Great Britain or Ireland ; but nevertheless there 

 we're good neighbours on either side of those crude brush fences in 

 those days. 



Since the clearing of these lands a gradual decrease in fertility has 

 been going on, owing to its surface being exposed to the wasting 

 effects of heavy downpours of rain, floods, droughts, winds, and other 

 local causes, the soil in some instances being so much impoverished 

 as to yield only pasture for grazing purposes, whereas other site-, 

 which receive the drift and diluvium carried from the former, are 

 rich lands especially applicable to cultivation. 



For years after the opening up of these coastal lands, wheat growing 

 was one of the most important articles of agriculture. In proof of 

 this one need only mention that there were quite a number of flour 

 mills on the South Coast between Bulli and the Shoalhaven. Prior 

 to the forties ; ' wind power mills" were in use, and although these 

 mills, were fitted up so as to produce excellent flour, there was not 

 sufficient constant winds to give satisfaction. Therefore Messrs. Peck 

 and Palmer erected a mill on Para Creek, near Wollongong ; Mr. 

 George Brown followed first with wind power and afterwards with 

 steam power at Dapto; and this advance was .followed up by Messrs. 

 Osborne and Graham in Wollongong. As has been mentioned Cap- 

 tain Hart's mill was working at Jamberoo. A Mr. Blay. who was an 

 engineer at Hart's mill, erected a windmill on Griffith's Hill. Kiuma. for 

 Mr. Owen, and worked it for a few years, but, becoming dissatisfied 

 with the wind, he erected a steam flour mill at what is now known as 

 Tanner's Creek. Later on Mr. John Sharpe erected the Bushbank 

 mill, and after working it successfully for a time erected another mill 

 in the town o-f Kiama. During all these years maize, oats, barley, rye. 



184. 



