George+Goyder+and+farming+in+SA

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 * **__George Goyder and farming in SA__**
 * Goyder was Surveyor general in 1860s. He was asked to create a line of demarcation between good and poor cropping land. Line went between tree vegetation and saltbush/bluebush. In 1865, a drought year, Goyder was instructed to travel from the Murray up towards Port Augusta and back “to determine and lay down on a map the line of demarcation” between drought areas and those where rainfall had extended.


 * This was called Goyder’s line. Goyder mentioned that even inside the line there was a dangerous area unsafe for the plough. Outside the line, until the 1860s, most pastoral land was leasehold. (Sheep eat saltbush. But overstocking ruined the land especially in drought years.) 1864-5 Goyder had to revalue the land outside the line and he told the government to put up rents of wealthy pastoralists or make them buy their land.


 * Eighty acres were not enough in areas close to Adelaide to support a family. (They had not feritlised the land, either.) That is why there are many ruined farmhouses in areas even fairly close to Adelaide. As farmers moved away from Adelaide, the Mallee was opened up and had good years in 1872-3. Good rain and virgin soil gave good crops. People thought of doing away with Goyder’s line and opened up land out on the peninsulas and the Murray flats, saying “rain follows the plough”. Farmers buying farms turned many leasehold pastoralists off their land. In the 1870s there were good rains. Wheat was grown north of Blinman. Farina between Leigh Creek and Marree was so-named because of the wheat crops grown there. Quorn was established in 1878 with a big flour mill.


 * Clearing the mallee was hard work because of the mallee stumps. In 1876 a stump-jump plough was designed by the Smith Brothers of Yorke Peninsula. But in 1880-81, 1882-83 a huge drought hit South Australia. Farmers had problems of wheat diseases like rust. They simply walked offtheir land. That is why South Australia has ghost towns like Whyte Yarcowie.


 * To overcome the disease problems research was needed. Roseworthy Agricultural College was founded in 1882. Professor Custance of Roseworthy advocated the use of super-phosphate. Use of the fertiliser was slow to start with but mextended cropping once more into risky areas. Overworking the land caused erosion. The land was also ruined by rabbits, foxes and weeds etc.The year 1914 brought another terrible drought.


 * In spite of these problems, South Australia was the “granary of Australia”.

=George Goyder - biography = From the website Adelaidia

Article about Farina, now a ghost town, where wheat was farmed beyond Goyder's line, with photographs, from "Australian Heritage" Magazine

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