Pastoralism

Article | Updated 7 years ago

Photographer Ric How, Western Australian Museum
Goldfields Soil

The Land of the Golden Fleece

Pastoral leases were taken up in and around the goldfields region from the late 1890s.

Some early pastoralists were miners, others sought to sell fresh meat and milk to a growing goldfields population. Some walked their cattle from north and south western Australia. Others, like the Halford family in 1903-4, walked across the Nullabor Plain from drought stricken South Australia.

In the 1920s the pastoral industry boomed with the arrival of investors from the east of Australia. Many cattle stations were converted to sheep stations.  Homesteads and shearing sheds were constructed, along with many hundreds of kilometres of dog proof fencing.

The mining boom of 1969/70 led to labour scarcity for pastoralists.  Mining leases were pegged on pastoral land and many pastoralists complained of the impacts.  The viability of pastoralism began to be questioned.

Sheep numbers have declined since the mid 1990s due to low wool prices and drought. Some leases are now held by mining companies while others are managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation for nature conservation. Environmental management today is dealing with issues such as degradation caused by overgrazing and feral animals including goats, wild dogs and camels.

Goldfields Soil
Image copyright WA Museum

The introduction of sheep, goats and cattle to the extensive Mulga woodlands, with their understorey of grasses, damaged the structure of their fragile loamy soils. These cloven footed mammals broke through the soil surface with its covering of algae, lichen, fungi and mosses (cryptogams) resulting in extensive soil erosion during periods of heavy rainfall. The cryptogamic organisms help to stabilise the soil, hold moisture and provide protection for germination of the seeds of other plants.

Goldfields Soil
Goldfields Soil
Image copyright WA Museum