Australia Yearbook - 2001

612 Year Book Australia 2001
§ Land Tenure and Settlement.
First Grants of Land made In New South
Wales, 1787—In the early days of Australian
colonisation, land was alienated by grants and
orders from the Crown, the power of making
such being vested solely in the Governor, under
instructions issued by the Secretary of State.
The first instructions, issued on the 25th April,
1787, authorised the Governor to make grants
only to liberated prisoners. The grant was to be
free from all taxes, rents, fees, and other
acknowledgments for the space of ten years,
and for each unmarried male was not to exceed
thirty acres; in case of a married man twenty
acres more was allowed, and a further quantity
of ten acres for each child living with his or her
parents at the time of making such grant. By
further instructions issued by the Secretary of
State in 1789, the privilege of obtaining grants
was extended to free migrants and to such of
the men belonging to the detachment of
marines serving in New South Wales—which
then included the whole of the eastern part of
Australia—as were desirous of settling in the
colony; the maximum grant was not to exceed
100 acres, and was subject to a quit-rent of one
shilling per annum for every fifty acres, to be
paid within five years of the date of issue. In
many cases these grants were made conditional
upon a certain proportion of the land being
cultivated, or upon certain services being
regularly performed, but these conditions do
not seem to have been enforced.
§ Initiation and Growth of Pastoral
Industry.
Early Statistics—The live stock which Captain
Phillip brought with him when establishing the
first settlement in Australia in 1788 is stated to
have comprised seven horses, six cattle,
twenty-nine sheep, twelve pigs, and a few goats.
Later in the same year, in a letter from Captain
Phillip to Lord Sydney, then Secretary of State
for the Colonies, an enclosure signed by
“Andrew Miller, Commissary’’ sets forth in detail
the numbers of each kind of live stock in the
colony on 1st May, 1788. A summary of the
particulars supplied is as follows :—Horses, 7;
cattle, 7; sheep, 29; pigs, 74; rabbits, 5; turkeys,
18; geese, 29; ducks, 35; fowls, 209. In view of
the depredation since caused by rabbits their
inclusion in this return as part of the live stock
of the Commonwealth is of interest.
Increase in Numbers—Particulars concerning
the numbers of each kind of live stock in the
Commonwealth from 1860 to 1900 at
quinquennial intervals, and thence onwards in
single years, are given in the following table.
During the forty-six years covered by the table,
the live stock of the Commonwealth increased
considerably, horses by 309 per cent., cattle 136
per cent., sheep 316 per cent., and pigs 132 per
cent. The annual increases which these
aggregates represent are as follows:—Horses,
3.11 per cent. per annum; cattle, 1.89 per cent.;
sheep, 3.15 per cent.; and pigs, 1.84 per cent.
COMMONWEALTH LIVE STOCK, 1860 to 1906(a)
Horses Cattle Sheep Pigs
1860 431,525 3,957,915 20,135,286 351,096
1865 566,574 3,724,813 29,539,928 345,704
1870 716,772 4,276,326 41,593,612 543,388
1875 835,393 6,389,610 53,124,209 549,808
1880 1,068,402 7,527,142 62,186,702 815,776
1885 1,143,064 7,397,947 67,491,976 748,908
1890 1,521,588 10,299,913 97,881,221 891,138
1895 1,680,419 11,767,488 90,689,727 822,750
1900 1,609,654 8,640,225 70,602,995 950,349
1901 1,620,420 8,493,678 72,040,211 931,309
1902 1,524,601 7,067,242 53,668,347 777,289
1903 1,546,054 7,254,258 56,932,705 837,368
1904 1,595,256 7,849,520 65,823,918 1,062,703
1905 1,673,805 8,525,025 74,403,704 1,014,853
1906 1,765,186 9,349,409 83,687,655 813,569
(a) In early publications, and in this table, the year shown is the year prior to the one in which the number of livestock was
actually measured (probably because, while measurement was done early in the year in most States, the time of measurement
varied from State to State). From about 1940, publications reported the reference year as the year in which the measurement
was taken, and historical series were amended to reflect this practice. Therefore the years shown in this table are one year earlier
than the equivalent years shown in table 15.35 later in this chapter, which were drawn from Primary Industries Part I—Rural
Industries 1961–62, Bulletin No. 56 (CBCS). The latter table also shows minor revisions to some of the numbers in this table.