Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-30T15:51:14.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wire Fences in Colonial Australia: Technology Transfer and Adaptation, 1842–1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2010

JOHN PICKARD
JOHN PICKARD*
Affiliation:
Department of Environment and Geography, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia Email: john.pickard@bigpord.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

After reviewing the development of wire fencing in Great Britain and the United States of America in the early nineteenth century, I examine the introduction of wire into Australia using published sources only. Wire was available in the colonies from the early 1850s. The earliest published record of a wire fence was on Phillip Island near Melbourne (Victoria) in 1842. Almost a decade passed before wire was used elsewhere in Victoria and the other eastern colonies. Pastoralists either sought information on wire fences locally or from agents in Britain. Local agents of British companies advertised in colonial newspapers from the early 1850s, with one exceptional record in 1839. Once wire was adopted, pastoralists rejected iron posts used in Britain, preferring cheaper wood posts cut from the property. The most significant innovation was to increase post spacings with significant cost savings. Government and the iron industry played no part in these innovations, which were achieved through trial-and-error by pastoralists. The large tonnages of wire imported into Australia and the increasing demand did not stimulate local production of wire, and there were no local wire mills until 1911.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , April 2010 , pp. 27 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

‘A land owner’ [Joseph Wimpey]. 1775. Rural Improvements; or, Essays on the Most Rational Methods of Improving Estates: Accomodated to the Soil, Climate, and Circumstances of England (London).Google Scholar
‘A Lincolnshire Grazier’ [T. H. Horne]. 1805. The Complete Grazier or Farmer's and Cattle-Breeder and Dealer's Assistant (London).Google Scholar
Anderson, V. D. 2004. Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America (Oxford).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anon. 1851. ‘California’ [‘Wire Fences’], Courier (Hobart), 25th June 1851, 2.Google Scholar
Anon. 1867. [‘Fencing as Applied to Sheep-Farming’], The Brisbane Courier, 13th December 1867, 2.Google Scholar
Anon. 1868. [‘Fencing on the Peak Downs’], The Brisbane Courier, 18th July 1868, 5.Google Scholar
Anon, 1897. ‘An Experiment in dry country’, The Australasian Pastoralists’ Review, 16th August 1897, 295–6.Google Scholar
Anon. 1911. ‘Pastoral Celebrity. Mr. Chas. W. Lloyd’, The Pastoral Review and Graziers’ Record, 15th June 1911, 385.Google Scholar
Bassett, M. 1954. The Hentys: An Australian Colonial Tapestry (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Bell, P. 1996. ‘Edward Pitts and The Levels Estate’, Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 24, 102–18.Google Scholar
Blainey, G. 1964. ‘Technology in Australian History’, Business Archives and History, 5, 117–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowes, K. R. 1963. ‘Land Settlement in South Australia 1857–1890’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Department of History, Australian National University, Canberra).Google Scholar
Brown, P. L. ed. 1935. The Narrative of George Russell of Golf Hill with Russellania and Selected Papers (London).Google Scholar
Brown, P. L. ed. 1963. Clyde Company Papers. 5 1851–3 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Brown, P. L. ed. 1968. Clyde Company Papers. 6 1854–8 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Burbury, A. W. 1939. Chronicles of the Burbury Family in Tasmania and England with Memories of Methods, Conditions and Individuals in the Early Days of the Midlands. http://www.vision.net.au/~dburbury/burbury/index.html?transcrp/chronicl.html&2 accessed 11th February 2009.Google Scholar
Butlin, N. G. 1962. ‘The Growth of Rural Capital, 1860–1890’ in Barnard, A. ed., The Simple Fleece: Studies in the Australian Wool Industry (Parkville), pp. 322–39.Google Scholar
Buxton, G. L. 1967. The Riverina 1861–1891: An Australian Regional Study (Carlton).Google Scholar
Buxton, T. F. P. 1981. ‘Fencing’ in Anon, ed., The Countryman Farm Handbook (Perth) pp. 47–60.Google Scholar
‘Camden’. 1906. ‘Fencing’, The Pastoralists’ Review, 15th November 1906, 776–7.Google Scholar
Campbell, R. O. and Allison, V. L. 1986. Barriers: An Encyclopedia of United States Barbed Fence Patents (Denver).Google Scholar
Cannon, M. 1973. Life in the Country: Australia in the Victorian Age: 2 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Capron, H. 1856–7. ‘Wire Fences’, Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, 2, 425–32.Google Scholar
Charles, D. Young and Company. 1847a. Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Iron and Wire Work (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Charles D. Young and Company. 1847b. Invisible Wire Fencing for Inclosing Parks, Lawns, Shrubberies and Ornamental Walks (Westminster).Google Scholar
Charles D. Young and Company. [1848]. A Short Treatise on the System of Wire Fencing, in its Various Forms, as Applicable to Railway Purposes, together with a Description of Simultaneous Acting Iron Gates for Railway Level Crossings (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Charles D. Young and Company. [post-1851]. Description (with Illustrations) of Iron and Wire Fences, Gates, etc. etc. adapted specially for Australia, Invented and Manufactured by Charles D. Young and Company (London).Google Scholar
Cockburn, R. 1927. Pastoral Pioneers of South Australia. Volume II (Adelaide).Google Scholar
Coghlan, T. A. 1887. The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales 1886–87 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Danhof, C. H. 1944. ‘The Fencing Problem in the Eighteen-Fifties’, Agricultural History 18:4, 168–86.Google Scholar
de Satgé, O. 1901. Pages from the Journal of a Queensland Squatter (London).Google Scholar
Donaldson, R. 1932. Life and Reminiscences of Robert Donaldson in his Eighty-Third Year. Unpublished 39 pp. manuscript, Central Queensland University Library MS R20/2005 3.Google Scholar
Erskine, W. 1790. ‘On a New Method of Fencing’, Annals of Agriculture and Other Useful Arts, 13, 482–9.Google Scholar
Farwell, G. 1974. Squatter's Castle: The Story of a Pastoral Dynasty: Life and Times of Edward David Stewart Ogilvie 1814–96 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Fetherstonhaugh, C. 1917. After Many Days. Being the Reminiscences of Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Fisher, J. R. and Smith, A. 1978. International Competition in the Australian Wire Market, 1880–1914. Research Report No. 45, Department of Economics, University of Newcastle, Newcastle.Google Scholar
Fyfe, C. 1983. The Bale Fillers: Western Australian Wool 1826 -1916 (Nedlands).Google Scholar
Glidden, J. F. 1874. ‘Specification for Patent 157,124: Improvement in wire-fences’, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Washington.Google Scholar
Gordon, P. R. 1865. ‘Sheep Farming’, The Brisbane Courier, 5th December 1865, 4; 6th December 1865, 3–4; 7th December 1865, 3.Google Scholar
Gordon, P. R. 1867. Fencing as a Means of Improving our Pasture Lands and its Advantages to the Stock-Owners and the Colony, with Suggestions for a Fencing Bill, and the Improvement of Pasture by Means of Sapping (Sydney).Google Scholar
Gregson, J. 1907. The Australian Agricultural Company 1824–1875 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Hawker, F. and Linn, R. 1992. Bungaree: Land, Stock and People (Adelaide).Google Scholar
Hayter, E. W. 1939. ‘Barbed Wire Fencing - A Prairie Invention: Its Rise and Influence in the Western States’, Agricultural History, 39, 189–207.Google Scholar
Hewes, L. 1981. ‘Early Fencing on the Western Margin of the Prairie’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 71, 499–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill and Smith Brierley Hill Ironworks. 1894. Illustrated Catalogue of Patent Continuous Iron Fencing, Strained Wire Fencing, Hurdles, Gates, &c., Applicable to the Improvement of Landed Property, Farm Buildings, etc, etc. (Dudley).Google Scholar
House of Commons Select Committee to Inquire into the State of Communication by Railways. 1839. Second Report, Minutes of Evidence, Appendix, Index. House of Commons Paper 517 (London).Google Scholar
Hodskinson, J. 1794. Plain and Useful Instructions to Farmers: or, An Improved Method of Management of Arable Land; with some Hints upon Drainage, Fences, and the Improvement of Turnpike and Cross Roads. Addressed to Country Gentlemen and Farmers in General (London).Google Scholar
Jervis, J. 1952. ‘The Western Riverina: A History of its Development’, Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 38:1, 1–30.Google Scholar
Joyce, A. ed. 1949. A Homestead History, being the Reminiscences and Letters of Alfred Joyce of Plaistow and Norwood, Port Phillip, 1834–1864 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
‘Jumbuck’ [P.R. Gordon]. 1868. ‘Fencing’, The Brisbane Courier, 27th September 1868, 7; 10th October 1868, 6; 17th October 1868, 6; 7th November 1868, 7; 21st November 1868, 6.Google Scholar
Kelly, J. H. 1949. Investigation of Stock Losses in Northern Australia, on Behalf of North Australian Development Committee. Reconnaissance Survey of Northern Territory Cattle Holdings: Interim Report on Investigations (Canberra).Google Scholar
Kerr, J. S. 1987. ‘A Brief Account of the Development of Fencing in Australia during the Nineteenth Century’ in Birmingham, J. and Bairstow, D. eds. Papers in Australian Historical Archaeology (Sydney), pp. 129–36.Google Scholar
Krell, A. 2002. The Devil's Rope: A Cultural History of Barbed Wire (London).Google Scholar
Lancelott, F. 1852. Australia As It Is: Its Settlements, Farms and Gold Fields (London). Volume 1.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. 1922. Fought and Won (Adelaide).Google Scholar
Loudon, J. C. 1822. An Encyclopaedia of Gardening: Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening, including all the Latest Improvements: A General History of Gardening in all Countries; and a Statistical View of its Present State, with Suggestions for its Future Progress, in the British Isles (London).Google Scholar
Mac.Smith, B. 1972. Quench not the Spirit. Merino Heritage (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Martin, G. A. 1892. Fences, Gates and Bridges: A Practical Manual (New York).Google Scholar
Meinig, D. W. 1988. On the Margins of the Good Earth. The South Australian Wheat Frontier 1869–1884 (Netley).Google Scholar
Munro, A. B. 1850. ‘Notes on Wire-Fencing’, Journal of Agriculture, New Series, July 1850, 426–8.Google Scholar
Ogilvy, T. 1875. ‘On a New System of Wire Fencing’, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, 7 (4th series), 269–77.Google Scholar
‘Our Adelaide Correspondent’. 1916. ‘Fences. Opinion of Mr. Peter Waite’, The Pastoral Review and Graziers’ Record, 16th June 1916, 534.Google Scholar
‘Our Own Reporter’. 1865. ‘Queensland's First Railway Trip’, The Brisbane Courier, 24th April 1865, 2.Google Scholar
Palmer, H. 1961. Fencing Australia (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Peel, L. J. 1996. The Henty Journals. A Record of Farming, Whaling and Shipping at Portland Bay 1834–1839 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Pickard, J. 1994. ‘Do Old Survey Plans Help Us Discover What Happened to Western New South Wales when Europeans Arrived?’ in Lunney, D., Hand, S., Reed, P. and Butcher, D. eds. Future of the Fauna of Western New South Wales. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (Mosman), pp. 65–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, J. 1998. ‘Trespass, Common Law, Government Regulations, and Fences in Colonial New South Wales, 1788–1828’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 84:2, 130–9.Google Scholar
Pickard, J. 1999. ‘The First Fences: Fencing the Colony of New South Wales, 1788–1823’, Agricultural History, 73, 46–69.Google ScholarPubMed
Pickard, J. 2005. ‘Post and Rail Fences: Derivation, Development and Demise of Rural Technology on Colonial Australia’, Agricultural History, 79, 27–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, J. 2007. ‘The Transition from Shepherding to Fencing in Colonial Australia’, Rural History, 18:2, 143–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, J. 2008. ‘Shepherding in Colonial Australia’, Rural History 19: 1, 55–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, J. 2009. Illustrated Glossary of Australian Rural Fence Terms, Heritage Branch, New South Wales Department of Planning, Sydney. URL: http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/03_index.htm#G-I accessed 30th August 2009.Google Scholar
Piesse, R. L. 1960. ‘Recalling the Past: Fencing in the 1840s’, The Pastoral Review and Graziers’ Record, 70 (16th December 1960), 1363–5.Google Scholar
Primack, M. L. 1969. ‘Farm Fencing in the Nineteenth Century’, Journal of Economic History, 29, 287–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raby, G. 1996. Making Rural Australia: An Economic History of Technical and Institutional Creativity, 1788 – 1860 (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Robertson, J. R. 1964. ‘Equipping a Pastoral Property: Warrah, 1861–1875’, Business Archives and History, 4, 23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolls, E. C. 1984. A Million Wild Acres (Ringwood).Google Scholar
Schedvin, C. B. 1970. ‘Rabbits and Industrial Development: Lysaght Brothers and Company Pty Ltd, 1884 to 1929’, Australian Economic History Review, 10:1, 27–55.Google Scholar
Skinner, D. 2006. A Brief Biography of Rev. John Baptist Austin, John Baptist Austin the younger, Edward Austin, Henry Howard Austin, Henry Lashbrooke Austin junior. Unpublished manuscript held in State Library of South Australia (D Piece (Archival) D7958 (T)).Google Scholar
Smith, J. B. 1891. A Treatise upon Wire, its Manufacture and Uses, Embracing Comprehensive Descriptions of the Constructions and Applications of Wire Ropes (New York).Google Scholar
Stephens, H. 1844. The Book of the Farm: Detailing the Labours of the Farmer, Farm-Steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Cattle-Man, Field-Worker, and Dairy-Maid (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Stephens, H. 1855. The Book of the Farm (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Stephens, H. 1877. The Book of the Farm: Detailing the Labours of the Farmer, Farm-Steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Farm-Labourer, Field-Worker, and Cattleman (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Stephens, H. 1891. The Book of the Farm: Detailing the Labours of the Farmer, Farm-Steward, Ploughman, Shepherd, Hedger, Farm-Labourer, Field-Worker and Cattle-Man 4th edition, revised by James MacDonald (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Stephens, H. 1908. Stephens’ Book of the Farm: Dealing Exhaustively with every Branch of Agriculture 5th edition, revised by James MacDonald (Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Stephens, J. 1839. The Land of Promise: Being an Authentic and Impartial History of the Rise and Progress of the new British Province of South Australia: Including Particulars Descriptive of its Soil, Climate, Natural Productions, &c., and Proofs of its Superiority to all other British Colonies, Embracing also a Full Account of the South Australian Company with Hints to Various Classes of Emigrants and Numerous Letters from Settlers concerning Wages, Provisions, their Satisfaction with the Colony, &c / by One who is Going (London) Facsimile edition, Libraries Board of South Australia, Adelaide 1962.Google Scholar
Thornton, W. W. 1892. The Law of Railroad Fences and Private Crossings: Including Injuries to Animals on Right of Way caused by Negligence (Indianapolis).Google Scholar
Todd, J. 1995. Colonial Technology: Science and the Transfer of Innovation to Australia (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Vernon, A. 1909. Estate Fences: Their Choice, Construction and Cost (London).Google Scholar
Walker, J. 1988. Jondaryan Station: The Relationship between Pastoral Capital and Pastoral Labour (St Lucia).Google Scholar
Warder, J. A. 1858. Hedges and Evergreens: A Complete Manual for the Cultivation, Pruning, and Management of all Plants Suitable for American Hedging; Especially the Maclura, or Osage Orange. Fully Illustrated with Engravings of Plants, Implements, and Processes. To which is added, A Treatise on Evergreens; Their Different Varieties - their Propagation, Transplanting, and Culture in the United States (New York).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company. 1882. The Fence Problem in the United States, as Related to General Husbandry and Sheep Raising. Facts and Statistics from Authoritative Sources, with a View of Fence Laws and Customs (Worcester).Google Scholar
Waterson, D. B. 1968. Squatter, Selector and Storekeeper: A History of the Darling Downs 1859–93 (Sydney).Google Scholar
Wilson, E. 1849. The Squatters’ Directory, Containing a List of all the Occupants of Crown Lands, in the Intermediate and Unsettled Districts of Port Phillip, the Names, Estimated Areas, and Grazing Capabilities of their Respective Runs, with the Commissioner's Districts in which they are Situated; Compiled from the Government Gazette, and Arranged Alphabetically (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Winslade, S. 1994. ‘Wire-Fencing Investment in Eastern Australia: 1858–1914’, Australian Economic History Review, 34 (1st March), 22–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wymond, A. P. 1954. A Survey of Fencing Practice in Australia in 1953 (First report) (Melbourne).Google Scholar
Young, J. D. 1850. ‘On Wire Fences’, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, New Series 1 (March), 244–62.Google Scholar