|
 This period was marked by land settlement policies that progressively resumed and subdivided large pastoral properties across the region for closer settlement. By the end of the closer settlement period, the majority of large pastoral properties in the eastern and southern parts of the region had been subdivided to enhance their expected productive potential. Agricultural development associated with closer settlement was, however, slower than anticipated by government. New settlers often had little or no agricultural knowledge or capital backing and were further hampered by the fact that farm sizes were too small to provide a living during the frequent droughts.
The “Federation drought” of 1901–02, effectively halved livestock numbers in the Southern Brigalow Belt. Landholders in some areas lost nearly all their stock. In addition to drought, settlers faced environmental constraints in clearing the dominant brigalow ecosystems found on productive clay soils because the species reproduced through suckering after the parent tree was damaged. Attempts to clear brigalow usually resulted in thick regrowth. The most threatening factor, however, was the expansion prickly pear between 1880 and 1934. By the 1890s, prickly pear was found through many of the brigalow forests in the south of the bioregion. The practice of feeding prickly pear to stock in the drought of 1901–02 spread the species into cleared land and by 1926 prickly pear was estimated to infest 12 million ha. Many settlers abandoned their properties as prickly pear invaded. Biological control of prickly pear was effected very rapidly with the successful introduction of the moth, Cactoblastis cactorum, in the late 1920s, and by 1934 prickly pear had ceased to be a problem.
With the control of the prickly pear, development of Brigalow lands began again although efforts were relatively slow due to lack of mechanisation. However, the settlers persevered and by the outbreak of WW II, large blocks of Brigalow around Goondiwindi, Millmerran, Tara, Dalby and Chinchilla in southern Queensland had been cleared mainly by axe, burning and “flogging” by sheep. The dominance of the settlers over the resilient Brigalow had begun.
|
In 1962 The Brigalow and Other Lands Development Act was passed. The Brigalow Development Scheme began was the first closer settlement policy that provided a combination of transport infrastructure, generous financial assistance in the form of interest free loans, and large, economically viable holdings. The majority of settlers were selected through a ballot process and although there was a requirement for previous agricultural experience, most settlers were from outside the region and had little appreciation or understanding of the conditions they were facing in establishing farms on uncleared brigalow land. The Land Act of 1962 increased the length of tenure for all pastoral leases in Queensland and allowed for larger property sizes in areas outside the Brigalow Development Scheme.
Approximately 2 million ha of former large pastoral properties were subdivided in Areas I, IA and II of the Brigalow Development Scheme, with a further 2.4 million ha in the Northern Brigalow Belt. When the Scheme commenced in 1962, there were approximately 635,000 ha out of a total of 960,000 ha of virgin brigalow forests in Areas I and II. Within 5 years, 30% had been cleared in these areas. The intention of the government at this stage was to maintain a minimum of 10% of vegetation on each property in the form of shade lines along fences and this practice was followed initially. However, many shade lines were destroyed in the very hot fires resulting from burning piles of ‘pulled’ brigalow, and clearing evolved
into a practice that typically left little or no remnant vegetation. |
|
Main Reference Source
Seabrook, LM, McAlpine, CA and Fensham, RJ (2006) Cattle, crops and clearing: regional drivers of landscape change in the Brigalow Belt, Queensland Australia, 1840-2004. Landscape and Urban Planning. 78, 373- 385.
Further reading
Bailey, A. (1984) The Brigalow Belt of Australia. Royal Society of Queensland, Brisbane.
Fensham, R.J., Fairfax, R.J., 2003. A land management history for central Queensland, Australia as determined from land-holder questionnaire and aerial photography. Journal of Environmental Management. 68, 409–420.
Gasteen, J., Henry, D. and Page, S. (1985) Agriculture and conservation in inland Queensland: proceedings of the conference "Agriculture and Conservation in Inland Queensland", Dalby Queensland. Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, Brisbane.
Johnson, R. W. (1964), Ecology and control of Brigalow in Queensland, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Brisbane.
Mackenzie, G. 1984. Warrigal- Brigalow battlers in Central Queensland. Gordon Mackenzie, Yeppoon, Queensland.
McKeon, G., Hall, W., Henry, B., Stone, G., Watson, I. (2004) Pasture degradation and recovery in Australia’s rangelands: Learning from History. Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.
Nix, H.A., 1994. The Brigalow. In: Dovers, S. (Ed.), Australian Environmental History: Essays and Cases. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp. 198–233.
|
European settlement in the Brigalow Belt began in 1840 and by 1860 most land was claimed by pastoralists. Pastoralists focused mainly on wool production, with sheep being kept on unfenced properties often larger than 100,000 ha. Wool production was ideally suited fot Britain. It was an important commodity, earning 40–80% of Queensland export revenue from 1860 to 1880. There was a rapid increase in the sheep numbers through the 1860s with a subsequent r the initial phase of settlement, being a valuable export product, non-perishable and in high demand in Greadecline during the 1870s, probably due to overgrazing of palatable grass and the spread north and west of pastoral settlement into neighbouring regions. Cropping was limited to the eastern Darling Downs, where large pastoral properties were subdivided into small agricultural and grazing properties of between 32 and 3110 ha in the 1870s.
