Started as a Farm Labourer.
In the Bushley district, near Rockhampton (Central Queensland), Mr. E. Holland has a splendid farm of about 3,000 acres on Sandy Creek. He states that he started farming with little or no money. Soon after his arrival from England he found employment as a farm labourer, and accepted cattle as payment for his work. A year or so later he took up a 160-acre block at a rental of 2s. 6d. per acre, and then started dairying. As years went by he acquired further areas, and increased his operations to such an extent that he is now one of the most successful settlers in Central Queensland. His dairy herd is made up of grade Shorthorns and a pedigreed Shorthorn bull, and totals 500. On an average 80 cows are milked once a day during the year. The young steers are fattened up and sold to the butchers when about twelve months old. Last year (1913) he sold thirty-six of these at £3 10s. per head. Horses (light draughts and saddle) are also bred. He also finds time for raising Berkshire and Yorkshire pigs. There are 35 acres under cultivation—4 acres lucerne and 31 acres rotation crops—wheat, oats, rye, panicum, &c. Mr. Holland is also a maker of Cheshire cheese of splendid flavour, but his operations in this respect are only on a small scale.