South Australia and Western Australia

by Anthony Trollope

I must first explain that South Australia is a country peculiarly subject to drought,—more so than are the other colonies,—and is especially so subject in the interior. This is a fact so well acknowledged, that all who know the colony are aware that wheat can only be grown in certain parts of it. In order that the government might have some guide to tell it what portions of the land it would be expedient to throw open to agriculturists, and from what portions it would be expedient to exclude them as being unfit for agricultural purposes, a line has been drawn. The surveyor-general, Mr. Goyder, has drawn an arbitrary line across the map of South Australia, which is now known as Goyder’s line of rainfall. It is anything but a straight line. It runs from a point on the eastern confines of the colony somewhat south of the city of Adelaide, in a direction north-west nearly as high as to the top of Spencer’s Gulf. Then with irregular curves it comes south half-way down the Gulf, which it crosses below Moonta and Wallaroo, and then runs north by east till it loses itself in unknown deserts. North of this line, or rather beyond it, no farmer should locate himself. South of this, or within it, he may expect sufficient rain to produce wheat. Of course Mr. Goyder gives no guarantee as to precise accuracy, but I found it to be admitted in the colony that the line had been drawn with skill and truth. North again of the dry and rainless region is a tropical country, which is subject to the usual conditions of tropical latitudes;—but on that Mr. Goyder’s line has no bearing, and of that district I shall not speak in attempting to describe the agricultural condition of South Australia as now existing. All land within Goyder’s line not hitherto sold, will, by the proposed law, which is called the “Waste Land Alienation Act,” be opened to purchase, and on that land would-be farmers in South Australia are invited to locate themselves. The lands will be thrown open to selection, and will be purchasable on a credit of sixteen years, at an interest which is computed to amount to 3⅗ per cent. per annum for that term. The settlement of the price to be paid will be in this wise:—The government will fix the upset price of all the areas offered for sale at what is supposed to be the present maximum value of the best land in the area,—which, for the sake of illustration, we may call £2 an acre. I was informed that £2 an acre is in fact the price at which the majority of the land will probably be first offered. It will then be in the power of any would-be purchaser to take it at that price. If there be no such purchaser, the commissioner of lands will, on the part of the government, reduce his demand by 5s. to 35s., and then to 30s., then to 25s., and if necessary to 20s.,—at intervals of perhaps a fortnight. Below 20s. an acre the price will not be reduced. According to the nature of the land will be the desire of purchasers to buy it at 40s.; or to wait till it be offered at 30s. or at 20s. It is impossible not to see that even this plan is open to the machinations of “land agents;”—land sharks, I have heard them sometimes uncourteously called. The land agent, whose special business it is to know who are disposed to buy this or that section of land, will offer to renounce his own intention of buying, we will say at 30s., on receiving 1s. or 1s. 6d. an acre on completing the purchase for his victim at 25s. The victim will feel himself obliged to pay the black-mail, as hundreds of victims have done, and the land shark,—I hope he will excuse my discourtesy,—will receive a very large payment, for which he will perform no service whatever.

And the payment of the money is to be arranged in this wise. On making his application for the land, at any fixed price,—say 30s. an acre,—the applicant will pay into the Treasury 10s. per cent. on the whole purchase-money. Presuming the land in question to be 200 acres in extent, the price would be £300, and he would pay down £30 as interest in advance for three years;—and would then be allowed to go in upon the land, and occupy it. He must effect certain improvements, and cultivate a certain portion, and must either live on it himself or by deputy. If he have not done so at the end of three years, he forfeits his £30. If he have done so, he pays another £30, and goes on for another three years. These payments are in place of interest, so that at the end of the six years he will have paid no part of the principal. He may then pay the whole principal, if he has it, and the land will be his; or he may postpone the payment for ten years, paying 2s. each year for each pound of the purchase-money, with interest at the rate of 4 per cent. for the further credit given. The payment for these last ten years would average something under £40 per annum, but would recur yearly. The purchaser of the 200 acres would thus pay £30 as advance rent on entrance; £30 again as advanced rent after three years; a rental of £40 a year annually for ten years further; and then the freehold would be his own.

The selecter may buy under this bill any amount from 1 acre up to 640 acres;—but in cases in which the land lies untowardly for division into exactly 640 acres, he may select as much as 700. If he should attempt to select more, to make applications in other names, or to defraud the land commissioner as land commissioners have been defrauded in all the colonies since the alienation of public lands commenced, terrible is to be the example made of that would-be free-selecter. All the money advanced by him for first payment or payments will be forfeited to the Crown.

The new land bill which I have attempted to describe does not vary very much from that now in operation. Its chief objects are, perhaps, to extend the area of land opened for selection, and to obviate the existing necessity of personal residence. No doubt the proposed terms are somewhat easier than the present to the proposed selecter. I think, however, it is obvious that the terms offered are such as should be attractive to men with small capitals, who are able to work with their own hands. To such I say again, that the South Australian “cockatoo,” though he be a cockatoo, is an independent man, living on his own freehold in plenty, and knowing no master.

On the other hand, I would not advise farmers to try South Australia with the intention of having their work done for them by paid labourers. Wheat at 5s. 4d. a bushel will not pay for labour at the rate of 22s. a week, which may be quoted as about the rate at which rural labour may be obtained. When it is wanted throughout the year, as it would be wanted by any grower of wheat intending to farm his land as land is farmed at home, the labourer is paid about £40 per annum, and also receives his diet, which is worth to the farmer about £18 per annum, making a total of £58 per annum. Twenty-two shillings a week throughout the year amounts to £57 15s. per annum. No doubt the South Australian free-selecter does pay something in wages during his harvest, unless he be specially blessed in the matter of sons who can work; but he pays wages at no other time, and then the demand is higher,—rising probably to 5s. a day, or 4s. with diet. For this expenditure he provides himself by wages earned by himself in the manner I have already explained.

In writing of the agricultural products of South Australia, I should be wrong not to mention the vineyards of the colony. On 31st December, 1871, there were 5,823 acres under vines, which during that year had produced 896,000 gallons of wine, being at the rate of 154 gallons to the acre. I was informed that South Australia produces more wine than any other colony, but have no figures by me which would enable me to test the accuracy of the information. There can be no doubt that the climate is admirably suited for the growth of the grape, but the cultivation of it has not hitherto proved to be remunerative. It seems, indeed, to be retrograding. In the year ended 31st March, 1871, there were 6,127 acres bearing vines. In the subsequent year the number had been reduced to 5,823,—from which it appears that 304 acres of vineyard had been grubbed up.

I cannot say that I liked the South Australian wines. They seemed to me to be heady, and were certainly unpalatable. I came across none that I thought comparable to the Victorian wine of the country made at Yering. I was told that I was prejudiced, and that my taste had been formed on brandied wines, suited to the English market. It may be so;—but, if so, the brandied wines suited to the English market not only suit my palate, but do not seem to threaten that a second or third glass will make me tipsy. The South Australian wines had a heaviness about them,—which made me afraid of them even when I would have willingly sacrificed my palate to please a host.

It must, however, be borne in mind that the making of wine is an art which, as far as we know, has not been learned quickly in any country. The perfection to which Spanish, German, and French wines are now brought, has probably come as much from observation and experience as from the peculiarity of soils or climate. There are many who believe that Italian, Greek, and Hungarian wines will soon rival those of France. If so, the wines of Australia and the United States will probably do the same, when the cultivation and manufacture shall have been long enough in existence for experience and skill to have been created.

In the meantime the one thing desirable in reference to Australian wines, is that the people of the country should drink the produce of the country, not only because it is wholesome, but also because it is cheap. The usual drink now consumed at public-houses is brandy,—so called,—which is a villanous, vitriolic, biting compound of deadly intoxicating qualities, and is sold at 6d. the glass. Though I found the South Australian wine to be “heady,”—drinking it after the fashion in which wine is drunk,—it is a beverage absolutely innocent in comparison with the spirits which the publicans sell; and it can be sold with profit at 2d. a glass,—the glass being a small, false-bottomed tumbler, about as big as an ordinary claret-glass at home. The wine can be sold by the grower fit for use at 2s. 6d. a gallon, and the gallon in the hands of the publican would run to twenty-five “nobblers” of wine. This would give a profit satisfactory, we may suppose, even to an Australian publican. A nobbler is the proper colonial phrase for a drink at a public-house. It would be very desirable that the men of the country should acquire a taste for drinking their own produce. As men have done so in all vine-growing countries, they will probably do so in South Australia, and when that time shall come the growing of grapes will be profitable.

Already the acreage under vines is very large. It must be remembered that grape-growing,—as is also hop-growing,—is an agricultural pursuit requiring great capital, and that the produce from the acre is very large. A grower with a hundred acres of vines on his hands has probably as great a stake in his vineyard as a farmer with a thousand acres of wheat has in his farm. In South Australia the acreage under vines exceeded that devoted to gardens, orchards, potatoes, lucerne, or artificial grasses. I annex a table, showing the number of acres under cultivation in South Australia in the year ended 31st March, 1871, with the number devoted to each class of growth,—premising with reference to the second mention of wheat, that cereals throughout all the colonies are grown for forage for cattle. They are cut green, and made into hay, and then stacked.