2.2 Historical periods
2.2.1 The First Sixty Years (1829–89) and The Move Forward (1889–1929)
For the first sixty years of the WA colony’s history, pastoral activities were developed ahead of agriculture and only 28 000 hectares were developed for cropping by the 1880s. This figure rose to 5.8 million hectares by 1929, the end of the period labelled The Move Forward. After the discovery of gold in Western Australia in the 1880s and the establishment of responsible govern- ment in 1890, the WA Government saw a need to diversify the economy through the development of an agricultural industry. The WA Government was proactive in financing and establishing the necessary infrastructure to encourage farming, including land subdivision and railways. Generally the railways were constructed along the valley floors and consequently the land adjacent to the railways was cleared for agriculture first (Frost and Burnside,
DateInfluential events & FactorsFederal Government ReportsFederal Government ActionsWA State Government Reports 1889–1920sWind erosion 1930s–1940sWind and water erosion severe and widespread nationally and in the USA Soil Conservation Act 1938 Standing Committee on Soil Conservation established 1946
Enquiry into Soil Erosion Soil Erosion Committee established 1936 1950s–1960sPro-development ethos, extensive clearingLittle interest in soil and natural resource policy at Federal or State level 1970sWidespread land degradation following the pro-development years Conservationist ethos
Study of Community Benefits of and Finance for Soil Conservation (Standing Committee on Soil Conservation 1971) A Basis for Soil Conservation Policy (Dept of Environment, Housing and Community Development, 1978)1980sSoil and water salinity Australian Conservation Foundation and National Farmers Federation joint action (1988)Review of soil conservation legislation in Australia (Bradsen, 1988)
National Soil Conservation Program (1983) Fig.2.1.Influentialeventsandfactorsinthehistoryandpolicyofnaturalresourcesrelatingtoagriculture1889–2005. (Continuedonnextpage)
1990sConservationist ethos strengthened to include ESD The Earth Summit (1992) Biodiversity National Land & Water Resources Audit 1997–2002 Industry Commission Report (1998) National Landcare Program Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation established (1990) (Land and Water Australia) Intergovernmental Agreement on the Environment (1992) National Strategy on ESD National Dryland Salinity Program phase 1 (1993–8) Natural Heritage Trust (I) (1997–2002) National Dryland Salinity Program Phase 2 (1998–2003)
Select Committee into Land Conservation (1990–1) Review of natural resource manage- ment & viability of agriculture legislation (1996–7) 2000s 2005
Markets for ecosystem services
National Action Plan (NAP) for Salinity and Water Quality (2000) Native Vegetation Management Policy (2001) Natural Heritage Trust (II) (2002–07) National Market-Based Instruments Pilots Program Natural Heritage Trust (II ext) (2007–8)
Salinity Taskforce Report (2001) Fig.2.1.(cont.)
2001). The proclamation of the Homesteads Act 1893 and the Land Act 1898 were the first statutes involved in the allocation of land for agriculture. These set out the concessions and conditions for obtaining farmland, enabled land use planning and accelerated the rates of land released for agriculture. In these early days lack of infrastructure was a major impediment to agricultural devel- opment, a situation which the Government attempted to address. Much of the available finance of the WA Government was consumed in the construction of the Eastern Railway, from Fremantle to York, and so when the potential for agriculture was recognised in the south of the State, the capital to construct the Great Southern Railway was raised in London by Sir Anthony Horden, a wealthy New South Wales businessman, by floating a private consortium, the West Australian Land Company (the Company) (Burke, 1991). The Company was granted almost three million acres of land by the Crown in exchange for building the railway that ran from Albany in the south to Beverley where it joined the Eastern Railway. However, unable to attract immigrants and unable to sell the land for development, the Company got into financial difficulty and the WA Government was forced to raise capital to buy back the land it had granted to the Company. The WA Government issued inscribed stock in London in 1896 for 1.1 million pounds sterling (Burke, 1991). Burke (1991) contended that the loans policy and debt contributed to the great hardships suffered by the early settlers.
The first WA Government report on agriculture was released in 1891 (Western Australian Commission on Agriculture, 1891). It documented the extent of crop- ping and identified soil capability in potential areas examined for agriculture.
This report noted that there were extensive tracts of sand plain and ironstone country that were useless for farming and intersected the good soil in the areas in and around Perth as far as Williams in the south-east, and Albany in the south and New Norcia in the north (Figure 1.1). Since this first agricultural report, there has been a plethora of reports and scientific advice to Government containing similar warnings of the limited agricultural potential of many areas and the potentially detrimental effects of agricultural practices to natural resources.
Agriculture faced many problems throughout its history, two of which were vermin and drought. In the young life of the colony of Western Australia the threat of rabbits led to a Royal Commission as early as 1901, which resulted in the first statutory requirement for landowners to control vertebrate pests, the Vermin Boards Act 1909, and also in the building of the No. 1 and No. 2 Rabbit Proof Fences in an attempt to control the expansion in area of rabbits. These attempts were unsuccessful as rabbits were already west of the fence lines.
Again in 1916 a Royal Commission was appointed to review agricul- ture (Royal Commission on the Agricultural Industries of Western Australia,
1917) and the agricultural potential of the mallee lands in the south-east of Western Australia (Royal Commission on the Agricultural Industries of Western Australia, 1918). Following this review a map was prepared defining the area considered to be the safe rainfall limit for growing wheat. This line became known as the Brockman Line after the Surveyor-General F. S.
Brockman and is shown in Figure 1.1 (Burvill, 1979). Even then agriculture extended beyond this line, causing concern for the long-term viability of agriculture in these areas. In addition, these two reports identified a number of other ecological and social factors that were considered to be problems.
For example, the Royal Commission (Royal Commission on the Agricultural Industries of Western Australia, 1917) was critical of a lack of institutional and regulatory frameworks for agriculture, based on the fact that farmers failed to repay loans, and the failure of the Western Australian Government to provide adequate supervision of and support to farmers. Soil salinity was already apparent in the mallee region but was discounted as a concern in the report of 1918 (Royal Commission on the Agricultural Industries of Western Australia, 1918). However, within another 10 years soil salinity was shown again to be a problem in certain soil types.
Soldier settlement schemes in the years following the First World War (and later the Second World War) were responsible for large-scale land allocation for agriculture. Western Australia set aside 5.67 million hectares for over 5000 returned servicemen on blocks of land often too small and unproductive to support a family. Many of these were subsequently restructured by farm amalgamation. The rates of land clearing between 1890 and 2001 are shown in Figure 2.2. On average approximately 164 500 hectares a year were cleared, although the rates varied in response to a number of factors identified in the following sections.