North-West Tasmania 1858-1910 : the establishment of an agricultural community

Abstract

Concerned with the economic decline of the colony, the Tasmanian parliament in 1858 approved legislation intended to settle small farmers in the often fertile but heavily-timbered western half of the island. The new act at first attracted many settlers to the forest lands, most of whom had at least some previous experience of farming, if little capital. But within a decade they were threatened with ruin because of a disastrous fall in Australian crop prices, the effects of which were aggravated by the reluctance of a series of weak ministries to build roads in the new settlements: that most of the pioneers were able to keep their farms was a tribute to their determination and the fertility of the soil. In the 1880s Australian population and overseas markets began to outstrip food production and crop prices at last rose, encouraging another influx of settlers to the forest lands which continued, checked by the depression of the early 1890s, into the first decade of the new century. The farmer’s position was further strengthened by the introduction of industrial dairying, which reduced his dependence on the uncertain produce market, and by 1910 the North-West was a well-established, quite prosperous community of small freeholders.