The Australian Ark: A History of Domesticated Animals in Australia

1

Beginning

The First Domesticated Animals of the Settlement of New South Wales

When Europeans arrived in the southern continent of New Holland to establish the first colony, they found that semi-nomadic races had preceded them by many thousands of years. Where the Aboriginal peoples came from and how they had reached the continent is still unknown and continues to be the subject of speculation. However, we do know they were accompanied by native dogs. The transport used and the routes the Aborigines followed, enabled some of these groups to bring their native dogs. There is overwhelming evidence that dingoes (Canis familiaris) did not reach Australia until well after the first waves of Aborigines. The absence of dingoes from New Guinea and Tasmania has been interpreted by Mulvaney¹ as indicating that their arrival in Australia post-dated the formation of Bass Strait, about 11, 000 years ago, and the submersion of the land bridge with New Guinea (6500-8000 pre-Pleistocene). Blainey² speculates that dingoes came with later groups of migrants, certainly after the land bridge between the mainland and Tasmania no longer existed because the range of these animals does not extend beyond mainland Australia. Flannery³ proposed a time as recent as 3500 years ago. How and when dingoes arrived, is still to be decided, but they, along with introduced rodents, became the first known semi-domesticated and wild animals introduced to the Southland, in which nearly all the native mammals were marsupials.

The First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787, and made a relatively uneventful voyage to Rio de Janeiro and thence to the Cape of Good Hope. During the stopover at the Cape final preparations for the voyage to Botany Bay were made, including the last collections of plant cuttings, seeds, and finally purchases of animals. In this manner the first exotic ruminants, horses, swine, birds, rabbits and other species to reach the colony of New Holland were chosen.⁴,⁵

At the Cape of Good Hope on 12 November 1787 the loading of animals was completed. According to David Collins,⁶ referring to the official purchases 1 bull, 1 bull-calf, 7 cows, 1 stallion, 3 mares and 3 colts,⁷ together with as great a number of rams, ewes, goats, boars and breeding sows as room could be provided for were loaded. The bulls and cows were on board the Sirius, the horses on board the Lady Penrhyn, while the remainder were on board the Fishbourn storeship and the Friendship transport. That day the fleet sailed for Botany Bay, .... the ships having on board not less than 500 hundred animals of different kinds, but chiefly poultry, put on an appearance which naturally enough excited the idea of Noah’s Ark.⁸

Table 1.1 First Livestock; purchased at Capetown on behalf of the Government

Officers, including Governor Arthur Phillip, were also able to purchase animals. He purchased 70 on his own account and on behalf of the Government to add to the other domesticated animals on board the vessels when sails were set to leave Capetown.

After 77 days at sea, the fleet arrived at Botany Bay. Stock losses were surprisingly low considering the conditions on board the vessels and the duration of the voyage. All the horses, the bull, bull-calf, and three cows survived, as did 100 sheep, goats, pigs and assorted poultry types.⁹ Three cows and a number of sheep died due to the poor quality and limited quantity of feed available.

The Cape sheep obtained were probably of the fat-tailed Namaqua and Ronderib breeds. Captain Cook, in April 1771, when he called at the Cape of Good Hope, wrote of these sheep that they .....are clothed with a substance between wool and hair and have tails of enormous size; some we saw that weighed 12 lb and we were told that there were some much larger.¹⁰

Collins described the cattle as black and remarked on their large size and strength and that they were, remarkable for the great space between their horns.¹¹

Hindmarsh¹² cites Reinecke’s description of the indigenous cattle in South Africa at the time of the First Fleet as possibly being of either the Hottentot or Bantu tribes’ animals. Both groups herded cattle, but black animals predominated in the Bantu cattle and they were also described as having widespreading horns, heavy dewlaps and slight humps. However, as the Dutch had settled at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 and it was known that Dutch cattle had been imported to the Cape before the end of the 17th century, the First Fleet cattle may have been cross-breeds.

In The First Fleet. The Convict Voyage that Founded Australia 1787-88 by Jonathon King,¹³ the proceedings of the proclamation of the Colony show the generations of people that have resulted from the first British settlement, and the migrants who have followed and assisted in the development of this great country, just how feebly it began. The words expressed so eloquently by Governor Phillip on 7 February 1788 inspired hopes and aspirations for the future of the new country, and are just as relevant for our nation today. In the morning, Phillip ordered the convicts back to the camp, announcing that formal government was established in the colony, and that anybody who broke the rules would be punished. Lieutenant William Collins read the Commission given to Phillip from King George III. For his part, however, Phillip was motivated by the greatest of visions for this new world, saying:

And I do not doubt that this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made. We have come today to take possession of this fifth great continental division of the earth, on behalf of the British people, and have founded here a State which we hope will not only occupy and rule this great country, but also will become a shining light among all the nations of the Southern Hemisphere. How grand is the prospect which lies before this youthful nation.

Later that month, by way of example, Thomas Barrett, a convict who had organised a counterfeit coin plot in Rio during the voyage, was hanged for stealing food. For better or worse, law and order had been instituted, and the creation of the new settlement had begun.

2

The New Settlement:

Governor Phillip and

Lieutenant-Governor King

Losses of sheep in the early months of the new settlement, from January to July 1788, were high due to lightning strike, slaughter by Aborigines or convicts, and the poor quality of the pasture grasses. Only 29 sheep survived. However, Lieutenant William Bradley¹ wrote that the pigs, goats and poultry thrived, although he was worried about the survival of the livestock if grain was not available. An example of the fecundity of some of the animals was the increase in the number of goats, from 19 at 1 May 1788 to 522 on the register in 1794.²

Unfortunately, the cattle which were in the care of a convict escaped in the early weeks of the settlement and attempts to find them at the time were unsuccessful.³ After searching for three weeks, Governor Phillip assumed they had been killed by the Aborigines and eaten. The mystery of their disappearance was solved in September 1797 when Governor Hunter led an excursion to the plains near Mount Taurus. There the party was amazed to see a herd of 67 wild cattle. Not long after that incident, another herd was sighted, estimated to be 170 animals.⁴ A description of the wild cattle was that they were of the Cape breed with wide horns, and a hump between the shoulders and small, thin tails.⁵ That description would tend to verify the probable origin from the indigenous cattle of the Cape. The area where the cattle grazed was known from that time on as the Cowpastures. Governor Hunter reserved the area as a grazing ground for the cattle so that they could breed without interference. The Cowpastures were to feature largely in future colonial events.

King, when he later became Governor, wrote of the wild cattle in a letter to the Duke of Portland on 10 March 1801: They divide in herds, several of which have been seen, but in so ferocious state as not to be easily approached. Their numbers are calculated at about 500 or 600 head.⁶

Philip Gidley King, as Lieutenant-Governor, had been appointed as Superintendent and Commandant of Norfolk Island by Phillip in February 1788. He was to be responsible for establishment of the Island settlement and for agricultural production and maintaining the food supply of the colony.⁷ King fulfilled this role with distinction. He was a good organiser and a fair, considerate governor. Although the small Norfolk colony went through hard times due to early food shortages, it was not long before there was an adequate supply of fresh food and grains available. Unfortunately, there was no suitable harbour at Norfolk so excess grain and stock could not be sent to Sydney.

In March 1790, Phillip⁸ sent King to deliver despatches to the British Government and to report to the English authorities on the state of the colonies in New South Wales and Norfolk Island. This was in order to give a first-hand account of the problems that were affecting the settlements.

After first delivering the despatches from Governor Phillip to the Secretary of State for the colonies, Lord Grenville, and to the Admiralty Under Secretary, Evan Nepean, King finally had time to visit family and friends, and to get married. In addition, he had to carry out numerous other duties while in Britain before his return to the colony.

On 15 March 1791 HMS Gorgon set sail from Spithead in England for the New South Wales Colony. On board was Lieutenant-Governor King returning with his bride to resume his duties on Norfolk Island. Also on board were Captain William Paterson of the New South Wales Corps and his wife. They all became firm friends during the voyage. On arrival at the Cape of Good Hope the ship stayed for six weeks. On his own initiative, King purchased livestock for the colony, although he had not been authorised to do so. The crew took on board three bulls, 23 cows, 68 sheep, 11 hogs, 16 rabbits and 20 pigeons.⁹ The sheep were Ronderib breed with fat tails, a factor which may have enabled them to fare better on the voyage by drawing on their stored tail-fat as the fodder on board was rapidly depleted. Stock losses on the voyage were relatively light. King knew that livestock was one of the most urgent needs of the colony. After arriving back in Sydney, he emphasised this point in a letter to Nepean (27 October 1791): Should a forty gun ship be sent for the purpose of bringing cattle to this colony, I think a hundred black cattle, two hundred sheep, and a quantity of stores might be landed here very safely.¹⁰

Late in 1791 Phillip sent the Atlantic to Calcutta for stores and livestock. The purchases there included two rams, 13 ewes, two bulls, cows and a calf, and 20 goats. Twelve sheep and three cows arrived in the colony. The bulls were water buffaloes and the cows were a European breed and consequently they could not reproduce. In contrast, the sheep from the Cape of Good Hope when crossed with the hairy sheep (Bengals) from India showed spectacular reproductive rates according to the livestock accounts.¹¹

Bengal sheep were considered to have originated in Tibet, as sheep from that country were known to be present in Nepal and India. The Bengal sheep were described as smaller than English sheep, weighing about 3.64kg to 4.54kg per quarter (total weight 22.73kg), with small drooping ears, thin tails, and a fleece consisting of a mixture of fine wool and hair.¹²

At the end of 1792 there were 23 cattle and 105 sheep belonging to the government and approximately 100 sheep in private flocks. Losses of cattle in shipments were very high. Of 77 cattle purchased at the Cape, in Calcutta, and on the west coast of America, only six survived.

The early colonial governors considered India the best country to supply provisions and livestock. New South Wales was a penal colony destined to receive felons rather than free settlers. It was established well inside the trading zone of the East India Company, which always ensured that obstacles were placed in the way of any trade that may have infringed its monopoly rights over British trade. As a result, most of the commerce coming into the colony was restricted to ships of the East India Company. The early New South Wales governors, especially King and Bligh, supported the Company’s rights. Apart from other considerations, it was politic for them to do so. It was not until 1813 that the East India Company lost its commercial monopoly in India and a further 20 years before it lost the China monopoly, both largely based on the tea trade.¹³ In addition, until 1824¹⁴ there was a law restricting the export of sheep from Britain, even to provide stock for new British possessions. Despite this, some animals escaped the embargo and arrived in the colony, either as gifts for individuals or as residual food livestock that had not been used for provisions on board ships. As an example of the latter, Samuel Marsden used Southdown rams in his breeding program as early as 1798. He was known to buy sheep from the captains of ships who still had livestock remaining when they arrived in the colony. Marsden bred for fine wool using criteria of beauty, constitution, weight, and fleece,¹⁵ although he also looked for good mutton quality as food was more important than wool at that time.

Macarthur had also purchased a few Irish mutton sheep from a ship, possibly about 1797. Major Johnston received a ram and three ewes of the Teeswater breed as a present from the Duke of Northumberland. Another small flock of Teeswater sheep was reported in the Sydney Gazette on 4 March 1804 and must have arrived from England at about that time.

In the early period of the colony the officers owned most of the sheep. During Hunter’s administration the government was anxious to purchase grain. Pork was the only fresh meat purchased by the commissariat. Government policy was to build up the numbers of sheep and cattle. Hunter’s orders were to purchase surplus livestock from private owners. This provided an additional source of income for the officers of the New South Wales Corps who returned to Britain at the end of their tour of duty. It also explains the great interest in sheep-raising, as Mackellar, Kent and Foveaux all sold their flocks before leaving in 1800 to return to England. Macarthur also had contemplated selling his sheep before leaving for England for his trial. Although sheep farming thus was largely in private hands, the Government which owned only about 10 per cent of the 6124 sheep in 1800, was the largest owner of cattle, with 1044 head, which was 75 per cent of the total herd.¹⁶

The first sheep in the New South Wales colony were fairly large-framed, fat-tailed sheep from the Cape. The fleece was hair with an undercoat of wool, which, like the hair, was shed twice a year. Both Arthur Phillip in Sydney and Philip Gidley King on Norfolk Island, found that the tails grew so fat the ewes had problems mating. As a result, these breeds made only a small contribution to sheep numbers until they were mated with Bengal sheep, or later with English or Spanish sheep. The hair of the parent Cape sheep was due to a recessive gene and the original undercoat of fine wool was dominant, so that when mated with Spanish sheep the first-cross offspring grew a fine-wool fleece, free of hair. Collins noted that the cross between Cape and Bengal sheep produced an excellent fleece and that a specimen of cloth fabricated from it was sent to England.¹⁷

Port Jackson was an isolated settlement with only rare visits of ships, usually those chartered by the British government to carry convicts and cargo to the tiny settlement then to proceed to India or China on behalf of the East India Company. Whaling and sealing vessels and occasionally, wandering ships of other nations on voyages of adventure or exploration would call.¹⁸ In this situation of isolation and despair (the latter caused by periodic food shortages), the officers of the New South Wales Corps had begun trading. According to Hainsworth,¹⁹ the first transaction was probably in April 1793, when Captain Manning of the Pitt was paid £1440 sterling in Paymaster’s bills by a consortium of officers before departing for Bengal. In October 1793, the Royal Admiral arrived with a cargo which the officers sold through shops in Parramatta and Sydney. Collins reported adversely on the impropriety which resulted among some of the settlers as a result of imbibing the porter and spirits in the cargo, retailed among themselves at a scandalous profit.²⁰ The monopoly of trade for the officers only continued as long as no other colonists had access to substantial resources of sterling either as cash or credit.

Gradually, word spread among the traders and merchants of the world sea powers that profits could be made in Sydney and ships with cargoes on speculation began to call into Port Jackson. Also, as the population of the settlement grew and the numbers of free settlers increased, many of them entered into commercial activities, thus increasing trade choices. As a result, the trading power of the officers declined and commerce entered a new phase. In addition to goods of trade, livestock formed a large part of the cargoes coming into the colony. The Shah Hormuzear carried a shipment of sheep from India which included Bengal ewes and rams when it called at Norfolk Island on its return to Port Jackson in February 1793.²¹ While he was Lieutentant-Governor, in April 1793 Francis Grose contracted for the purchase of livestock from India with Matthew Bampton, the captain of the Shah Hormuzear, but the shipment did not arrive until May 1795. In the cargo were 162 cattle (about 20 died shortly after arrival), horses and asses, and 110 Bengal sheep. The officers bought most of the cattle in the shipment.²²

Until King became Governor there had been no serious attempts to find products for export to sell in the markets of London, Calcutta and Canton — the ports which provided most of the imports for the colony. Treasury bills issued by Governor Hunter and Paymaster’s bills drawn by Captain John Macarthur (totalling over £40 000 sterling) were used to pay for the imports. This constant drain of money from the colony was the cause of currency problems that were responsible for New South Wales remaining a penal settlement for as long as it did. Governor King’s economy drives forced the traders to seek staples in the Pacific Islands to sell as exports. Examples of trading staples were sandalwood, seal skins and whale oil from southern sea regions, but these exports provided only temporary currency relief. The officers’ trade monopolies, which had existed prior to King’s administration, received a setback when Robert Campbell was appointed agent for Messrs Campbell and Company, and William Tough agent for Messrs Chace, Chinnery, and Company.²³ Thus the early trading efforts initiated a search in the colony for more permanent products to export and sell. Eventually the commercial groups were the ones that established whaling enterprises and instituted the wool trade, but these commercial activities did not become viable until after 1820.²⁴

3

The Importance of Philip Gidley King

Philip Gidley King was Governor of the Norfolk Island colony and, on his return from England after an absence of 17 months, resumed this role in November 1791. King had brought to the Island 12 Cape ewes and a ram to replace the original First Fleet sheep which had died of the scab (caused by the mite Psoroptes communis ovis). Captain Paterson, King’s friend, who was in command of the soldiers on Norfolk, also returned with three ewes. However, because of their fat tails, the Cape sheep had difficulty in breeding and as a result were not very prolific. The Shah Hormuzear arrived at Norfolk early in 1793 en route from Calcutta to Port Jackson and on board were Bengal sheep. Consequently, King was able to acquire six ewes and two rams to use for breeding. He became involved in animal husbandry on Norfolk Island and was particularly enthusiastic about the results with sheep breeding. He wrote regarding the Bengal sheep that, although small, they were much improved by a very fine Cape ram.¹

The sheep on Norfolk Island were reported not to have scab and there were no predators (human or wild dogs). By October 1796 sheep numbers had increased to 170 as only surplus males were killed for mutton. In addition, there were 283 goats and nearly 5000 pigs on the Island. King enthused about the remarkable increase in stock:

sheep breed there (Norfolk Island) as well as any part of the world, and have not as yet, been subject to the distempers common to that kind of stock. The Bengal ewes yean twice in thirteen months, and have commonly two, often three, and sometimes four lambs at a yeaning; and these have increased so much by being crossed with the Cape ram, that a lamb six weeks old is now as large as one of the old ewes.²

Under King’s control, agriculture on the virgin soils of Norfolk Island had been successful, and 1500 acres were cleared for crops and pastures. In one year 34000 bushels of maize and wheat had been harvested. As there was no adequate harbour for ships, the surplus could not be sent to Sydney so the grain was fed to pigs.

The island population rose to 1115 by 1792 and included 123 free settlers who were marines, seamen or ex-convicts. King’s administration lasted until 1796. After he left the colony, Norfolk became the receptacle for the worst types of convicts from Sydney and agrarian agriculture declined, the emphasis changing to rearing livestock. During the ensuing period there was a further great increase in sheep numbers.

By 1796 officers of the New South Wales Corps owned about 31.5 per cent of all land under cultivation plus all the horses and cattle and most of the sheep in the colony. By 1800, 34 officers owned 14 000 acres and 4000 sheep.³

Table 3.1 Land holdings of officers of the New South Wales Corps and civilian officials, 1 800

From D.R. Hainsworth⁴ The Sydney Traders, Appendix B p.228.

This table is based on the Settlers’ Muster Book 1800, Mitchell Mss Safe 1/104.

The figures show that of the 12 796 acres held by these 29 officers and officials 6467 (51 per cent) had been granted to them. A further 3724 acres (29 per cent), were purchased from other officers or from settlers who sold landholdings larger than the customary 30-acre or 25-acre grants (at least 11.7 per cent was acquired solely from other officers). A further 1795 acres (14 per cent) were bought in 25-acre lots from soldiers, while only 600 of the acres held at the time of the 1800 muster (6 per cent) were acquired in 30-acre lots. There were only 20 farms, and not all of these were acquired from their original grantees.

Livestock returns in June 1801 showed individual livestock to be 211 horses, 362 cattle, 6269 sheep, 1259 goats, and 4766 swine. Government-owned livestock in August 1801 was 32 horses, 931 cattle, and 488 sheep.⁵

In 1803 the British government decided that Norfolk Island was too expensive as a penal colony. The island was to be abandoned because of the lack of a safe port and the difficulty with communications. The plan was to move the convicts and settlers to Port Dalrymple, located at the mouth of the Tamar River in Van Diemen’s Land.

King was now the Governor of New South Wales and made a plea to Portland in 1800 requesting that a breed of cattle and horses fit for labour could be sent, because the cattle and horses we possess are of the small African or Indian breed. ⁶ King foresaw the need for transport as the size of the colony expanded.

Major George Johnston received a gift of a Thoroughbred stallion from the Duke of Northumberland on HMS Buffalo in October 1802. It was aptly named Northumberland after his donor and was credited with improving horse breeding in the colony considerably. The service fee for the stallion was £10 sterling and was probably the first stud fee for service charged in the colony.⁷

King had wanted English cattle or horses for draught purposes. In September 1802 the Perseus arrived from the Cape of Good Hope with cattle closer to King’s specifications being nearly of the English breed and costing £35 per head.⁸ The move from Norfolk Island provided him with the opportunity to supply breeding stock to the Van Diemen’s Land settlements so these could be self-sufficient in meat. He had chartered ships Lady Barlow and Mersey to take cows from India to the new settlements and here was a chance also to send sheep from Norfolk Island.⁹ In May 1804 the offer of transfer to Port Dalrymple was made to the Norfolk Island settlers and 41 accepted.

Among those who accepted was George Guest. Guest had arrived as a convict in 1790 and completed his sentence in 1791 after which he became a free settler. He was a good farmer and, in part-payment for grain, may have been granted some of the 127 government ewes from the Governor as well as additional stock from other settlers. Obviously the Norfolk Island sheep were highly fertile as Guest was now the owner of the largest flock, comprising 600 ewes and 340 wethers.¹⁰

The first attempt to transfer people and stock, using the ship Buffalo, was not successful. In March 1805 the vessel Sydney, which was equipped for carrying stock, had arrived in Port Dalrymple with 612 cows and 10 calves from Calcutta. Governor King instructed Captain Piper of the Sydney to purchase 100 ewes from Guest and these, plus 100 from the government stock, were to be sent to Hobart Town. Guest, at his own risk, was permitted to ship the remainder of his ewes. He loaded 390 sheep and landed 265, and these, along with the remaining 148 government-owned sheep, a total of 413, arrived in September 1805 at Hobart Town.

The official stock records for the Derwent settlement at that time showed there were fewer than 100 breeding ewes and, of these, about one-third were described as being in an unhealthy condition.

In 1804 King had sent to Norfolk Island two rams of the half-Spanish breed which produced wool instead of hair. Captain William Campbell of the Harrington had captured two Spanish ships off South America, and on board one of these vessels was a young Spanish ram. Thus three rams of Spanish blood had reached Norfolk Island.¹¹ Livestock returns from Norfolk showed that the government flock contained 1228 sheep in 1806 and by 1808 it numbered 3005. The second stage of the evacuation to Van Diemen’s Land took place at this time and two-thirds of the Island’s population was transferred. This reduced the Island’s meat requirement such that by 1810 sheep numbers were 5568 of which more than 3000 were privately owned. These privately owned stock were reduced to 1228 by 1811 and, under Macquarie’s orders, all sheep, cattle, and pigs available were slaughtered and salted down in 1813 and the last of the settlers transferred to Port Dalrymple.

Five hundred ewes were sent from Norfolk Island to Van Diemen’s Land. Within 20 years the number had increased to 500000. Many of the foundation sheep flocks for Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia were shipped from Van Diemen’s Land, providing the basic breeding stock from which most of the Australian Merinos later evolved.

Similar types of sheep, which were descendants of the original Bengal ewes landed in Sydney from the Shah Hormuzear, were also spread throughout the flocks of New South Wales and Queensland.¹²

The Norfolk Island and Sydney sheep originated from 200 sheep imported after the end of 1791 as all the original sheep imported by the First Fleet had died. The breeds involved were the highly prolific Bengal sheep, fat-tailed Cape sheep (both of these breeds having hairy fleeces), some English Southdown and Leicester (Teeswater) sheep, and Irish mutton sheep.

By the time the first Spanish sheep (Merinos) arrived in 1797 the colonies contained about 2500 sheep. The first Spanish sheep were probably the 13 landed from the Cape of Good Hope by Captain Henry Waterhouse and Captain William Kent, in June 1797.¹³ These officers had purchased the sheep at the Cape from Mrs Gordon for £4 each.

The Spanish sheep from the Gordon flock originated from a gift of sheep from Carlos III of Spain to the Prince of Orange in 1787. The sheep were from the famous Spanish Escurial cabana. The Prince of Orange had received presents and artifacts from Africa from Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon, the commander of the Dutch garrison at the Cape of Good Hope. In return, the Prince sent him a gift of two rams and four ewes from his Spanish flock. These sheep were looked after well by Gordon who maintained them as a separate flock and their numbers increased in the southern African environment. Colonel Gordon crossed his excess rams with Cape sheep or Afrikander ewes, then gave away cross-breed or pure rams to other settlers, but kept all the pure-bred Spanish ewes. Gordon, as a sheep-breeder, had an ideal opportunity as he had access to breeds that had never been used for cross-breeding before, a good climate, good pastures, and unlimited labour. By 1797 there were 32 Spanish sheep in his flock, most of which were ewes, as he had disposed of surplus rams. In 1791 the Prince asked Gordon to return the sheep he had received to Holland. He returned the equivalent number but retained the remaining progeny. He used some of the pure-breed rams for out-crossing but also maintained a pure flock. In 1795 a British fleet arrived in Cape Town and the Dutch Colony surrendered to the British. Colonel Gordon was criticised by the Republican faction in Cape Town for surrendering to the British and committed suicide by shooting himself in 1796. His widow was in the process of leaving Cape Town for Europe and had sold the mixed sheep flocks, keeping the small Spanish flock. Captain Waterhouse, in the HMS Reliance and Captain Kent in the HMS Supply, had been sent late in 1796 to Table Bay to purchase livestock and supplies for the colony of New South Wales. The ships sailed together from Sydney with the Britannia transport, which was carrying Philip Gidley King and Colonel Paterson en route to England. Both these men knew Colonel Gordon and Mrs Gordon personally from previous visits. Mrs Gordon gave each of them three sheep as gifts. Colonel Paterson took his sheep to England on the Britannia, and possibly presented them to Sir Joseph Banks for George Ill’s flock. King sent his sheep back to Sydney on the Reliance, and Waterhouse and Kent bought 26 of the remaining Spanish sheep. As well as the Spanish sheep, Cape sheep, horses, and cattle were also loaded for Sydney.

The ships HMS Reliance and HMS Supply delivered 37 sheep on account of the Government and 84 on account of officers. Of the Spanish sheep, Kent had two rams and two ewes on arrival in Sydney. Kent kept one ram and one ewe for himself, while Macarthur purchased the remaining two animals at a later date from Braithwaite, the original buyer. William Cox and Samuel Marsden, between them, bought all of Kent’s sheep flock when he left the colony in October 1800.

Captain Waterhouse landed eight or nine Spanish sheep. Waterhouse kept one ram and two or three ewes. He sold a ram to Macarthur and a ewe to Marsden. Waterhouse had a small flock of less than 100 sheep which included both Spanish and Cape breeds. His rams would have run with both ewe types. In March 1800 Waterhouse left the colony for England and sold his flock to William Cox except for a few he sold to Macarthur. Later, Cox lost his land and had to disperse his sheep. Macarthur obtained some of them. In reply to a letter from Sir Joseph Banks, Waterhouse detailed how he acquired the Spanish sheep and how these were later distributed among the settlers who wanted his sheep when he left the colony.¹⁴ The details contained in this letter by Waterhouse on the acquisition of the Spanish sheep differ greatly from Macarthur’s version 20 years after the event.

A few more Spanish sheep were imported early in the 1800s. Captain William Campbell landed one ram on Norfolk Island in 1805. Macarthur and Marsden each obtained sheep from the flock of King George III. Macarthur purchased at auction an aged ewe and four rams in August 1804 ¹⁵ and, in August 1809, Marsden received a gift of four Paular ewes with two ram lambs from King George III through Joseph Banks.¹⁶,¹⁷

In total, about 30 Spanish sheep had been landed in the colony up to 1820. The quality of the wool, as a result of the breeding efforts of the settlers, had improved to such an extent that Marsden was able to export wool and King could establish a woollen industry in the colony.

At the first muster of stock in the colony in 1788 only 17 sheep were recorded, increasing to 51 in 1791. By 1797 there were 2500 sheep before the first Spanish sheep were imported. By 1800, 300 sheep had been imported into the colony and many of these had died soon after arrival, but the total numbers had risen to 6000. Numbers increased to 32000 by 1810 and by 1821 the colony had 120000 sheep. As only 30 Spanish sheep had been imported, their contribution at this stage had not been great. By 1825, the number of sheep in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land had reached one million.¹⁸ Many of the Merinos had disappeared into mixed flocks very quickly, and so their genes would have had very little influence on the present Australian Merino.¹⁹ Approximately 5000 more Spanish sheep (Saxon and Anglo-Merinos) were imported during the mid to late 1820s, but the Merinos were still only a minority breed among the sheep types when Macarthur died in 1834.

The early sheep in the colony were prolific breeders and, as detailed by King, Marsden, and Macarthur, this was partly due to the fecundity of the Bengal breed. The foundation sheep were a mixture of predominantly Cape and Bengal breeds, with a few English and Irish, and later Spanish, sheep. The two-coated hairy sheep provided an ideal frame, the Cape and British sheep provided the size, while the dominant wool-sheep, the Spanish Merino, contributed the fleece.

Governor King was the first person in the colony to have a vision of a wool industry. In 1801 few of the sheep were wool producers, but by 1804 one-tenth of the colony’s flock were fine woolled and the rest had wool of varying fineness. King established a factory for wool and in a letter to Portland in 1801²⁰ stated we must depend on the increase of our sheep, and growth of wool, of which there is now a small but increasing quantity that has been obtained by the introduction of some Spanish and half-breed rams.

In a later letter in 1801 to Portland, King²¹ was able to report, from the whole of the wool obtained last year from government flock and that of individuals, 306 yards of blanketing has been made. This report elicited an immediate response from Lord Hobart which lauded the efforts of some individual settler sheep-breeders in improving the quality of wool in the colony but rebuked King by suggesting that the finest quality wool should be exported for the markets of England rather than being used in manufactories of the colony, which should be restricted to producing a coarser kind of cloth.²²

On 14 July 1810 the Commissary’s office issued a notice to 38 named woolgrowers who were to make application for the quantities of cloth that they were entitled to on account of wool delivered at the factory at Parramatta.²³

The Spanish rams crossed with the colonial sheep rapidly improved the quality of fleeces. King, writing to Portland in August 1801, stated that every endeavour is making by individuals who own so great a proportion of the sheep in the colony to improve the hair into wool by means of three Spanish rams brought here in 1797, and that no pains would be spared to obtain the same object with Government’s flock.²⁴ Within a short time he was able to report that some cross-breed Spanish rams had been procured for the Government flock and had greatly improved the fleeces.²⁵

Macarthur had offered his farms, flock and herds for sale to the Government in July 1800. King took the opportunity before purchase to have some of the fleeces from Macarthur’s sheep assessed through the good offices of Sir Joseph Banks, as President of the Royal Society. While asking Banks for an opinion on the fleeces King also requested, wool cards and other requisites for woollen manufacture.²⁶ Meanwhile, Macarthur was on his voyage to England to face a possible court-martial and could not have been aware of the arrangements for the fleece assessment or that the opinion on the fleeces was already on the way back to King from Banks. The results were published in the Sydney Gazette of 26 March 1803.²⁷

Marsden wrote to Banks on 13 January 1805 that he had obtained one male and one female Spanish sheep from an importation by Captain Henry Waterhouse in 1797. The male was put to hairy ewes. In their first produce there was a wonderful improvement in the fleece. Marsden had been so interested in the fleeces of his cross-breeds that he collected them and sent samples to Governor King in 1804. The samples from Marsden’s sheep fleeces are still held in the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney.²⁸

Governor King, wishing to obtain information regarding the possibilities for wool production, for transmission to Lord Camden, requested Macarthur and Marsden to draft a series of questions to be answered by the various settlers. These, with the answers, King forwarded to England.

Parramatta, July 17th 1805

Sir,

In compliance with the request Your Excellency has been pleased to make to us, we have the honour to transmit herewith such queries as appear to us calculated to draw forth a true and correct statement of the present condition of the Sheep Flocks in this Colony, and of the improvements that have been, or that may be reasonably expected hereafter.

We have reason to think that no regular system has been adopted by the generality of persons, who keep sheep and that much of the improvement which has been experienced in many Flocks, is solely to be attributed to the fertility of the Soil, and the salubrity of the Climate.

As Your Excellency must naturally be anxious, that the information you do receive, should be as correct as possible we respectfully beg leave to suggest the expediency of having every Flock inspected by Mr Wood, the Professional Gentleman who came out in the Argo; and that he be accompanied by either two, or three respectable Gentlemen, who should be instructed to propose the Queries, and receive the answer of each person.

This mode of enquiry might stimulate the different Sheep Proprietors to more particular care hereafter in the management of their Flocks, as the opinion of Mr Wood on the value of the different Wools must necessarily have great weight with many who are nearly altogether misinformed upon the subject and might very powerfully operate to remove prejudices, which if persisted in may long retard the increase of fine Woolled Sheep in this Colony.

We have the honor to be,

Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Humble Servants, John McArthur, Samuel Marsden.

Marsden wrote to King on 5 September 1805, describing his own experiences with sheep-breeding and his observations made while travelling with Mr Wood, the wool expert who had come to Australia with Macarthur when the latter returned on his ship, the Argo. After explaining how he had managed his sheep over the previous seven years by choosing rams carefully for mating, Marsden then stated that one true bred Spanish ram and ewe, with four half-bred Southdown rams have been the sheep that have improved my flock beyond expectation, both in beauty, constitution, weight, and fleece.²⁹

Marsden took a large sample of wool to England in 1807 and exported 4000 to 5000 lb in 1811 which realised 45 pence per lb. The quality of fine wool was