 |
 |
 |
| Glenormiston, the grand mansion built by squatter Niel Black near Noorat in Victoria's Western District. Squatters, including Black, "vigorously opposed" all attempts to "unlock the land" for farming. |
|
|
| Photo by Graeme Kinross-Smith, 1999. |
|
 |
|
| A bullock team carting bags of grain across the basalt plain past a modest farmhouse. After the Land Acts were passed many 'selectors' were able to purchase blocks of land for farming. |
|
|
| Photographer and date unknown. Image contributed by Melbourne Parks and Waterways from their Wood Collection. |
|
|
|
In the late 1850s and early 1860s, when the surface gold in Victoria's 'golden triangle' ran out, former miners began to look for other ways of making a living.
With the support of local traders and liberal-minded people in the towns, the miners spearheaded a campaign to 'unlock the land' held by squatters under lease from the Crown. Three major Land Acts were passed in the 1860s, all intended to make modest blocks of land called 'selections' available for purchase by families of small means on time payment.
The squatters vigorously opposed these measures, both in parliament and on the ground. Because they controlled the powerful Legislative Council, the upper house of the Victorian parliament, they were able to win concessions protecting their head stations and giving them pre-emptive purchase rights over large tracts of land. Then, when the Acts came into effect, squatters such as Niel Black enlisted friends, relatives and employees to take up selections on their behalf, a practice known as 'dummying'. In the drier country, squatters were able to fend off selection by 'peacocking' -- picking the eyes out of the country by buying up areas along rivers and lakes to monopolise access to water.
Flush with money from the wool boom of the 1860s, the Western District squatters were well placed to resist land reform. Ironically, by spurring them to convert their properties from leasehold to freehold tenure, the legislation entrenched their control over the land.
Copyright Imagine The Future Inc. and Australian Film Commission, 2002.
Text by Jenny Lee for ITF.
Home
|
