THORNY PROBLEMS - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 122

decide where and for how long to graze animals in particular areas before moving
them on to other pastures. Shepherds were employed in early settler pastoralism in
New South Wales and Victoria, but by the time the sheep industry developed in
Queensland, they were no longer used. Moving stock from one pasture to another
according to seasons, availability of fodder, water and shade was replaced by what
might now, with hindsight, be called 'uncontrolled grazing'.
One of the biggest problems faced by pastoralists in northwest Queensland
was the high mortality of lambs during the hot, dry season. The native grasses died
back and native trees provided little feed or shade for animals to survive in
the searing heat. Pastoralists thus sought to introduce palatable tropical grasses and
hardy leguminous tree species that would provide the necessary shade and nutri-
tion for the animals across their properties. During the 1890s, the Queensland
Acclimatisation Society procured prickly acacia ( Acacia nilotica ) seeds from the
British Indian colonial government's botanical gardens in Saharanpur and
distributed it as a shade and forage tree for pastoral stations. The Queensland
government, along with the Brisbane Botanical Gardens and individual botanical
enthusiasts, embarked on a 'tropical acclimatisation [and improvement] experiment'
by corresponding with plant and seed suppliers from tropical colonies to obtain,
cultivate and disseminate useful plants to pastoralists in the colony (de Lestang,
1939; March, 2007). By the 1930s, prickly acacia was well established across much
of northwest Queensland, and was celebrated for its ability to survive the hot
season, and provide shade and protein-rich fodder for sheep. Other prickle bushes
such as Parkinsonia ( Parkinsonia aculeata , from Central America and the Caribbean),
and mesquite ( Prosopis spp ., also from Central America) were also introduced during
the late nineteenth century. Parkinsonia was initially planted as an ornamental bush
to provide shade and serve as a hedge around homesteads and watering points
(Deveze, 2004). Mesquite was used as a fodder and shade plant in pastoral stations
and also planted extensively around mining sites to minimise dust and soil erosion
(Osmond, 2003).
The first half of the twentieth century proved fairly difficult for pastoralists as
global wool prices experienced several dramatic collapses. Some began to convert
their livestock from sheep to cattle for beef production. Until then, pastoralists in
northwest Queensland had not raised cattle on any significant scale for export, but
run them in areas where they knew sheep would not survive (Wadham, 1931). By
the 1950s, the conversion of stock from sheep to cattle was almost complete and
linked to growing domestic and international markets for beef. Cattle were sub-
sumed into the same kind of pastoral system as sheep, with similar logic underlying
stocking rates and grazing practices. They grazed across the property and were
mustered a few times in the year to be taken to market or when there was serious
fodder shortage during droughts. Cattle became the iconic symbol of pastoral life
in Outback Queensland and the grand narratives of rugged Australian settler
identity. Similar to the western USA where the cattle industry symbolised the
tough frontier spirit of cowboys, the Queensland Outback represented the remote
inland and northern frontier of Australia where pastoralists, jackaroos, and drovers