Mallee - Part 1

Image 56
image 56 of 89

This transcription is complete

I can work my land at a profit but it will be very hard work without a railway. I have grown potatoes with a indifferent success although I have had patches equal to anything. I had trouble in getting assistance from the Agricultural Bank, but it was due to the nature of a working arrangement which existed between my sons and myself.

(The witness retired.)

JOHN KIRSCH, a naturalised Russian, aged 50, Farmer, Coramup Creek, unmarried—sworn and examined:

373. By the CHAIRMAN: What land do you hold in the district?—I have 1,023 acres of C.P., including a homestead, Location 563. I took it up four years ago. The conditions started in October, 1912. Previously I was working on the goldfields as a prospector and afterwards engine driving. I hold it a first class engine-driver's certificate. I own three town blocks here in Esperance, which I bought 15 years ago. I came to Western Australia in 1890, returned to Melbourne for 18 months, and have been here ever since. I have a ring fence of six wires, a 15-acre paddock, and a 10-acre paddock and two acres under lucerne. I have grown root crops. I have one and a half acres under potatoes looking well to-day. I have 10 acres under wheat, and 24 acres cleared, ploughed, and cultivated with about 100 acres roughly cleared. My holding is a mixed country, a bit patchy, yate, munji, mallee, and sand plain. I have any amount of fresh water. The country will grow any root crops, in fact anything. I have grown onions for a yield of 15 cwt. from one-eight of an acre. Last year half a ton of onions went to waste. I do not manure my onions. My wheat crop will not go more than 15cwt. It is in ground too low and wet. I have half an acre under fruit trees and vines. It was only put in this year. I cannot grow cabbages for the rabbits, of which, however, there are not many in the locality. Tomatoes grow well, but I have trouble with the grubs.

374. By Mr. PADBURY: Do you do all your own work?—Yes, at present. I had a very poor start. I got burnt out and lost my horses and so I have to do my own work. I had a couple of hundred pounds of my own to start with and I got assistance from the bank also. I have a clay subsoil. I grew maize last summer, putting it in in November. It grew without a sup of rain. Some 200 or 300 acres of my land remains damp in the subsoil all through the summer. There is plenty more land like mine in the locality. I am three and a half miles from the railway survey. I am satisfied that I could make a good living if we had a railway.

(The witness retired.)

ARUTHUR BOW, aged 51, Farmer, at 12-Mile, on the Norseman Road, married—two daughters, aged 16 and 23—sworn and examined:

375. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in this district?—Two years. I came here from England where I was engaged in farming in Somerset. I hold 995 acres of C.P. under Section 68 near Gibson's Soak. It was taken up in July, 1912. I have been living on the land for two years. I had a few hundred pounds when I started. Mine is sandplain country. I have cleared 180 acres. It has the fence posts 12 feet apart round it, but it is not all wired. Three paddocks are subdivided. I have four-roomed house of wood and iron costing something like £200. Then there are the necessary sheds and stables. I have 70 acres of crop on fallowed land, and 140 acres ploughed. It cost me 25s. an acre to prepare the land for cropping. The fence cost me £17 10s. per mile for erection without the wire. I have about two miles of fence. I grew no crop last year. My present crop is not looking too good. There has been too much rain and cold. I ploughed only one furrow by way of a drain. I used one cwt. of super and a bushel of seed. In England we sow two and a half bushels of wheat to the acre and three bushels of barley. I do not think this country here is any better than at Home. It would be as good, and perhaps better, if it were treated in the same way. I have a few horses, but no cows or sheep. I expect to keep sheep. I have a fair supply of water. My brother has tried artificial grasses. I have vegetable and root crops growing, but not enough to sell. They would pay well to grow if one had a market. It would not pay to send them to Albany. I have not had assistance from the Agricultural Department.

376. By. Mr. PADBURY: Do you feel satisfied now with your prospects?—Not at present because we have no market for our produce. We require a railway. I should not have taken up my land had I not expected a railway. I think my brother's experimental grasses will grow all right. The subsoil at my place is gravel and clay. There is plenty of slope. I have not tried ploughing-in lands.

377. By Mr. McDONALD: Is not £17 10s. a tremendous price for erecting fencing posts?—It can not be done for less when the posts have to be carted for miles. I have not tried sheep yet. My idea is to go in for mixed farming. I think sheep will do well on old cultivation paddocks, though not on the uncultivated sandplain.

(The witness retired.)

BENJAMIN HANNETT, aged over 70, Farmer, Stock Yard Creek; married, three sons and four daughters, all grown up—sworn and examined:

378. By the CHAIRMAN: Do you have the assistance of your sons?—Willie looks after the cattle, but none of the others help me.

379. What land do you hold up in your district?—I have 400 acres C.P., Loc. 401, and 15 acres of freehold at Monjingup Loc. 159, together with a half-acre town block in Dempster-street, Esperance, and a pastoral lease of 20,000 acres, No. 471/95. At Stock Yard Creek I have a ring fence and 30 acres cleared, an acre of garden fenced, a two-roomed cottage of wood and iron, and a quarter-acre of fruit tree and vines doing well. Then there is a quarter-acre of vegetable garden with a big natural pond of permanent fresh water in the middle of it. I have in a small crop. I have been in Esperance since the year before John Forrest went through on his overland trip in, I think, 1869. I was with Dempster Bros. here for many years. I drove the first team through to Fraser's Range, cutting the track with the assistance of a few natives. There was good grass at the stopping-places then. I remember when good crops were grown at Mt. Ridley, crops that would cut