When I came home from school you could see where some blokes had attempted pasture improvement with super and sub-clover, but Dad would say - what was the point of feeding rabbits?
- Roger Webster, Tarengo, Boorowa
Sitting in the kitchen of the nineteenth-century homestead on Tarengo, Boorowa, which Roger Webster and his wife Liz have dedicated the past 13 years to restoring, Roger is musing over the extraordinary growth of pasture on the paddocks leading down to the Boorowa River.
It is, as he perceptively described, the 'best season" he has ever seen.
"I haven't seen a better year although I have seen wetter years," Roger said and following on from the amazing spring in 2020, it is a statement which implications should be further understood.
Especially when an early memory, although it is scant is of the 1944 drought, when he was six-years-old.
He recalled that on the February 13, 1944, the family farm Dryburgh at Reids Flat was completely burnt out by a bushfire which started on Newhaven Park on the Boorowa River and burnt through to the Lachlan River in one day.
"The year 1943 was a magnificent year and in 1944 the rainfall recorded at Dryburgh, from November to November was only 420 points (105mm)," Roger remembered.
"But I still regard the 1978 to 1982 drought as a lot worse than the '44 drought which was only for 12 months."
What made the 1944 drought particularly memorable in Roger's mind was the devastation caused by the rabbits on top of the bushfire.
He went on to explain that devastation when he said that such were the numbers of rabbits in the steep areas of the Central and Southern Tablelands that every February the available pasture would have been eaten out, creating in effect, a man-made drought.
"In my lifetime I would say that the greatest thing that ever happened in the bush, especially in the hilly country was getting rid of the rabbits," Roger said.
"People today just can't comprehend how the rabbits destroyed so much country before myxomatosis and 1080 was used to control them."
Strangely, Roger recalled, during dry times the rabbits would die before the sheep because graziers would feed their flocks.
"We were lucky because we had Kurrajong trees which could be lopped to provide feed for our sheep," he said.
"Every morning we would cut the branches and that was often enough to sustain the sheep through the drought."
In talking about the rate of increased production due to pasture improvement, Roger said it would not have occurred if the proliferation of rabbits had not been brought under control.
"There had been a few who had tried to improve their pastures in small areas, but it wasn't always a success," he remembered.
"I had an uncle who had country at Belgravia (near Orange), and it was a moving mass of rabbits, but now it is one of the most productive areas in the state.
"When I came home from school you could see where some blokes had attempted pasture improvement with super and sub-clover, but Dad would say - what was the point of feeding rabbits?."
Roger said his father was one of the first landholders to encourage the spread of myxomatosis, but his actions created great animosity from his neighbours where he was physically threatened with being burnt out.
"It was thought by destroying the rabbits, people would starve or lose their livelihoods," Roger said.
"But Dad said, by getting rid of the rabbits I am virtually guaranteeing you a job because I can increase stock numbers and you'll have more work."
Roger credits Max Hazelton in one of his two Tiger Moth's flying superphosphate and subterranean clover onto paddocks, as one of the innovative pioneers of pasture improvement in his area.
Others Roger recalled were neighbours Fred, Ken and Percy Gay and Frank Coles.
"They started with a little paddock and they would put the super into the plane by hand, a bag at a time," Roger remembered.
"But pasture improvement did have a lot of hiccups, including the Depression, the war and the rabbits - it was stifled for a long time."
Looking around his paddocks brim full with pasture, Roger said it wasn't always as productive despite the rainfall.
"Before pasture improvement, Boorowa was not regarded as the best country, only growing wiregrass and a bit of red grass," he said.
"It had good rainfall, and as soon as they spread super and sub clover this country exploded. But getting rid of the rabbits changed everything."
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Stephen Burns
Jackaroo on Merino sheep studs in the Riverina, a lifetime working on the land with sheep, cropping and cattle. Graduate Charles Sturt Uni with degree in Business and a Dean's Certificate. Graduate C.B. Alexander Agricultural College
Jackaroo on Merino sheep studs in the Riverina, a lifetime working on the land with sheep, cropping and cattle. Graduate Charles Sturt Uni with degree in Business and a Dean's Certificate. Graduate C.B. Alexander Agricultural College
