Goyder's Line 1865, commemorative plaque
Goyder's Line 1865, signage and commemorative plaque (photo taken December 2008).
Welcome to the short but tragic story of Goyder's Line:
"After inspecting northern pastoral lands devastated by a drought in 1864–65, Surveyor-General George Woodroffe Goyder advised the [South Australian] colonial government to discourage farmers from planting crops to the north of a line delineating the extent of the 12-inch (30cm) annual rainfall [elsewhere described as the 10-inch (250mm) rainfall line but said to be really about the type of vegetation the land sustained rather than rainfall per se; and that farmers would need govt support to grow crops above the line].
"Goyder’s findings were embodied in the first schedule of the [catchily titled] Waste Lands Alienation Act 1872, which permitted farmers to purchase land on credit only within designated agricultural areas. ...
"The law was short-lived; favourable seasons in the north encouraged the government to pass Act No. 22 of 1874 repealing the 1872 Act and allowing the sale of land under credit agreement outside ‘Goyder’s Line’. A run of bad seasons in the 1880s halted the northward progression, forcing many farmers to abandon their homesteads and, more often than not, a severely eroded landscape."
-- abbreviated from: Judith Jeffery, ‘Goyder’s Line’, on the delightful web site of the SA History Hub, History Trust of South Australia, sahistoryhub.com.au/subjects/goyders-line, accessed 28 January 2019.
Many of these landscapes are still ruined, are dotted with all that remains of houses built to last (as they built them in those days), or, in some cases, only the chimney; and sad isolated graveyards in which the only vegetation is a pepper tree.
It is said that climate change is now moving that line that the visionary Goyder first drew, and that the amount of arable land in SA is decreasing. See the excellent coverage by Michael Dulaney, James Jooste & Daniel Keane on the ABC (Australia's national broadcaster) 'Goyder's Line moving south with climate change, SA scientists say, forcing farming changes' last updated 2 Dec 2015, accessed 28 January 2019.
[Goyder's Line 1865_text_2008Dec_CU_IMG_6435]
Goyder's Line 1865, commemorative plaque
Goyder's Line 1865, signage and commemorative plaque (photo taken December 2008).
Welcome to the short but tragic story of Goyder's Line:
"After inspecting northern pastoral lands devastated by a drought in 1864–65, Surveyor-General George Woodroffe Goyder advised the [South Australian] colonial government to discourage farmers from planting crops to the north of a line delineating the extent of the 12-inch (30cm) annual rainfall [elsewhere described as the 10-inch (250mm) rainfall line but said to be really about the type of vegetation the land sustained rather than rainfall per se; and that farmers would need govt support to grow crops above the line].
"Goyder’s findings were embodied in the first schedule of the [catchily titled] Waste Lands Alienation Act 1872, which permitted farmers to purchase land on credit only within designated agricultural areas. ...
"The law was short-lived; favourable seasons in the north encouraged the government to pass Act No. 22 of 1874 repealing the 1872 Act and allowing the sale of land under credit agreement outside ‘Goyder’s Line’. A run of bad seasons in the 1880s halted the northward progression, forcing many farmers to abandon their homesteads and, more often than not, a severely eroded landscape."
-- abbreviated from: Judith Jeffery, ‘Goyder’s Line’, on the delightful web site of the SA History Hub, History Trust of South Australia, sahistoryhub.com.au/subjects/goyders-line, accessed 28 January 2019.
Many of these landscapes are still ruined, are dotted with all that remains of houses built to last (as they built them in those days), or, in some cases, only the chimney; and sad isolated graveyards in which the only vegetation is a pepper tree.
It is said that climate change is now moving that line that the visionary Goyder first drew, and that the amount of arable land in SA is decreasing. See the excellent coverage by Michael Dulaney, James Jooste & Daniel Keane on the ABC (Australia's national broadcaster) 'Goyder's Line moving south with climate change, SA scientists say, forcing farming changes' last updated 2 Dec 2015, accessed 28 January 2019.
[Goyder's Line 1865_text_2008Dec_CU_IMG_6435]