Cattle theft, primitive capital accumulation and pastoral expansion in early New South Wales, 1800–1850∗

The authors wish to thank Ian Duffield (Edinburgh University), John Fisher (University of Newcastle) and their colleagues Barrie Dyster and Peter Kriesler, as well as the two anonymous referees for this journal for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

Abstract

The key role of cattle (as against that of sheep) in the settlement and economic development of colonial Australia has been neglected. This species of livestock made possible the opening up of the interior of the continent, where, until the later nineteenth century, they occupied more grazing land than sheep, to enable wool production to become the export staple. Cattle functioned as a surrogate for capital, otherwise in critically short supply. Cattle theft, in two of the three forms analysed,was a motive for the perpetrators to push the frontier of settlement beyond the expanding settled districts.

Notes

The authors wish to thank Ian Duffield (Edinburgh University), John Fisher (University of Newcastle) and their colleagues Barrie Dyster and Peter Kriesler, as well as the two anonymous referees for this journal for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.