The Rural Entrepreneurs: a History of the Stock and Station Agent Industry in Australia and New Zealand

By Simon Ville, Cambridge University Press: 2000, , 259 pages, hardcover, $49.95. Reviewed by Glen McLaren in the September 2001 issue.

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After migrating from England to New Zealand in 1989, Simon Ville became interested in the question of stock and station agencies, yet was intrigued to find that no comprehensive study had been made of the industry. On moving to Australia two years later he found a similar situation existed and, following exploratory research, commenced work onThe Rural Entrepreneurs. Given the advantage of research assistants, he has been able to comb an immense amount of material and has produced a tightly argued monograph. Indeed, due to the detail provided, The Rural Entrepreneurs reads like a doctoral thesis and will probably appeal primarily to academics.

The most valuable aspect of this work is that it provides a comprehensive overview of the role of stock agencies. As Villepoints out, he wished to investigate how the Australasian:

farming community distant from its markets, lacking large-scale finance, susceptible to volatile fluctuations, and short on appropriate experience, spearheaded export-led economic development. (p 202)

Accordingly, he has methodically examined the background to this almost unique institution, as well as the financial, market and information services which stock agencies provided, and their organisational structures and competitive strategies. In doing so, he makes clear the complex relationships arising from changing economic circumstances, between the evolving stock firms and between stock firms and clients.

Unfortunately, the strength of this work Ville's academic, non-rural background, appears also to be the source of its greatest weaknesses. Primarily, Ville has critically misinterpreted the essential nature of Australian rural industries, writing for instance on page 58 of an industry 'characterised by rapid technical and commercial change' This is simply not correct. Up until the mid-to-late 1950s the wool, dairy, pig and fruit growing industries were run on essentially the same lines as for the previous 100 years or more.

Similarly, much of the northern pastoral cattle industry, which stretches from the Murchison region in Western Australia (which is only 350 miles north of Perth), through the Pilbara, Kimberley, the Victoria River District, Central Australia and down to the southern areas of Queensland, scarcely changed for almost a century. Indeed, almost all the above area was still dependent on packhorse-era technology until the early 1970s. Huge expanses of this region were unfenced, thousands upon thousands of scrub bulls roamed unchecked, mating cows and heifers indiscriminately, there were few man-made watering points, grazing could not be controlled and rangeland degradation was a fact of life, and the standard of cattle and stock husbandry was generally poor to dismal.

He also appears to have quite misunderstood the role of stock agencies and stock agents at the local level. ReadingThe Rural Entrepreneurs, one's impression is that stock agents spearheaded ongoing dynamic changes and developments. Without question they provided 'raw materials, equipment and stock', (p 14) but few West Australian rural cognoscenti would agree their local stock agent, certainly up until the mid 1970s, was a: specialist intermediary ...who was well-known and connected to all

groups... [and who] served as a conduit for the flow of financial, commercial, and technical services that connected farmers to other stages of the production process. (p 58)

Quite simply, up until that time the average stock agent in Western Australia would not have completed beyond third year high school and almost certainly had no formal in-house training. In fact one of the principal factors behind success in the stock agency business was an ability to consume alcohol and socialise extensively after livestock and produce sales.

Compounding this shortcoming was the fact that the average farmer was very poorly educated, intensely conservative and cautious over new farming practices. In 1910, for instance, W Lowrie, the newly appointed Western Australian Director of Agriculture, wrote in his Annual Report:

the greater part of the farming [in this State] is of a crude, rough and ready character, and some of the practice is sadly uninformed and even painfully wasteful...[Clearly] many of the men on the land have taken up farming without preliminary experience and are groping their way accordingly...(p 24)

Similarly, although to some extent a caricature, Ville should read the description of farmer McSwat in My Brilliant Career. Thus, even if stock firms had provided a flow of 'financial, commercial and technical services' -- which they did not, as anyone who read the Elders Weekly of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s can testify, the incorporation of this material would only have been limited. What changes occurred arose almost exclusively from farmer interaction, and through the field trials, extension services, field days and scientific bulletins provided by the various Departments of Agriculture. Consequently, Ville's assertion regarding stock agents underwriting 'significant improvements in output quality and yields' is wrong. These questions aside, there are a number of small errors, foremost of which is Ville's confusing use of the term 'pastoral'. On pages 78 and 85, for example, he rapidly changes from 'pastoral' to 'farming,' and includes farmers in pastoral areas. In Western Australia, at least, 'pastoral' is taken to include all unimproved areas used for rural pursuits. That is, those low-rainfall, rocky and/or generally unsuitable regions where no clearing, ploughing, cropping or pasture improvement is practised, and the stock are run on unimproved native grasses and scrub. By contrast, 'farmers' operate oncleared, improved farmland. extension services, field days and scientific bulletins provided by the various Departments of Agriculture. Consequently, Ville's assertion regarding stock agents underwriting 'significant improvements in output quality and yields' is wrong. These questions aside, there are a number of small errors, foremost of which is Ville's confusing use of the term 'pastoral'. On pages 78 and 85, for example, he rapidly changes from 'pastoral' to 'farming,' and includes farmers in pastoral areas. In Western Australia, at least, 'pastoral' is taken to include all unimproved areas used for rural pursuits. That is, those low-rainfall, rocky and/or generally unsuitable regions where no clearing, ploughing, cropping or pasture improvement is practised, and the stock are run on unimproved native grasses and scrub. By contrast, 'farmers' operate on cleared, improved farmland.

Furthermore, as a Britisher, Ville does not appear to appreciate the vastness of this continent, nor the extremely poor quality soils and fodder, especially in Western Australia. This is a pity, for as an economic historian he should appreciate that by and large the poor quality of the Western Australian pastoral wool clip (p 208) had very little, if anything, to do with the paucity of stock agents and almost everything to do with economics. The logistics and, more importantly, the cost of importing good quality and expensive breeding stock from the eastern states by ship, arranging further transport to the northern ports, where heavy losses were commonplace, then droving these delicate stud animals hundreds of miles across harsh, often intensely hot country with only scrub and spinifex for feed, where waterholes were long distances apart, were daunting. Subsequently, these previously cosseted stud animals had to survive in an extremely harsh climate while serving large numbers of ewes. The situation was the same in the Northern Territory, where stud bulls and stallions were generally kept in special paddocks close to the homestead, frequently fed supplements during the worst of the dry season, and mated only to selected mares or cows. In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the station stallions/rams/bulls were frequently thoroughly acclimatised animals purchased cheaply from (relatively) local breeders, or the best conformed male stockon the property. Thus it is hardly surprising that breed improvement in pastoral regions was markedly slower than in agricultural areas.

In short, The Rural Entrepreneurs, does little to dispel the recurring question of whether historians should have some practical experience in their subject area. Nonetheless, this monograph will be amost useful reference in regard to the broader role of stock agencies.

Citation

• Glen McLaren. 'Review: The Rural Entrepreneurs: a History of the Stock and Station Agent Industry in Australia and New Zealand by Simon Ville' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), September 2001. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 10 September 2010].

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