Round 3
I am studying the history of feral animals in Australia and am trying to find any information on them but especially when they were first mentioned.
Question posted Wednesday May 27, 2009
Jane B's answer
I used Australian History, Ancient and Modern History as this database is full of Australian content and primary source documents. To find the information I entered “feral animals” into the search box – this came up with 7 results. The earliest mention was a link to Explorer Excerpts 1797 – 11 March 1801. I followed this link to the next part of the site and scrolled down the list to the 5th entry The Saunder’s News-Letter (30 January 1797) which contained an article about an intrepid herd of cattle that had escaped a few days after the first arrival of the colony.
The excerpt is below:
The following fact is a striking instance of the want of enterprise and activity. A few days after the first arrival of the colony (now eight years since) a bull and six cows strayed from their keeper into the woods. A fear of venturing far amongst the natives, then somewhat hostile, repressed all attempts to regain them; indolence succeeded these fears, and no search was ever instituted. Some time since, an officer’s servant, shooting in the woods, between twenty and thirty miles from Sydney, discovered them, and conducted the Governor and his party to the spot, where they found a heard (sic) consisting of nearly sixty head of remarkably fine cattle. The bull attacked the party who, with some difficulty, escaped unhurt. That a neighbourhood of thirty miles by land, presenting no unusual obstacles to an adventurer, should, in the almost starving state of the colony, have remained unexplored for so long a period, is not to be accounted for otherwise than by the apathy or despondency of the settlers.
Commentary based on an unidentified correspondent’s comments, published in Saunders’s News-Letter, Monday. January 30, 1797, HRNSW (2), 820.
I went back to the list and had a look at the link Explorer Excerpts January 1802 – August 1803 and this is where this particular database is a bit clunky… to find the next mention I had to use the Find on this page option of Internet Explorer and put in “feral”. This strategy came up with an entry for 30 November 1802 of a letter by Governor Philip Gidley King to Lord Hobart that talks about attempts to unsuccessfully recapture the cattle that were now too ferocious to approach; he describes them being in two herds numbering 200 each.
For interest here is an excerpt from his letter:
Sixteen months have elapsed since the contract was made with Mr Campbell. I am inclined to think his partners in Calcutta do not mean to attend to it, has no penalty existed in case of non-performance. Those who have gone out fully persuaded of bringing in part of wild cattle have all been unsuccessful, owing to their ferocity. Future efforts may be more fortunate, but I cannot help thinking it will be more advantageous to leave them quiet on this side the mountains until they increase so much as to compel them to move towards the settlements. I am more confirmed in this idea as the officer (Ensign Barallier) I sent to endeavour to pass the mountains has returned from his first trial with little hope of effecting it, or making a new discovery, except a very imperfect limestone and the better kind of iron ore than has yet been found. He saw two herds of the wild cattle, of about 200 in each herd, which were to ferocious to approach. His next journey, which he is now preparing for, I hope will be successful, as he is sanguine in his expectations of passing the mountains.
From: Letter to Lord Hobart, HRNSW 4:847.
This search took less than five minutes and the researcher would be able to carry on with the research at home by logging onto the database with their Mosman Library card.
Ken D's answer
Started with a Google search – “history of feral animals in australia” – and pulled up a page from the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
Feral animals in Australia looks a good introduction, and the fact sheets for ‘Animals of concern’ gives a little history on the introduction of, for example, cats, who “may have arrived with Dutch shipwrecks in the 17th century.”
The most authoritative resource for feral animals in general was on about the third or fourth page of Google results.
feral.org.au is a “comprehensive, interactive and freely available website on pest animals. The site aims to make information on past and current research readily accessible and to interpret and pull together relevant data to assist end-users in making management decisions.”
It is published by the Invasive Animal Cooperative Research Centre in cooperation with the University of Canberra and with the assistance of the Bureau of Rural Sciences.
A good report with a brief history of each feral animal is Counting the Cost: Impact of Invasive Animals in Australia, 2004 (PDF) by Ross McLeod of the CRC.
There are a couple of Wikipedia articles that could also be good starting points for general research – a definition of Feral and Invasive species in Australia. Both pages have good external links.
Couldn’t find the first primary source mention of feral animals in Australia – but maybe one of the talented librarians visiting this site could do better and let us know their search strategy in the comments.
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