A new Sidney Kidman?

DiscoMick · 31st March 2014, 06:17 AM

Yep, me too. Meant Sidney, of course. Corrected now. Still, its interesting.

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**bob10** · 31st March 2014, 07:05 AM

This is a very good read, if you like Australian history, Bob

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Kidman The Forgotten King

By Jill Bowen

On Sale: 1/08/2007 Formats: Paperback Single-Click Shopping:

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Book Description

The true story of the greatest pastoral landholder in modern history As a barely literate youth of thirteen, Sidney Kidman ran away from home and worked as an odd-job boy in a grog shanty in outback Australia. He went on to become the greatest pastoral landholder in modern history, acquiring a legendary reputation both at home and abroad as the Cattle King. Kidman was much more than a grazier. In addition to his many successful business ventures and his contributions to the war effort, he was driven by a grand plan for the remote arid areas of Australia. This kept him locked in a battle with the land - and against drought. Wealth, power, fame and honours did not change Sidney Kidman. He remained the homespun, gregarious bushman for whom men worked with an almost savage loyalty. Greatly admired, he also had many enemies, and in his later years was dogged by controversies and untruths. This book explores the fascinating Kidman legend, and gives a balanced, thoroughly entertaining account of this larger-than-life Australian and his exceptional achievements. 'An addictive read, embracing the romance of the bush and the hardship of the outback.' SUNDAY TIMES

DiscoMick · 31st March 2014, 03:12 PM

That sounds good. I've read a couple of others about him too. Certainly an interesting character.
The idea of having a chain of properties each with good water and being able to move cattle between them according to the seasons certainly makes sense, as it avoids the animals eating out a property and then needing to be hand-fed, plus it means you can move the animals to avoid the worst droughts.

Its like Kidman adopted the methods of John Stuart the explorer whose routes were based on moving from waterhole to waterhole, except Kidman was moving cattle, and they couldn't stay too long in one place or they'd destroy the waterhole. Stuart's financial backer Finke bought up a string of properties along Stuart's routes into the inland to graze his cattle herds, and got rich doing it.

Incidentally, and this is drawing a long bow as far as comparisons go, the Mongolian conquerer Genghis Khan had a similar methodology for moving his massive armies, which being all cavalry would eat out a pasture in a couple of days, so Genghis had to keep his armies moving all the time.

In our case, as climate change sees temperatures rising and inland farms increasingly failing, or being unable to support large herds for long periods, we could see a revival of droving as a method of keeping cattle alive, fed and watered while moving them slowly to market, as Brinkworth is apparently doing.

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