Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Tuesday 2 July 1918, page 8


CATTLE TICK IN WESTERN

AUSTRALIA

The Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry has since its for-mation been collecting and disseminating Information as to the cattle tick in Aus-tralia, with a view to impressing on the public the serious losses caused by the pest and to emphasising the importance of treating the matter as a national one, and of employing all the resources of States and Commonwealths the cam- paign against the pest Hitherto each state has been fighting the tick by itself usually with little knowledge of what the others were doing or even of the position elsewhere

In 1916 the Advisory Council issued a bulletin on the subject, which has been widely circulated amongst persons in-terested, and of which copies may still be obtained free from the secretary, 314 Albert street, East Melbourne in that bulletin most ot tie information given concerns New South Wales and Queens-land, the authors having little informa-tion as to the position in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The council has now received from Mr A. J. McGlew, of Derby, W.A. some interesting information as to the position in the Northern or Kimberley division of that State, which shows that the tick has re-cently gained a footing in another area, and thus emphasises tbe importance ol common action against the pest on every frontier ol its present distribution

Mr. McGlew irrites from Derby, on May 27, ISIS, as follows - You are of course aware that cattle tick is prevalent gene-rally throughout what is known as East Kimberley, and has been for many years past. East Kimberley embraces country from Wvndham to the Northern Tcrritory border and back towards Derby, as will be seen from most maps ol NorthernWestern Australia We have bad a "tick line" line" between the two Kimberleys. West Kimberley extends from Derby about 250 miles east and 130 miles south to Broome Ticks made their first appear-ance here in May, 1916, and the area was confined to Obagama, Kimberley Downs, Yeeda, and Streetern stations These pro perties are Immedlatelv on the coast, the former being 70 miles N C of Derby, and the last named 100 miles south ot Derby How the ticks caine so rapidly Is a matter »»hieb is open to much argument we had heavy lloods in tie early part of 1916, the waters coming doivn the Fitz-roy from East Kimberley, and many assert th's was the cause Others attri-bute their presence to a mob of cattle being allotved to come irotn East Kim-berley to a property behind Streeters station. These cattle did not do any good on the countr», and were sent back -or rather what was left of them They were dipped before leaving East Kimber ley Ho« ever, they are here and here to stay They seem to thrive best ia the coastal regions »vherc the countr» is much Inferior to that along the Fitzroy from 100 miles east of Derby, »»hile over the Leopold Ranges the tick bus not yet lound a home There was not much loss the hrst year except at Yeeda, which is 25 miles from Derby. Last year tha losses were heavy on some ol the runs, particularly on tioso stations mentioned above ' This occurred towards the end ot the dry season when the cattle «ere low in condition and weak The tick during our 'wet season' (December March) and when the cattle were stronger were not too plentiful, but they arc beginning to show up plentifully now Fever bas been observed amongst come cattle, nnd there bave been a few cases of red-vatcr The tick has travelled South about Broome Cattle dips ha»e been erected at Lagrango and Wallal to treat travelling cattle."