Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 18 April 1946, page 4
PASTORAL RESEARCH
In 1932, 5,254,000 Sheep ap- proximately half the State flock, were carried on the stations of the northern and goldfields
pastoral areas. Ten years later there
were 2,582,000 sheep in the pastoral
areas, and by the end of the war these flocks had recovered only to 2,924,000. Wool production in the pastoral areas for 1944-45 was approximately 65,000 bales-less than half of what it was 10
years previously.
These figures alone are sufficient jus-
tification for the decision of the State
Government to purchase Abydos and Woodstock stations in the Pilbara dis- trict to establish a pastoral research station. In common with primary producers in other parts of the State the pastoral
industry received a severe setback by
the depression of 1931-33. With no chance to recover, the industry then had to face the worst drought period in its history, a drought so severe that in 1940 a Royal Commission was ap-
pointed to recommend measures to
save our stations from ruin. Since then pastoralists have received over £l,0O0,000's worth of relief in the form of debt adjustment and rent re-
missions. Still the position remains
serious.
Amongst the immediate problems
which research workers will have to
tackle are infertility, drought feeding, blowfly control, regeneration of native
vegetation and vermin control, and the
advantages of tackling them on the
spot are obvious. The Department of Agriculture's research stations in the agricultural areas have carried out
work of enormous value to farmers, and it is surprising that the pastoral
industry has remained so long without similar facilities.
It would appear that the Pilbara pro ject envisages the very desirable state
of affairs—a close liaison between the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the State Department of
Agriculture and the Institute of
Agriculture at the University. Such
a set-up will give it something more than a State significance, and it is
to be hoped that after the initial
problems have been solved, something will be contributed to that vital
national question—utilisation of our empty North.