Livestock and Landscape: a history of the settlement of Queensland by cattle

Abstract

[Extract] This lecture aspires to put cattle into history, and to reveal how significant they have been to the settlement of Europeans in Queensland. Doing so requires us to consider both physical and aesthetic aspects of these beasts, and doing so allow us to recognise how important they remain in the way we think about our place, in Queensland and in Australia. In this lecture, while I will be speaking about Australia more generally at times, I will focus on the history of Queensland. In part, this is a response to the requirements of this lecture series, but it is also a response to the very interesting history associated with this state, and with the tropical north of this state. Environmentally, this is a very interesting part of the continent, and the settlement of this place, and the response by new inhabitants to the environments they encountered, is fascinating.