John O’Brien’s Brother William – The Father of Wheat Farming in the Temora district
John O’Brien was Bill O’Brien’s great grandfather. You can read more about him here.
But it’s worth taking a moment to look at the life of John’s brother, William. William was already in NSW when John arrived. No doubt John was encouraged to make the arduous trip to Australia with his wife and two children through feedback he’d received from his brother…a phone call, a couple of emails. Something along those lines.
This is a transcript of an article about William, and the work he did to establish wheat farming in the Riverina District. It appeared in The Land Magazine on Thursday 2 August 1984.
William O’Brien – a Remarkable Man
William O'BRIEN, the squatter who first took up the "Bygoo Run" in 1857 was a remarkable man.
O'Brien had been a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary before taking up land in the colony, and the O’Briens had been neighbours of Hamilton Hume at Appin.
William O’Brien is known as "the father of wheat farming in the Temora district" after pioneering the crop 137 years ago.
O’Brien grew wheat in 1847 in the tiny clearing on the flat below his original homestead in the Go‑Go-Billy Hills about three miles south of the present Springdale Siding.
O’Brien felt the merciless cut of drought in the years 1849 to 1851 and the early part of 1852 when all his horses, and probably his other livestock as well, perished but this made him even more determined to grow wheat.
With a tenacity of purpose almost incredible, he walked from Gundabingal to the nearest settlement 60 miles away at Binalong, carrying his heavy steel ploughshare to be repaired.
In the history of an industry which has always claimed a selfless and unreasoning devotion from its followers, surely there is nothing more inspiring than the tale of the old soldier trudging the lonely and desolate miles of drought-blistered bush, burdened with his broken ploughshare.
O'Brien bought more horses in Binalong. Later in 1852 the drought broke with a vengeance, and the whole land was flooded. It is easy to imagine O'Brien yoking his new team to his wooden plough and breaking up the loam that was rich with the humus of innumerable years.
In those days the seed was broadcast and the crop reaped by hand. Small quantities were threshed with a flail. The wheats grown then were much easier to shell. The pestle and mortar were used to make flour, the bran being sieved out.
O'Brien grew his wheat - and there was no way of getting it to market. He kept growing it, and had three years: crops stacked in the sheaf in bark sheds when the Forbes diggings broke out in the early 1860's and there was a shortage of wheat there.
He threshed his wheat, using horses to tramp out the grain and winnowing it in the wind, and carted 1000 bushels to the diggings, using three bullock wagons.
He sold the grain, which was probably one of the largest parcels grown in the colony up to then for one pound a bushel.
This windfall, so richly deserved, put O'Brien on his feet. To him belongs the honour of proving that this land, now one of the greatest wheatbelts in Australia, was suitable for farming.
From The Land Magazine, 2 August 1984
The article above includes this paragraph:
With a tenacity of purpose almost incredible, he walked from Gundabingal to the nearest settlement 60 miles away at Binalong, carrying his heavy steel ploughshare to be repaired
This is a poem written by Rob Webster about that very walk. It was published in The Bulletin magazine on Australia Day 1949.
SOLDIER SETTLER, 1852
O'Brien walked to Binalong
From Gundabingal Run.
His head was high and his step was strong
Though everything he touched went wrong,
On Gundabingal Run.
He'd sown some wheat for the 'roos to reap
On Gundabingal Run.
The drought had killed his cattle and sheep
And his last horse fell in a bony heap
When the soak in the creek was done.
But O'Brien knew the dusty earth
Was sweetened by months of sun,
And the seed of years lay ripe for birth—
A storm or two and there’d be no dearth
On Gundabingal Run.
His plough had broken from the strain
Of tussock and root and rut,
So he made one while he watched for rain
From an ironbark with a curly grain
That grew beside his hut.
The steel share slung on a shoulder strong,
An hour before the sun
Rose over the bush like a bloody gong,
And the still heat stifled the faint birds’ song
O'Brien set out for Binalong
From Gundabingal Run.
He took the track of the teamsters' drays
That came to the runs no more;
He had one drink in two long days
And sixty miles of the loneliest ways
A white man ever bore.
The Binalong bullockies had to stare
To see him alive at all.
The blacksmith hammered his heavy share
While he bought a team from a carter there—
And the rain began to fall.
O'Brien rode from Binalong
Towards the setting sun.
He sat as straight as a kurrajong,
And he sang as he spurred his horse along
To Gundabingal Run.
ROB WEBSTER
From the Bulletin magazine
Australia Day 1949
There’s also this snippet I found from The Bulletin of 19 October 1955, showing that John had also done more than his fair share in promoting wheat farming in Western NSW.
Ever since the first crossing of the Blue Mountains the outer perimeter of the wheat-belt has gradually been pushed west. In 1836, wheat was grown at Gobarralong, in the western foothills. Later there were three flourmills at Tumut. In 1847, John O'Brien, of Gundabindyal station, proved that wheat could be grown further out than the earliest squatters thought possible.
The Bulletin
19 October 1955