Southward Temporary Grazing Relief

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser

25 November 1820

His Excellency the Governor, accompanied by the Honorable the Commissioner of Enquiry having recently made a tour of inspection through the country lately discovered to the Westward and Southward of the Cow-Pastures; and having ascertained, by personal Survey, that a large portion of that country is a rich soil well adapted for the purposes of agriculture and pasturage, His Excellency has thereon taken into consideration the present exhausted state of the pasture land on this side of the Nepean in the County of Cumberland, in part arising from its being overstocked, but principally from the destructive ravages of the caterpillar, by which they were some time since visited; and being anxious to extend such temporary relief to the graziers as the said new country may afford, is pleased to notify, that such Settlers, as are possessed of herds or flocks, may send them, for a time to be hereafter limited, to depasture the fertile tracts of the new country, they undertaking to do so at their own risk, and subject to the following restrictions and regulations :

1st. As the country now offered for the temporary relief of the herds and flocks of those settlers on this side of the Nepean, whose pasturage is at present in a state of exhaustion, will be shortly located and granted to those several persons who, in July last, obtained Promise of Grants; they, who may now choose to avail themselves of the offered indulgence, are to hold themselves in readiness to withdraw their said herds and flocks from the new country, so soon as the same shall have been specially located; but they are at the same time notified, that such removal will be rendered as little inconvenient to them as possible; for which purpose two months' notice will be given them, through the medium of the Sydney Gazette, wherein it will be published three different Times.

The land now offered for the service of the stockholders being situated between the Cow Pastures and the chain of hills termed the Cookbundoon Range. Persons wishing to avail themselves of the present liberty, are to resort to that place exclusively.

2d. As the range of country called and known by the name of the "Cow Pastures" is to be, for a further period, reserved for the use of the wild. Cattle belonging to Government, the public will take notice that the said Cow Pastures extend to the western limits of the country called "Bargo;" and it being of the utmost importance that every precaution should be used to guard against the herds and flocks of private persons intermingling with those of Government, it is ordered and directed, that such persons, as shall send their herds or flocks to the country lying, between the Cow Pastures and Cookbundoon Range, shall drive them directly, and without any unnecessary delay, through the entire of the Bargo Brush to the new country beyond, and to the west of the said Brush; on pain of their being seized & impounded for trespass.

3d. That, in compliance with the standing orders, prohibiting persons passing through the Cow Pastures without a special authority from His Excellency, or his Secretary, addressed to the Constables on Duty therein, all persons, meaning to avail themselves of the present indulgence, are required to furnish to His Excellency’s Secretary an account of the number and description of the cattle they propose sending for pasturage to said new country, whereon they will receive passports for them to proceed through the cow pastures, the bearers of applications for such passports will he required to wait for, and be the bearers thereof, from His Excellency's Secretary.

Government and General Orders. Government House, Parramatta,. Civil Department.