Agricultural science, forestry and soil conservation during World War I and the interwar period

Although Indigenous Australians had managed and farmed the continent for at least sixty thousand years, European colonisers who relied upon 'old world' knowledges of agricultural production found Australia's climatic and environmental conditions to be challenging. The cultivation of crops and the 'opening' of land for stock grazing formed the basis of colonial and national economies from settlement until well into the twentieth century, with the export of wool, meat and wheat of particular significance. Agricultural experimentation to improve yield and secure food for the colonial population was imperative from the time of settlement; the development of the merino sheep industry by pastoralist John Macarthur in the early 1800s is one legendary example of such innovation. Based on British models, agricultural societies were formed in the 1820s to foster the exchange of agricultural knowledge, and organised demonstration ploughing matches and experimental farms.