Liverpool Plains

History

The Liverpool Plains were initially inhabited by Australian Aboriginal people. In the 19th century they were mostly Gamilaraay. English surveyor general John Oxley was the first European to visit the area while exploring the Macquarie River area in 1818. The Plains were subsequently named after Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Nowlands Gap, a pass over the Liverpool Range, was discovered by William Nowland and has been described as the gateway to the Liverpool Plains. In the early 1830s, Henry Dangar surveyed and explored the area and made land claims in the name of the Australian Agricultural Company. In 1838, 28–30 Aboriginal Australians were murdered by a group of convicts; seven men were convicted of the "Liverpool Plains Massacre" (also referred to as the Myall Creek massacre) and hanged.

During the 1860s Captain Thunderbolt (Fred Ward) and two accomplices robbed inns and mail-coaches in the Liverpool Plains district.

Agriculture

The Liverpool Plains is ranked the fourth best soil type in the world. The Liverpool Plains area is typical of temperate woodland regions in south-east Australia. It has an elevation of approximately 270 metres above sea level. Most of the 620 mm of rainfall the area experiences each year is high intensity and occurs in the warmer months, from October through March. Rivers run from the Liverpool Ranges in the south-east to the Namoi River valley in the north-east, where elevation falls to 264 metres above sea level. Soils in the area are distinctly black, have a high fertility rating and store a lot of water. They are well suited to growing winter crops such as wheat, but at risk of erosion when cultivated.

Agricultural settlement of the Liverpool Plains started in the late 1820s after the pass was discovered and since then it has been one of the prime agricultural regions of New South Wales. The major land uses of the Liverpool Plains are cropping and grazing. The main crops include barley, chickpeas, mungbeans, faba beans, sorghum, sunflowers, soybeans, maize, wheat and cotton while grazing comprises beef cattle and sheep mainly for prime lambs. The more fertile alluvial soils (native grassland and poplar box country) have been cleared, while larger areas of remnant vegetation (ironbark and Callitris pine) remain on poorer sandy and ridgetop soils.

References

;Bibliography

References

1. The Australian Encyclopedia Vol. V, Halstead Press, Sydney
2. (December 1838). "The Liverpool Plains Massacre". Colonist.
3. (12 December 1838). "The Liverpool Plains Massacre". Colonist.
4. Victor Crittenden, 'Ward, Frederick (Captain Thunderbolt) (1835 - 1870)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6
5. {{Harvnb. Cameron. Green. 1991, p. 32