Western Downs

Cactoblastis was very important in eradicating thousands of acres of prickly Pear. This thorny cactus grew very well and made good grazing land useless. This "monument" has lots of info.

(from the info on display)
"The Shanti"

On August 2nd 1909, Thomas Alfred Colellar) signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Samuel Marsden for the purchase of 1280 acres being portions 40V and 46V, Parish of Colamba, County of Chinchilla for £120. The down payment was £1, the residual being "cash upon transfer of Lease". He named the property "The Shanti" after their home in England.

TA. Cole Jnr along with his wife, son Tom and Father T.A. Cole Sur had arrived in Australia in April 1909 intent of farming. Diary quote "Selected land on account of water...creek...lagoons. advised in England to take land with plenty of water if possible." They found themselves surrounded with prickly pear and so began a fight to cut, burn and poison the pear in an attempt to clearland. Burning was done on large straddles of wood.

Diary: "Considered myself trapped on this property, deliberately by the Government as they should have known, the conditions imposed were worse than slavery and impossible to be accomplished and any smaller area would not have been sufficient to make a living on, according to market valuations and commodities. Conditions imposed meant 20,000tons of P.P. per annum and keep clean. Ranger Killet advised he would not recommend 2/6 acre but would recommend £10 if I applied. Wrote to Old Land to block other good settlers coming until I could do anything to remedy the position I found myself in."

In 1912, TA. Cole was "Requested to accept position as Foreman of Works under Dr Jean White testing about 943 plots to various compositions. Vapour, so called gases" at the Government Experimental Station in Dulacca. He worked there until 1915 and the station closed in early 1916 when Dr White-Haney resigned. "Under the most practicable methods of chemical or mechanical treatment, dense prickly pear could not be eradicated at a cost of less than £10 per acre". (Dodd) This would be impossible to sustain.

In 1922 the laboratory building from Dulacca was transported to Chinchilla Hospital where it was used as an operating theatre.

On returning from Dulacca, the TA. Coles...Snr, Jnr and son Tom continued to work at clearing the land until 1923 when the family moved into a house in town. "The Shanti" was then occupied by officers of the newly formed Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board. T.A. Cole 3rd (Tom) became a Field Assistant at this time, 1924, with the Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board. He worked at: Chinchilla, Gogango and the lab in Sherwood. In 1936, young Tom returned to the research lab in Sherwood and continued working there as a specialist in pear eradication throughout SW Queensland. At the time of his retirement in the 1972, he was the last member of the Technical staff of the old Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board still working actively in the field.

When the Field Station at Chinchilla closed in 1936, T.A Cole's son in law, Sandy Bullock was the last Officer-in-charge. The cages and sheds were dismantled - with the exception of one large shed which was left on the farm and is there today. The property reverted to a dairy farm and in recent years to a grazing property.

Passages quoted here are from the Diary of TA. Cole 2nd

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Chinchilla Fjeld Station - The Bug Farm

In 1923, Entomologists from the Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board moved into "The Shanti". From 1923-36, it became the Chinchilla Field Station - or locally, "the bug farm".

Alan Dodd, whose father Frederick Dodd was known as the "butterfly man of Kuranda" (Nth Qld), was Officer-in-charge 1923-24. In 1924-25 he went as Senior Entomologist in the United States, Argentine and Uruguay, in search of insects to attack the pear. It was A.P. Dodd who rediscovered Cactoblastis cactorum in Uruguay and Northern Argentine. Full grown larvae collected at Concordia, Entre Rio at the end of January 1925 were taken to Buenos Aires. When the moths emerged in February, a total of 3000 eggs were placed on pear in Wardian cases and the consignment dispatched by steamer in March en route to Australia via Capetown.

The South African Department in Agriculture examined the consignment and reported that the material was in good condition. Before re-consigning the shipment, they removed a few colonies of larvae as a reserve in the event of mishap to the consignment before its destination, Sydney. Hence the original and only importation into Australia was 2750 eggs. The consignment reached Sherwood Laboratory in May 1925 and was opened in the Quarantine insectories at Sherwood, in excellent condition. It had travelled for 10 weeks unaccompanied.

The cage rearing of C. cactorum on a large scale under cage conditions was carried out for eighteen months only. Wire-guaze cages, mostly 6ft by 3ft by 3ft high, were filled with Opunita inermis. Between 800 and 1000 eggs were placed in each cage. When prickly pear segments rotted, they were removed; if the decay reached considerable proportions, additional pear was provided. The 100600 eggs obtained from the Argentine material were divided between Sherwood, with 71960, and Chinchilla, with 28 640 eggs. In the space of two years since the despatch of the eggs from Argentina, during which period 4 generations had been completed, cage rearing resulted in the liberation of approximately 10200000 eggs.

Many people from the local community were involved in the working of the 'Bug Farm. They collected cocoons and eggsticks and weighed, quilled and packed the eggs ready for distribution thus playing a vital role in this valuable work.. despite the presence of death adders in the pear!

From 1925-39 Alan Dodd was Officer-in-charge of all operations. He returned to the Chinchilla Field Station in 1925 and worked there until its closure in 1936 at which time he returned to the Sherwood Laboratory. He continued to work at Sherwood until his retirement.

"The first prickly pear plant in Australia to be destroyed by Cactoblastis cactorum was at Chinchilla in September 1926, six months after the original liberation of eggs had been made." (Fittingly, this was on the property of Mr Harling who delivered dray-loads of pear for use in the cages, mc)

This iactual information has been reproduced from The Balogical Campaign against Prickly Pees the 1940 report was written by AP Dudd Aroug of this may be found in the Chrachille Library.

Other displays may be seen as the Mad at the Poonage Hall In the report, Dodd refers to the re-introduction of Cacoblastis cactorums. This is because Mr Henry Trum, who travelled 18 months as part of a man travelling Commission inching for insects that would attack the prickly pear actually found the lorrow in 1914 in the Botanical Garden La Plata, Argantian Me Tryon was so impressed with the potential of this imect, has collected and heongst a small number alive in Brisbane. Undortunately the larvae did not prosper and died before ching the pupal stage.Read more