Sydney Mail, 16th November 1921 (page 27) The Wool Season. Brightened Prospects – A Bumper Crop.
These were the headings at the top of the page. Newspapers in 1921 were the equivalent of today’s internet for finding out how the rest of Australia’s farming community was doing. The article states that the Sydney wool stores were filled to their “utmost capacity” with wool and brokers had to secure additional storage for the wool clips.
Another headline: “Far Western NSW. Since the breaking of the drought in 1920 a time of plenty has been experienced in that part of New South Wales west of the Darling, such as has not been experienced for thirty years or more.”
I also found an article which mentioned Pleasant Hills, accompanied by a rare photo. Photography was expensive in 1921 and would have taken a number of days to develop and send by mail.
The article reads: ‘The wool clip that missed the early sales. This photograph gives an idea of some of the troubles experienced by a man on the land owing to the defective state of country roads. The owner of the wagon, a returned soldier, while taking a load of wool to Pleasant Hills Railway Station, NSW, with a team of six horses, worked the wagon down a slight incline with the brakes on. Pausing at the foot to release the brake, he heard something unusual and instinctively sprang clear, the wagon grazing his shoulder as it went over. He had unknowingly pulled up on a soft patch, and both wheels on one side had sunk out of sight. One shaft horse was thrown off its feet, but fortunately, the horses behaved well, and were released without serious damage.’
By Fiona Beckett