George Goyder

George Goyder (George Woodroffe Goyder; born June 24, 1826, London, England; died November 2, 1898, Echunga, South Australia) was an outstanding surveyor in South Australia during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Goyder's Line Of Rainfall

Before the drought of the middle 1860s, wheat and barley growing had been spreading rapidly further north and the erroneous belief that rain would "follow the plow" led to the idea of cereal crops spreading up to the Northern Territory border.

Related Topics:
Wheat - Barley

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, the 1864/1865 drought put paid - at least temporarily - to these ambitions. Goyder was, in the midst of his work in the pastoral zone, asked to do a report on the problem and his response was to find out how far south crop failure had been general. The northernmost point at which crops had not failed was marked as "Goyder's Line Of Rainfall" and corresponds approximately to the 300-millimetre (12 inch) annual isohyet (figures vary from 250 to 350 millimetres in different publications). Goyder recommended that farmers not attempt to farm cereal crops anywhere north of this line. The idea was quite contrary to beliefs widespread at the time and seen as ridiculous by many people in high places, yet it has been proven to be very wise by the many major droughts in the 140 years since, which have led to major losses by all graingrowers near to or north of the line.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Goyder's Line was first accepted significantly after a number of dry years in 1881-1882 and 1884-1886, though improved breeding of wheat has allowed some expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, despite a couple of very severe droughts (amongst many very wet years, quite probably due to anthropogenic climate change).

Related Topics:
Breeding - Climate change

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~