SAM BYRNE
b. 1883 Barrossa South Australia d. 1979 Broken Hill New South Wales.

Sam Byrne began painting when he was 70. He worked as a miner in Broken Hill from the age of 15 until he retired, aged 66. His paintings of the Thackeringa Mine and the Rabbit Plague highlight environmental issues.

Come to the Gallery & view this painting:

THACKERINGA MINE 1888

Look carefully at the image of the painting. 
What activity is taking place in the foreground? (What are the men and ponies doing?) What activity is taking place in the mid-ground? (behind the men and ponies) What is happening in the background? (behind the houses)

As mining technology improved, larger mines were created and more people were needed to work the mines. More people meant increased need for housing, food and clothing. The increasing human population needed clean fresh water, transport and hospitals. What else did the people need?

Can you imagine what the scene looked like ten years later?
What changes happened? 
What effect do you imagine that the changes had on native animals or indigenous people living in the bush beyond the town?

Here are some things you can do to fix the mistakes made in the past?

RABBIT PLAGUE, rounding up the rabbits.

When animals are introduced to other countries they either perish or flourish. The introduced wild animals that flourish are often called Feral Animals. Animals such as rabbits were able to adapt to Australian conditions. They found ideal breading conditions with few predators. In ideal conditions, when there is plenty of water and food, adult rabbits can have up to 12 kittens per month. If there are few predators to eat them, rabbits can breed into plague proportions. When the rabbit population reaches plague proportions they eat all the vegetation, even the bark off trees, ring barking and killing them. There is very little food left for other animals. Predator numbers increase as they too have ample food but the population of native animals, which compete with the rabbits for food, water or shelter decreases.

Sam Byrne said the following about the rabbit plague:
‘We had several rabbit plagues in the Broken Hill district. In good seasons they’d multiply in thousands. In bad seasons they’d all come into town looking for water.’
‘.. when there was a rabbit plague … the rabbits came in around the house. Women living around there- they were mostly old shacks we were living in – they used to scrape the plates off and the rabbits would come along and eat the Irish Stew or what ever they were eating, bread crumbs, whatever fell to the ground….The dogs would take no notice. It was like a mice plague… they’d get that used to them that they’d let them run all over them.’ 

As the ideal conditions changed and the dry season began, the rabbits died of thirst or starvation.

‘In 1908 all over the common around Broken Hill there were hundreds, thousands of dying rabbits and a lot of dead ones. The council thought there’d be an epidemic of typhoid fever. So they offered sixpence a dozen for any dead rabbits’.
Do you know how rabbit populations are being controlled in Australia?

Can you name any other animals that have been introduced to Australia and have thrived? List those animals. 
What impact has their introduction had on native species?
For example: The Common Sparrow is an introduced species that competes with native finches and wrens for food and shelter. The common house mouse competes with the native New Holland Mouse for food and shelter.
Does your list include any of the following?

Zoo Education Service
PO Box 74
Parkville Vic 3018
Telephone: 61 3 9285 9350 
Fax: 61 3 9285 9330 

World Wide Fund for Nature Australia
PO Box 528
Sydney NSW 2001

Gould League
Genoa St.
Telephone: 61 3 9532 0909 
Fax: 61 3 9532 2860