Who were 'squatters' and 'selectors' in Australian history?

Before European settlement, the First Nations people of Australia had a very different concept of land ownership.

For them, land was not something that could be bought or sold – it was part of their spiritual and cultural heritage and belonged to everyone.

At the core of this understanding was the fact that the First Nations people believed that they had a responsibility to care for the land, which meant using it wisely and looking after it for future generations.

The British arrived in Australia in 1788 and soon began to assert their own ownership over the land.

They did this by claiming land for themselves and then granting it to others, often without any consultation with the First Nations people.

This process of dispossession continued throughout the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries as more and more British settlers arrived in Australia.

By the end of the century, very little land was left in the hands of the First Nations people.

The British settlers justified their takeover of the land by claiming that it was terra nullius – meaning ‘empty land’.

This was based on the belief that Australia had been uninhabited before European settlement, so there were no rightful owners of the land.

Of course, this was not true and the First Nations people had been living on the land for tens of thousands of years.

Ultimately, it would not be until 1992 that the High Court of Australia finally recognised that Australia was not terra nullius and that the First Nations people had a rightful claim to the land.

In the early days of European settlement, much of the land was acquired through a process known as 'squatting'. 

Initially, all land in Australia was considered to be owned by Britain. The official explanation was that it was owned by the British king, or simply 'Crown land'.

The people known as 'squatters' were usually British men who had come to Australia in search of new opportunities and simply took up residence on Crown land without official permission or licence.

These squatters would then clear the land and build homes and other structures, such as fences and barns.

Over time, the squatters would develop the land into farms and run sheep or cattle on it.

Many of them were wealthy individuals from England who used their new land acquisitions as a source of income.

Many squatters became influential figures in colonial Australia, with some, such as John Macarthur, playing key roles in the development of the Australian wool industry and the economic growth of the colonies. 

However, by the mid-19th century, squatters controlled vast tracts of land across Australia, which meant that any new arrivals to the country had very little land to buy for themselves.

As the British colonies in Australia grew, more and more people began to move into areas that had been previously occupied by squatters.

However, as they sought to buy their own land for farming, they increasingly found that squatters claimed ownership over almost all the good agricultural land.

When these squatters were asked to prove their ownership, they were unable to do so, since they had taken ownership without permission.

To try to regulate this situation, the colonial government introduced the Land Acts during the 1860s.

It was hoped that these laws would break the monopoly of the squatters and help address social inequalities.

In New South Wales, these acts were known as the Crown Lands Act of 1861, or the Robertson Land Acts.

Under this system, new settlers were allowed to 'select' a piece of Crown land and apply for a licence to occupy it.

The 'selector' would then pay an annual fee for the use of the land. This system allowed small farmers and labourers – known as selectors – to acquire their own land for the first time. 

It was believed that this would allow poorer people to start their own small farms, which would create a whole new social class of small landowners in Australia.

However, this new system was not without its problems. Many selectors found it difficult to obtain the necessary licence and many more found that the costs associated with maintaining their farms were too high.

As a result, many selectors abandoned their newly established farms.

As could be expected, the wealthy squatters were not happy with this new arrangement.

The governments ordered them to surrender large sections of their land that had not been used, and to hand it over for selectors to buy at auctions.

It was during the auctions and sales of this land that the squatters were able to try and manipulate the new system to try and get their land back.

Two tricks that the squatters used were known as 'peacocking' and 'dummies'.

'Peacocking' refers to the practice of buying land through deceptive means. Under this system, wealthy individuals would send agents to an area to select blocks of land on their behalf.

These agents, known as 'peacocks', would then erect small huts on the land to mark their claim. 

The agents would then return to the city and sell the land to other people, often at inflated prices.

This system allowed speculators to make a quick profit from the sale of land that they had not even seen. 

While 'peacocking' was technically illegal, it was a very common practice in the late 19th century.

Many of the large estates that were created during this period were the result of 'peacocking' activities.

If land did go to auction, wealthy squatters would hire people to bid on the land in order to give it back to the squatters.

These fake bidders were known as 'dummies'. Again, just like 'peacocking', the use of dummies in auctions was illegal, but squatters still tried to use them to retain control of land.

Despite the underhanded activities of the squatters, the selector system did have some success in bringing about a fairer settlement of Australia.

By the end of the 19th century, most of the available land had been acquired by either squatters or selectors.

This process of land acquisition had a significant impact on the development of Australia and its economy.

The concept of the struggle between wealthy elites and poor workers still lives on in the Australian psyche.

This was made possible by popular stories about the conflict in books and poems of the era.

The most famous is a series of humorous stories called Dad and Dave, by the author Steele Rudd.

This series was based on the experiences of Rudd's own childhood in a selector family living in the bush.

It helped to create a popular image of the 'battling selector': a hard-working, honest individual who was trying to make a good life for themselves and their families, despite the pressures put on them by the local wealthy squatter.

As a result, the image of the honest selector has become an important part of the Australian identity.

It represents the idea of a 'fair go' – that everyone should have an equal opportunity to succeed, regardless of their background or financial circumstances.

Even to this day, it is an important part of the way Australians see themselves and their country.