History of Cowra Agricultural Research & Advisory Station

William Farrer is regarded as the Father of the Australian wheat industry. He had very strong views on how Research Farms could be best used to help farmers develop agriculture in NSW. He was instrumental in the formation of the new “Experiment Farm” at Cowra in 1903, where he could conduct his wheat breeding trials unencumbered by others.

A portrait photograph of JT Pridham

In 1911, after studying under Farrer, John Pridham came to Cowra as a Plant Breeder for the Department. He continued Farrer’s work in the improvement of wheat, producing strains with better disease resistance and baking quality. Early in his career Pridham felt that the advances in wheat improvement could also be applied to oats, making them better adapted to the drier wheat belt conditions. He believed that by moving away from one crop farming and using oats as an alternative to wheat, the sustainability of western farming could be improved. He also carried out pioneering work with barley.

Pridham’s legacy is continued by many other plant breeders who use Cowra as a base for their work. The refurbished J.T Pridham Conference Center (circa1910) is named in his honor.

In 1913, J. Wrenford Mathews initiated a large-scale program to evaluate various breeds and crosses of sheep for prime lamb production. This was the start of a long and continuing association between the then Cowra Experiment Farm and the prime lamb industry. Mathews's program was the first in Australia to show the superior prime lamb production from the Border Leicester x Merino ewe when crossed with the Dorset Horn ram.

Agricultural training centre

Early in the Station's history it was also a practical agricultural training centre. A large building was constructed in 1910 to accommodate and instruct young English boys brought to Australia under the 'Dreadnought' scheme.

A large building was constructed in 1910 to accomodate agricultural students

For the period 1911 to 1938, 1246 students passed through various training schemes. Later, many young Australian men and women gained training and experience in agriculture at Cowra. During World War II part of the building was used to house the Women’s Land Army.

Much of the history is covered in the book 'A patch of Common' published in the 2003 (available on request).