Riding on the Sheep’s Back: A vegan’s history of the Australian wool industry (1700-1806)

The Australian wool industry carried the nation’s economy for much of the 19th and 20th century and played a significant role in growing the wealth of the British Empire, while displacing Indigenous populations and devastating ecosystems. In today’s show, part of the wool series, Betty Melon takes Meg and the listeners through the events of the 1700s leading up to the creation of the Australian wool industry. We set the scene on the historic importance of wool to Great Britain, leading to the eradication of wolves and the brutality of the Scottish Highland clearances. We move on to follow the schemes of Australia’s first wool baron, John MacArthur, as he becomes the wealthiest man in New South Wales and the impact of the colonial settlement on the people of the Eora Nations. As we reflect on the colonial history of Australia, we recognise the parallels between the actions of Australian governments of the 19th century against First Nations people and the actions of the modern Israeli state against the Palestinian people. It was wrong then and its wrong now. Sanctions save lives. We call for the Australian government to take decisive and immediate action to sanction Israel. Our friend of the show, Anas Arafat, is the founder of the organisation ‘Plant the Land Gaza’. Before Israel started relentlessly bombing Gaza in October 2023, Anas had been working on several food growing projects with the goal of long-term food sovereignty for the people of Gaza. Since then, the IDF has completely decimated the land and cut off food supply to people in Gaza. Despite this atrocity happening before our eyes, Anas continues to do his food distribution work, bringing critical relief to people in his community. However, Anas has recently been hit with an unimaginable personal tragedy, losing 13 family members when their home was bombed by the IDF on July 14th. We pay our respects to Anas and to the memory of his family. We will remember them.  We send our love, condolences and solidarity to Anas and his family.  You can support Anas and his mutual aid work in Gaza through our fundraiser: https://gofund.me/aa4facc0 Thank-you to our program’s sponsor  Project Fresh Start https://projectfreshstart.org.au/ Music has been removed from the podcast version of the show due to copyright. Please check out the music featured: Happy Australia Day - Luke O’Shea, Kevin Bennett https://lukeoshea.com/happy-australia-day-new-single-video-from-there-in-the-ochre/ Sing me a Story - Luke O’Shea, Lyn Bowtell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBkgqnTUUf0 Dharawal – Luke O’Shea, Jade Kennedy https://lukeoshea.com/new-music-from-luke-oshea-a-powerful-new-single-dharawal/References: https://www.compassioninfoodbusiness.com/rethinking-food/people-planet-animals/planet-land-use/ https://guides.sl.nsw.gov.au/convicts-bound-for-australia/second_fleet https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/macarthur-john-2390 https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Great-Wolf-Slayers-Of-England/ https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1302011h.html#ch-02 https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/merino-sheep-introduced https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/pemulwuy-13147 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130FeeGAz10&t=3s