If y'all want to read something a bit...capricious... check out Jim Corbett's Goatwalking book, which is available on BigMuddy.
I wouldn't recommend implementing it in Australia, but it's still an interesting read.
]]>The other thing is that goats are pretty good with tethers, most quickly work out how to untangle themselves (cf dogs). So it may be worth while borrowing a goat and seeing just how bad your hillside is for it. Tie goat to tree, see which one dies. I imagine that these days the combo of an electric chainsaw and a goat would be handy - the goat eats the small bits, you come in with the chainsaw and remove protruding stuff that catches the tether, repeat until you're at the top of the hill.
Fuel loads right up the east coast are ugly, and another wet summer is going going to help. My goatherder friend is busy breeding more goats because there's considerable demand.
]]>I know of people have walked across big chunks of Oz using camels in a fairly similar way, but carrying more supplies. The first Afghani immigrants here came very early on in the European occupation, arriving as camel-keepers once Darwin taught the whitefellas that horses and deserts aren't a good combo. The history of mosques here is basically the history of camels.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/australia-islam-camels-oldest-mosque-broken-hill
The hassle with Australia is the destruction of water sources, either deliberately to remove first nations people, or via farmed or feral cattle. Later also the use of wells to lower the water table. So a lot of places that you used to be able to walk through you can't any more. The infamous Canning Stock Route, for example, used to have water every 20-30km but most of those wells are now dry and/or abandoned.
Obviously those feral introduced animals also modify the vegetation in non-useful ways so a lot of the traditional food plants are no longer available (or exist but are unknown). Foraging would be a lot harder now.
]]>Makes me wonder about the possibilities for cultural inheritance in ruminants. Put a small number of calves with a large number of goats and let them grow up climbing trees. When the calves get old enough to breed then their own calves will also get the habit of climbing trees, from their own parents as well as from the goats. After that you shouldn't need the goats and you just have a herd of cattle whose calves all learn to climb trees from their parents. That would be neat.
]]>If it's fence-able it might be worth looking at a rent-a-goat-herd service who will normally use goats that have been trained to respect temporary electric fences. Since they also like novelty and eating weird shit they will usually stay inside a fence like that until most of the vegetation is gone. A friend runs one in southern NSW and we occasionally tell each other stories about goats ("the men who stare at goats" story being obviously matched by the goats who stare at men... usually while eating something they shouldn't)
That reminds me ... Back when I was in High School there was a mile long tobacco aging warehouse across the street; had about a 20' grassy setback from the street. The tobacco company didn't want to use lawn-mowers to cut the grass, so they kept a flock of sheep that they'd move around between their various warehouses.
I have no idea how the sheep ended up in the school cafeteria, but they usually did.
]]>Cooked or raw?
]]>"I have no idea how the sheep ended up in the school cafeteria, but they usually did."
Cooked or raw?
Sheepishly wandering around. I believe it was almost a tradition that at some point during the school year they'd end up herded across the street & into the school buildings.
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