PIONEER AND PIG DROVER – JACK SMITH

Droving of large numbers of sheep and cattle in Australia was common but not so for pigs. Those who have had anything to do with these animals would be able to imagine the problems associated with droving large mobs of these animals especially recently caught wild pigs, over long distances.

Pig droving did occur, and on a large scale, in the district several times between Mackay and Proserpine in the early twentieth century. In 1908, three large mobs were driven overland and sold in Mackay.  

Prior to 1907, Goorganga Station was closed to hunters and trappers with the result that the property became overrun by wallabies and pigs. When grazier, Mr E G Lascelles, purchased the property and saw the damage caused to the farm he immediately engaged a pig catcher with a view to removing the menace and saving the grass for the stock during dry times.

Enter Jack Smith …

Arrangements were made with a drover called Harry Rafter who engaged as his assistant, Jack Smith, well known as a good shot and excellent horseman. Jack Smith had come to North Queensland from Victoria as a young man, first working on Lochinvar Station (Collinsville) Rafter also made contact with a butcher in Mackay to purchase 300 pigs ranging from three months to two years.

Rafter decided the task was not for him and returned to his former work as a stockman. Smith stuck to the job and after four weeks had a mob of 120 pigs ready for the road and after a trek of ten days made his first delivery at Mackay. Upon arriving it was found that the butcher’s yard was not constructed to hold in pigs and a few escaped. The trip had not been uneventful and farmers enroute were unhappy when some of the pigs escaped.

A second droving trip, though just as difficult was more successful however the third mob delivered to Mackay was a disaster. When the pigs did not come up for feed the first morning after delivery, a worker endeavoured to start them off. Startled, they took off, taking the fence with them. The stockman tried to round them up with the horses but they were so badly ripped the task ended in failure. This drove proved to be the last.

Jack Smith left the catching and shooting business at the end of 1909 and became a mixed farmer growing corn, bananas and tobacco and later sugar cane in Banana Pocket but he continued to supply the local market with pigs which by that time became scarce and difficult to find.

Jack, otherwise known by the nicknames of Long John and Honest Jack, continued his association with Lascelles of Goorganga and procured beasts from him taking them to the Banana Pocket Butchering Company where the meat was put in kerosene tins, placed on the old wood stove, and brought to the boil.

Jack Smith was Chairman of the first Banana Pocket Progress Association in 1921. He advocated for a school at Banana Pocket and the first one opened in a small hut on his block of land known as “The Garden”. Jack Smith later became Proserpine Shire Chairman from 1937 – 1940. His death in the late 50s marked the passing of another true pioneer of our district.

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Photo and story courtesy of Proserpine Historical Museum and also sourced from the “Proserpine Guardian” Special Edition 1947.

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