Stories of Australia's gold rushes are common in history books, but a little less visible was the rush of settlers - often squatters - across the country. Aside from displacing the first Australians, they brought with them farm animals such as sheep and cattle.

English settlers brought cattle to Australia in 1788 and, after a slow start, expanded rapidly from the early 1800s.

They "opened up" the land, but one of the problems they faced was how to get their produce to market. Without a means to preserve meat, they were often forced to drove herds across vast distances. It was slow and costly, and stock losses could be significant. Even then, however, the fresh meat export market was not practical.

One of the first steps came in 1843 when commercial tallow-making plants were set up in Po

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