William Farrer Totally Explained

Everything about William Farrer totally explained

William James Farrer (3 April 1845 – 16 April 1906) was a leading Australian agronomist and wheat breeder. Farrer is best known for developing the "Federation" breed of wheat, distributed in 1903. His work led to significant increases in the Australian wheat crop for decades to come, and economic prosperity for the wheat industry.

Early years

Farrer was born at Docker, Westmorland in the English north west (now Cumbria), the son of Thomas Farrer, a tenant farmer, and Sarah. He was awarded a scholarship to Christ's Hospital, London where he won a gold and silver medal for mathematics. After education at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where obtained a B.A. in 1868, he emigrated to Australia in 1870. He did this for health reasons - he'd been diagnosed as having tuberculosis. After working as a tutor on George Campbell's sheep station at Duntroon, New South Wales (now part of the Australian Capital Territory), he qualified as a surveyor in 1875. Farrer worked for the Department of Lands in wheat growing districts of NSW from 1875–1886. During this period, in 1882, he married Nina de Salis, a member of one of the families that lived in what is now the Australian Capital Territory region.

Lambrigg experiments

In 1886 Farrer bought a property on the Murrumbidgee River, Lambrigg station, near where Canberra now stands. Initially, he tried to grow grape vines on his land. However, these failed because the soil was unsuitable and he chose to try again with wheat.
   There had recently been a series of heavy rains that which resulted in the loss of much of the wheat harvest due to Wheat leaf rust. Accordingly, he chose to start developing wheat strains by cross-pollination that were immune to this malady. Initially he used hairpins for the pollination until he could obtain forceps A statue of Farrer was erected in Queanbeyan by the Federal government in 1935 and another at Lambrigg in 1938.
   Since then a Canberra suburb and an Australian electoral division have been named after him. Farrer was also remembered on the reverse of the Australian two dollar banknote issued in 1966 (now withdrawn). A specialist agricultural high school (Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Tamworth NSW) was named in his honour and continues to provide specialist agricultural education.
   William Farrer is also remembered in Wagga Wagga with the Farrer Hotel and the Farrer Football League (Australian rules football).

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