GIVEN the way tropical breeds have transformed northern Australian beef production from near financial ruin to an efficient and innovative industry that pumps millions of dollars into the country's economy, it's hard to believe there were days when folk would cross the street to avoid a man using a Bos indicus bull.
Thanks to the development of breeds such as Brahman, Santa Gertrudis and Droughtmaster, vast amounts of country that would otherwise have remained untamed and unproductive to mankind are now the homes of thriving, profitable beef enterprises.
Yet to this day, descendents of those who laid the foundations for some of this country's biggest commercial beef herds tell unfathomable stories of early prejudice and of the controversy caused by crossing Zebu bulls with traditional British breeds.
It is now close to 100 years since the first attempt was made to use Bos indicus cattle to produce commercial beef in Australia.
In 1911, amid drought, severe heat and severe tick fever in Queensland, Upper Burdekin grazier, William McDowall, purchased a white Zebu bull from a man named LeSouef, who was curator of the Melbourne Zoo.
The McDowall family account of how this bull came to be at the Zoo is that a shipment of cattle from Calcutta en route to Fiji stopped over at Melbourne and a cow and calf, born on the way, were offloaded to the zoo.
The bull arrived at the McDowall property, "Christmas Creek", and was crossed with Devon/Shorthorn breeders.
Mr McDowall's great grandson, Rob Philp, a retired archdeacon with the Rockhampton Anglican Church and now 77, said the story of how well that bull performed through drought and how his progeny were so much bigger and stronger has been handed down through the years.
"Apparently he was not pretty to look at and the other cattlemen would say we might as well breed bloody camels," RHH Philp said.
McDowall perservered, bringing in more Zebus during the next few years with other less conservative cattlemen such as John Robbins, of Mowbray, south of Port Douglas, and Louis Fisher of Daintree, to the north of Port Douglas.
There was no attempt to breed systematically, in the modern sense, RHH Philp said, but rather the bull was just put out with the herd and the best calves kept as herd bulls.
"The crosses were better walkers and better doers on dry grass and eventually people started to see the Christmas Creek cattle survived the droughts and had tick resistance," he said.
"That first bull's genes are still wandering around the Upper Burdekin today.
"And I've lived long enough to see the descendents of those early families who despised McDowall's crossbred cattle become big Brahman breeders."
Don’t miss The Land’s one-off feature on October 29, Seeds of Success, a liftout on Australia’s livestock industry, featuring sheep, beef and dairy.
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