'Men's huts, Challicum, 1848'

• This asset shows an aspect of Challicum - in 1842 Cooper and the brothers George and Harry Thomson took over the sheep run, which they called Challicum, from Alexander and Colin Campbell; like many Englishmen in this period, the three men were lured to Australia by tales of the wealth to be made from wool; by 1844 the 15,000-acre (6,070-hectare) run was stocked by 3,500 weaned sheep, 3 horses and 8 cattle.
• It indicates that labourers were employed at Challicum - records indicate that by 1844, in addition to Cooper and his partners, the property was worked by '12 male and 1 female resident persons, all free [not convict labour]'; a shortage of labour in the 1840s and 1850s, particularly during the gold rush, led to a scarcity of farm labourers.
• It provides an example of the type of hut provided for farm labourers in this period - early pioneer huts were crudely constructed of vertical or horizontal timber slabs and a thatched roof, and clay was often plugged between the slabs to stop the draught; the men's huts at Challicum were located close to the main station area.
• It indicates that the accommodation provided for farm labourers was basic - the isolation and rigours of bush life also contributed to a shortage of farm labourers; in 1852 the owners of Challicum may have arranged for immigrants to come from Britain to work on the run; wages and conditions for those willing to work in the bush were generally better than in England, which may have made Challicum an attractive prospect.
• It shows that the men's huts were located near the creek - while a nearby fresh water supply was essential to the survival of squatters and their employees, these huts often flooded because of their position near the water; the rocks shown in the watercolour may have been placed on the creek bridge to weigh it down in the event of a flood.
• It indicates that the land adjacent to the men's huts was thinly wooded - Challicum consisted mainly of sparsely wooded and grassy plains, which were ideal for sheep grazing; the run was in the fertile area of south-western Victoria that explorer Major Thomas Mitchell encountered on an expedition in 1835 and called 'Australia Felix'; his discoveries fired the imagination of thousands of settlers who followed his tracks.
• It suggests that squatters occupied land in western Victoria in this period - squatters moved into the Port Phillip district and illegally occupied crown (government) land from the mid-1830s; after 1835 squatters paid the colonial government in New South Wales a £10 annual licence fee to pasture their stocks and in 1847 they could lease their runs for 8 or 14 years with the option of re-leasing or purchasing the land at the end of this period.
• It is an example of the work of Duncan Cooper (c1813-1904), an amateur artist who recorded the settlement of Challicum from his arrival in 1842 until his retirement in 1853, when he returned to London - his collection of sketches and watercolours, most of which come from 'The Challicum Sketch Book', provides one of the few pictorial records of settlement in this period.

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