by John Wells
A really important part of the history of Gippsland is the spud - the potato - Solanum tuberosum. Call it what you will it is incredibly important as a basic foodstuff all over the world.
I was a little concerned to find that it is part of the same family as the Deadly Nightshade, and I've been told that potatoes which stick out of the ground while growing and so develop greenish skins are poisonous. I've never tested that and I'm not about to. The Deadly Nightshade also started the evolution of tobacco, chillies and bell peppers. The humble spud is also the fourth largest food crop in the world, following maize, rice and wheat.
It started out as a food crop in the Andes and was brought to Europe by the Spaniards in the 16th century, and that is the lecture part of this story completed.
The potato became an important crop in Gippsland from the earliest days of settlement. The squatters that we think of cattle and sheep men also, usually, had vegetable gardens as well. There were no greengrocers in the bush. Potatoes will grow almost anywhere, and they provide a fllling, nutritious meal without the need for skilled cooking.
My problem now is that farmers tend to just farm their products rather that sit down and write about them, so the history of the potato in Gippsland seems a little neglected.
My wife grew up in Iona, where spud crops were important. In a season of short supply the prices could rise dramatically, so many cockies would plant spuds, only to find that this led to an oversupply.
Thorpdale is in rich, red, volcanic soil, an ideal place to grow potatoes. It is renowned as a source and even in the Longwarry market we see spuds proudly labelled as Thorpdale potatoes, only a few miles from the parts of the Koo wee rup Swamp that have been producing potatoes for more than a century. There were even two varieties launched at Toolangi in 1995 called Catani and Dalmore. Naturally, as fast-food outlets mushroomed, there was a great demand for potatoes that could be quick-fried and come up with a white interior and a crisp, golden exterior, and these two were developed for that market.
Thorpdale sees itself as "The Heart of Potato Country", perhaps a little conceitedly but also hard to argue against now. It has a sign at the entrance advertising the Labour Day potato festival. I'll have a closer look at the Thorpdale potatoes one day soon.
In the beginning here potatoes were planted by hand in soil hilled up by a plough. They were cut, if they were big enough, to go further as long as there were 'eyes' on each piece. They grew, matured, got old, and were harvested. Digging them out from he raised rows was done with a potato fork that could lift the spuds with little damage – except to human backs.
This was where the really hard work started. Bags were dropped at the end of the rows and dragged along by the person 'picking up'. Sometimes the bag top was rolled down like a sock and gradually unrolled as it filled. In other places the bags were hung from a tripod which had a ring around the top with much the same circumference at the bags. This circle had three, or perhaps four, short spikes to hold the bag open for filling.
Potatoes too damaged, or too small, for the market were left there. The farmer's family would collect some. Cattle were often let into the harvested potato paddocks to feed on the chats and damaged spuds. It was said that cows could choke on them but I never knew it to happen.
The filled bags were closed up with running stitches of twine and the cart would come around for the men to swing the heavy bags up. It was not easy work.
If the market was 'up' there was money to be made. If it was 'down' there was a lot less to be made, but some of the bags would be kept to feed the family. Spuds stored properly can last a long time.
One technique some growers used was pitting. Those potatoes not to go to market – farmers did not want to sell when the market was bad, naturally, had to be carefully stored. Some placed beds of straw on the ground, sufficient to keep the potatoes above the wet soils. The potatoes were placed on this bed of straw, sometimes four feet or more deep, and then covered with another thick layer of straw. With no moisture and no sunlight, the potatoes could stay in good condition for months. It also meant that the dirt still stuck to the tubers would dry and fall away.
A 1932 report said the principal areas of potato farming in Victoria included Dalmore, Garfield, Iona, Fish Creek (in Gippsland), and Colac, Warrnambool, Koroit, Ballarat through to Woodend. In North Gippsland, however, north of Warragul, at Neerim and Nayook, some excellent red soil is to be seen, and potatoes from these districts quite frequently bring premiums of 10/ to 15/ a ton on the Melbourne market.
A 1937 poll of growers voted in favour of a Marketing Board for potatoes (and onions) because growers were not getting a fair return. In one form or another that authority has continued, and in the early 1950s the 'official' prices were set way below what the unofficial market would pay, There was a thriving black market in potatoes while those high prices lasted.
In 1954 the Gippsland Times reported the Potato Marketing Board was looking for a new Receiving and Loading Agent to be based at the Sale railway station to maintain records of who was sending out potatoes and how many. He was to be paid 7/6d a ton to administer the pricing fixed by the Board.
The farmers have their own 'union', of course. Potatoes Victoria was the Victorian Potato Growers Council until 2016, under the umbrella of the Victorian Farmers' Federation.
"The average production for 1920 -1931 in Victoria was 173,000 tons and for Tasmania 97,000 tons. The acreage for Victoria averages 60,000 acres and for Tasmania 33,000 acres… (Victoria's) export amount to only 73,000 tons, compared with 85,000 tons".
During that period Victorians were eating 100,000 tons of potatoes every year. The population in 1929 was 177,065, so Victorians were eating more than half a ton of potatoes each, every year.
Lets not call it the humble spud anymore.
