Story: Farm fencing

Farmers often used post and rail fences to protect cultivated paddocks from stock, and for stockyards. However, the fence in this 1840s watercolour is subdividing paddocks for grazing. Before the widespread adoption of wire fencing, post-and-rail fences were common where there was ready access to forests. The trees had to be felled and then the posts and rails split using an axe, maul and wedges. Building the fence was also laborious.