The ‘crooked R’
At Rouse Hill Estate, reminders of the property’s rural past are everywhere, from fence lines and machinery to farm buildings and the myriad odds and ends stored inside them. Particularly eye-catching are several branding irons that evoke the Rouse family’s long history as graziers and horse breeders.
Early colonial newspapers abound with notices for lost and found livestock. Along with offers of rewards, threats of prosecution or claims of expenses from the owners, the notices typically describe the colouring of the animals’ hides and any identifying markings – in particular, descriptions of brands.
Strayed from the herd of John Palmer Esq. at Hawkesbury, three calves, branded on the hip R C or C P. Any person returning the same to the overseer will be handsomely rewarded: but if kept up after this notice the offending parties will be prosecuted, and a competent reward paid to the informant.
Used to permanently mark livestock, branding irons were placed in a fire till red hot, then pressed against an animal’s hide to scar it. In Stuart Thomas Gill’s 1860s view of a herd of cattle corralled for branding (above), the station hands are perched atop fences and use brands with very long handles to avoid being gored or kicked by an angry animal reacting to the sudden, intense pain.
In the first decades of the NSW colony, selecting a brand was a straightforward process: for privately owned stock the owner’s initials could provide a simple mark, while government stock was branded with the distinctive broad arrow.1 As time went on and the number of farms and stock increased, more brands were needed. Combinations of letters, numbers and symbols provided more variety, while further variations could be created by turning a letter on its side, or by changing the brand’s placement on the animal – the left or right side, front or rear flank. Before long this created a bewildering number of different marks, with a high chance of repetition and mistaken identity.
Introducing the ‘crooked R’
The first branding iron used at Rouse Hill was a simple, cursive, sans serif2 capital letter R. A surviving example in the Rouse Hill Estate Collection was most likely made by an estate blacksmith. Known to history as the ‘crooked R’, it was first used by Richard Rouse (1774–1852), who built Rouse Hill House and bred champion racing and harness horses, and then by his successors, including sons Edwin and George and their sons in turn. In 2020, conservation work on Rouse Hill’s woolshed revealed several crooked Rs which had been painted on an internal wall at an unknown date.
Variations on a theme
In later years, a series of variants were introduced that incorporated personal initials: Richard’s son Edwin (1806–1862) seems to have used a brand that added a cursive letter E before the crooked R, while his brother George (1816–1888) used a capital G placed above the R. A simple underscored variation was used at Guntawang near Mudgee in the Central Tablelands, where Edwin’s sons Richard Rouse junior (1842–1903) and Edwin Stephen (1849–1931) ran stock, and the Rouse interest in breeding fine horses was continued and expanded.3
In 1892, the journal The Referee commented on the care with which the brand was applied to horses at Biraganbil, the property of George’s son Richard (1844–1906) which faced Guntawang across the Cudgegong River:
Some curious brands are registered by stud masters, and many of them disfigure the horses unnecessarily. Occasionally we see a huge blotch on the shoulder, caused not so much by the size of the brand as by the careless way in which the horse has been branded. One of the neatest Brands we have seen is Mr. Rouse’s, of Birigambil [sic]. The ‘crooked R’ brand has become famous, and many real clinkers [first-rate horses] bear this mark. The brand is small, and judging from horses we have inspected the branding is carefully done. In addition to the brand Mr. Rouse adopts a system which to a great extent assists the buyer in making his purchase. The age of any racehorse bred at the Birigambil [sic] Stud can be told by examining the markings. The number, say 5, on a horse would indicate it was born in 1885, and the No. 8 would show it was the eighth foal of that year bred on the station. This is a methodical system which enables Mr. Rouse to tell at a glance, – on reference to his book, the exact age of any horse or mare he has bred. This plan is a good one, and might be imitated with advantage.[4]
A mark of quality
In the case of horses from the Rouse studs, the ‘crooked R’ became a literal stamp of quality. In 1892, poet Andrew Barton Paterson – better known as ‘Banjo’ – wrote of horses bearing the ‘crooked R’, as it was widely known by then:
This old black horse I’m riding – if you’ll notice what’s his brand He wears the crooked R, you see – none better in the land …
For cattle, the ‘crooked R’ primarily served as a mark of ownership; this was especially important on farms at a time when post and rail fences were either easily broken, or, in many cases, simply non-existent. An incident of cattle rustling (also known as ‘duffing’) told in the 1888 novel Robbery under arms by Rolf Boldrewood (the pen-name of Thomas Browne, whose son Everard rode with the Rouses and Terrys in the Sydney Hunt Club) was based on an actual theft of Rouse cattle. In that case the instantly recognisable crooked R was doctored with serifs in an attempt to pass it off as a South Australian brand.5
Introducing a formal system
In NSW, livestock brands eventually became regulated under the Registration of Brands Act of 1866. In 1877, Edwin Stephen Rouse registered his own cattle brand. Like his uncle’s ‘GR’, it was composed of a monogram of his initials, ESR.
A brand with this design survives in the Rouse Hill Estate Collection. The following year a sheep mark was registered, combining an ‘E’ clip cut into the ear with the familiar crooked R brand on the rump.
Identifying cattle in the 21st century
Today, livestock theft remains a significant issue for NSW farmers and graziers; official police data from 2016 to 2020 recorded an average of 1,845 cattle a year reported stolen, with the actual figures thought to be far higher.
Hot brands have been replaced by newer techniques for identifying stock, including cold branding, also known as Freeze- or Cryo-Branding, which is considered less traumatic for the animal and leaves a distinctive white mark; and biometric scanning of an animal’s muzzle, a high-tech process akin to human face recognition. Since 2004, all stock in Australia has been tracked under the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS).
The most common technique is ear tagging, originally invented in the 18th century but only in widespread use since the 1950s.6 This is the system used today at Rouse Hill Estate, now managed by Museums of History NSW. On a visit to the site you can still see Poll Hereford cattle grazing in the fields, each with their own individual number on an ear tag that can be read from a distance.
These animals continue the small herd of cattle that was maintained by Gerald Terry (1904–1999), a fifth-generation Rouse descendant and the estate’s last permanent resident.7 The property currently has 13 cows, and only a few weeks ago we welcomed five new calves to the herd! Keep an eye out for them next time you visit Rouse Hill Estate.
Notes
- Branding irons with the broad arrow mark were used to mark government-owned livestock such as cattle and sheep. Every item made or used by government convicts – from building materials to furniture – had to be marked or stamped with a broad arrow, to prevent theft and the selling on of government goods and tools. The broad arrow was so widely used to mark objects used by convicts that over time it became commonly viewed as a symbol of the convict system itself, rather than just a mark of government ownership.
- Serifs are the small linear projections that extend from the strokes of a letter; they distinguish serif fonts like Times New Roman from sans serif fonts such as Arial or Fortuna.
- Financial difficulties later forced the closure of the stud and, in 1904, the sale of the property. In 1905, two years after the death of Richard Rouse junior of Guntawang, the brand was cancelled.
- ‘Our note-book: branding racehorses’, The Referee, 3 February 1892.
- ‘The ancient art of cattle-lifting’, The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 2 June 1903.
- For information on the NLIS, and how it incorporates ear- and electronic tagging, see this fact sheet.
- In 1993, when they were transferred to the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (now part of Museums of History NSW), Gerald Terry’s herd of 15 comprised 12 Poll Hereford cows, one bull, one calf and a ‘black and white heifer’.
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Dr Scott Hill
Curator
Formal studies in architecture, along with travels through Asia and Europe, furthered Scott’s interest in colonial building, domestic design, and the intrinsic relationship between architecture and landscape. This culminated in his PhD ‘Paper Houses’, which examines the significant colonial identity John Macarthur’s interest in architecture, and the design of the Macarthur houses Elizabeth Farm (1793) and Camden Park (1834). In Scott’s words: ‘understanding a historic house, an interior or landscape is for me a process of 'reverse‐designing', about taking the finished product and digging down to find the 'why': the reasons, the decisions and the myriad hidden influences that led to its creation’. He has been curator at Elizabeth Bay House and Vaucluse House and most recently at Elizabeth Farm, Rouse Hill Estate, and Meroogal; ‘The Curator’ in the award-winning SLM blog The Cook and the Curator; co-curated the Eat Your History: A Shared Table exhibition; and in 2023-24 he was senior curator of the exhibition ‘The People’s House: Sydney Opera House at 50’ at the Museum of Sydney.
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