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...problems, in contrast to earlier generations, who saw it in a more romantic guise.
It's therefore a good time for a biography of the outback's first great cattleman, James "Hungry" Tyson, to appear. Zita Denholm's book, T.Y.S.O.N.: The Life and Times of James Tyson, Pastoral Pioneer, complements Jill Bowen's 1987 biography of another legendary figure, Sir Sidney Kidman, Kidman: The Forgotten King. Both books utilise original research to present an engrossing narrative. We can now compare the two figures and understand "old Australia" much better as a result.
The biographies reveal that Tyson (1819-98) and Kidman (1857-1935) had an extraordinary number of things in common. Both were self-made men who owned a vast number of runs. In the course of setting up their empires and becoming millionaires, a great deal of folklore grew up about their eccentricities. They came from poorish families running small farms on the outskirts of capital cities (Sydney and Adelaide respectively); in each case the father died early leaving a large family, and the mother married again unsatisfactorily and had more children. Tyson's mother was a convict, but that was kept quiet.
Both men left home early to wander the roads, picking up jobs, including droving, as they went. An aptitude for dealing in stock and runs, and in accumulating capital and assets, soon became apparent. They initially worked in companies with their brothers. Both got their big break from supplying mineral rushes--the Tysons from the Bendigo gold rush, and the Kidmans from the rush at Broken Hill....
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