John Forrest was Surveyor General of Western Australia. It was not until this time that a determined effort was made to encourage greater use of the land for agriculture. Regulations had been in effect since 1848 to permit the issue of licenses for pastoral purposes.
Considerable areas of land had been taken up in the north west of the state, with only fifty thousand acres in total under crop. In the first year, during 1890 with new reforms 1,838,768 acres of land for agriculture was disposed of. The Hampton Plains syndicate was granted 216,000 acres under special agreement.
A story of a Hundred years chapter xx1p274
