Family Networks and the Australian Pastoral Industry: A Case Study of the Port Phillip District and Victoria in the Late Nineteenth Century

This article highlights the important function of family and kinship networks in the pastoral industry of the Port Phillip District and Victoria, Australia, during the nineteenth century. Using the core case study of the extended Cameron family—or the Cameron “clan” from the Scottish Highlands—in the Western District of Victoria, it demonstrates how family networks assisted in the accumulation and consolidation of large pastoral properties and enterprises and thus aided the agricultural entrepreneurialism of migrants who saw greater commercial opportunities throughout the Empire than at home.