Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

Dipping Sheep (1899)

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clip
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Dipping sheep

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

A farmer pushes sheep underwater with a plunger as they pass through an arsenic sheep dip.

Curator’s notes

This actuality footage was taken by the official photographer of the Queensland Department of Agriculture on an unknown Queensland farm in 1899. Sheep dipping is a technique farmers have used since the 1850s to protect sheep against ticks, lice and fly-strike. The term 'sheep dip’ refers to both the solution and the trough from which the sheep is dipped, which you can see in this clip. The practice continues to this day.