19/12/2025
🦆✨ How about ROAST DUCK for this year’s Christmas feast!! ✨🦆
An Innovation in the Goldfields in 1904
In the early 1900s, Western Australia offered a splendid market for table ducks, yet few farmers pursued it. Paradoxically, the first large‑scale duck operation wasn’t in fertile farmland but in the goldfields of Kalgoorlie.
Just two miles from the Kalgoorlie Post Office at Somerville stood the Carisbrook Duck Ranch and Poultry Farm, owned by Messrs. Fuller, Naughton & Co. What began as a few pens of pure‑bred chickens grew into a thriving enterprise. By 1904, the ranch produced 3,300 ducks in a single year, with plans to raise 8,000–10,000 in the coming season.
The secret lay in modern incubator technology. Carisbrook used American‑made Cyphers incubators—14 large machines and 6 smaller ones—capable of handling over 6,000 eggs at a time.
Feeding was meticulous: oyster shell for strength, boiled eggs and bread for starters, then bran, pollard, and oil cake. By 11 weeks, ducks weighed about 3.5 pounds and fetched premium prices—up to 14 shillings a pair at Christmas🎄💰
So this Christmas, raise a toast to the pioneers who made roast duck a holiday delicacy in the most unlikely of places… and maybe add a little extra gravy on the side! 🥂🦆✨
Fig1. Trove. (n.d.). CHRISTMAS! - Kalgoorlie Western Argus (WA : 1896 - 1916) - 19 Nov 1912. [online]
Fig 2. Cropped cover of 1910 Price List and Supplementary Catalogue (Catalog) of Incubators, Brooders, Poultry Appliances, Foods, and Standard Supplies Manufactured by Cyphers Incubator Company of Buffalo, New York USA. Internet Archive. (n.d.). [online]
Fig 3. Internet Archive. (n.d.). 1910 Cyphers Incubator Buffalo NY : Cyphers Incubator Company of Buffalo NY USA [online]
