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Goyder's Line marks the delineation between land in South Australia which receives more than 30 centimetres of rain annually and that which does not. In late 1865, South Australia's surveyor-general, George W. Goyder, was asked to survey the state's north and define the southern extremity of the great drought of 1864-65. It was thought that this would define areas which received enough rain to support agriculture or livestock. Thus, Goyder's Line was established - the areas to the north of the Line were deemed to receive insufficient rain for farming. In the 1870s, however, a series of wet years saw optimistic farmers ignore Goyder's warnings of unreliable rainfall in these areas. When a series of dry seasons occurred in the 1880s many of the farmers were ruined.