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22lr and 12ga are definitely the traditional farm guns, I never saw much else growing up other than a .222 or 17rem with the serious fox shooters.
People thought I was a bit crazy when I bought a 6.5x55 as nobody saw the point in something that big.
Even the local red deer all fell too the 222/223, with probably the 22/250 being the biggest round you saw.
But everyone had a 22lr and a 12ga, that might be why I'm still so fond of them.

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Lancaster mentioned rifles found in every third farm shed.

Funny. My neighbour found a SMLE No 1 Mk III full wood .303 IN HIS FARM SHED! Found circa 1980 ? He has about four sheds. We had only two large sheds so lucked out. Actually about five but two clusters built on ...

Finding an unknown SMLE in a shed. What a find! Probably stashed there after WW1 or WW2. And forgotten. During the World Wars the newcomer ten penny poms probably here for a few years didn't trust the citizens with German names who might be third or fourth generation Australians. In WW2 firearms were certainly confiscated from "Germans" by the foreigner poms. My grandfather had to hand ALL his .22s and shotguns in. A farmer. One shotgun they thought was unregistered. So they broke it and hid it. A .303 like this may well have been hidden away during WW2 and forgotten. However I know a sheep property which once misplaced a tractor!