Drover (Australian) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A drover in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

is a person, typically an experienced stockman, who moves livestock

Livestock

Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

, usually sheep or cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

, "on the hoof" over long distances. Reasons for droving may include: delivering animals to a new owner's property, taking animals to market, or moving animals during a drought

Drought in Australia

Drought in Australia is defined as rainfall over a three month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past. This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to typical rainfall patterns...

in search of better feed and/or water. Moving a small mob of quiet cattle is relatively easy, but moving several hundred head of wild station

Cattle station

Cattle station is an Australian term for a large farm , whose main activity is the rearing of cattle. In Australia, the owner of a cattle station is called a grazier...

cattle over long distances is a completely different matter.

Method

Movement of large mobs of stock was traditionally carried out by contract drovers. A drover had to be independent and tough, an excellent horseman, able to manage stock as well as men. The boss drover who had a plant (horses, dogs, cooking gear and other requisites) contracted to move the mob at a predetermined rate according to the conditions, from a starting point to the destination. The priorities for a boss drover were the livestock, the horses, and finally the men, as drovers were paid per head of stock delivered. Drovers were sometimes on the road for as long as two years. The drovers who covered very long distances to open up new country were known as “overlanders

Overlanders

"Overlander" or "Overlanders" may refer to:*An Australian name for a Drover who covers very long distances, with large mobs of sheep or cattle to open up new land...

”.

Traditional droving could not have been done without horses. The horse plant was made up of work-horses, night-horses and packhorse

Packhorse

.A packhorse or pack horse refers generally to an equid such as a horse, mule, donkey or pony used for carrying goods on their backs, usually carried in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of wheeled vehicles. ...

s, with each drover riding four or five horses during a trip. The horse tailer was the team member responsible for getting horses to water and feed, and bringing them to the camp in the morning. A good night-horse was highly prized for its night vision, temperament, and its ability to bring animals under control when a “rush”, known elsewhere as a stampede, occurred at night.

The standard team of men employed to move 1,200 cattle consisted of seven men: the boss drover, four stockmen, a cook and a horse-tailer. Store cattle were moved in larger mobs, of up to 1,500 head, while fat bullocks going to meatworks were taken in mobs of about 650 head, i.e. three train loads. The stockmen will ride in formation at the front, sides and back of the mob, at least until the mob has settled into a routine pace. Cattle are expected to cover about ten miles (16 km) a day, sheep about six miles (10 km), and are permitted to spread up to 800 metres (half mile) on either side of the road. Occasionally mobs of horses were moved by drovers. A short camp is made for a lunch break, after which the cook and horse-tailer will move ahead to set up the night camp.

A continual watch is kept over cattle during the night camp, usually with one horseman riding around the mob, unless the cattle are restless when two riders would be used. A rush can be started by a sudden noise such as a dingo

Dingo

The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...

howl, a bolt of lightning

Lightning

Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...

, sparks from a fire, or even a bush rat gnawing on a tender part of a hoof. Drovers tell vivid stories of the totally chaotic conditions that occur when several hundred cattle start a rush at night. If they head towards the drovers’ camp, the best option may be to climb a sturdy tree (very quickly). Many drovers have been trampled to death in a rush, sometimes still in their swags. A good night-horse can be given its head, and will gradually wheel the leading cattle around until the mob is moving in a circle, and calm can be restored.

During long ‘dry stages’ extra care will be taken of the stock, and this may involve droving during the night to conserve the animals’ energy. About three kilometres before water is reached, the animals will be held and small groups will be taken to drink in order that the cattle do not rush and injure or drown others.

A “cattle train drover” is a person who accompanies a mob of cattle on a train while they are being transported to a new location. The goods trains provide special accommodation for these drovers in specially constructed guard’s vans. Queensland is now the only state to run cattle trains.

Heyday

The first droving over a significant distance occurred in 1836 when 300 cattle were moved by Joseph Hawdon in 26 days from the Murrumbidgee River

Murrumbidgee River

The Murrumbidgee River is a major river in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and the Australian Capital Territory . A major tributary of the Murray River, the Murrumbidgee flows in a west-northwesterly direction from the foot of Peppercorn Hill in the Fiery Range of the Snowy Mountains,...

to Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, a distance of about 480 km. As droving skills were developed, more and more challenging assignments were undertaken. In 1863, boss drover George Gregory drove 8,000 sheep from near Rockhampton

Rockhampton, Queensland

Rockhampton is a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia. The city lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately from the river mouth, and some north of the state capital, Brisbane....

to the Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

border, some 2,100 km, taking seven months. Robert Christison overlanded 7,000 sheep from Queensland to Adelaide, a distance of 2,500 km, in the early 1870s.

Patrick Durack and his brother Michael trekked across the north of Australia from their property on Coopers Creek in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

which they left from in 1879 along with 7250 breeding cattle and 200 horses to the Kimberley region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

near Kununurra

Kununurra, Western Australia

Kununurra is a town in far northern Western Australia located at the eastern extremity of the Kimberley Region approximately from the border with the Northern Territory. Kununurra was initiated to service the Ord River Irrigation scheme....

where they arrived in 1882. The 3000 miles (4,828 km) journey of cattle to stock Argyle Downs

Argyle Downs

Argyle Downs is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about south east of Kununurra in the Kimberley region near the border of Western Australia and Northern Territory. It is operated by the Consolidated Pastoral Company....

and Ivanhoe Station

Ivanhoe Station

Ivanhoe or Ivanhoe Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located just north of Kununurra in the Kimberley region of Western Australia....

is the longest of its type ever recorded.

Charles and William MacDonald left their property near Tuena

Tuena, New South Wales

Tuena is a town in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia in Upper Lachlan Shire. It is located west of the state capital, Sydney.-External links:* - Southern Tableland tourism site...

, New South Wales in 1883 bound to establish a new pastoral lease, Fossil Downs Station

Fossil Downs Station

Fossil Downs Station is a pastoral lease and cattle station located about south east of Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia....

, in the Kimberley of Western Australia some 5600 kilometres (3,480 mi) away. They left with 700 head of cattle and 60 horses during drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

conditions as they trekked through Queensland

Queensland

. Arriving at the property in June 1886 with 327 cattle and 13 horses they reunited with their brother Dan.

The most famous Outback

Outback

The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...

stock route

Stock route

In Australia, the Travelling Stock Route is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another...

s were the Murranji Track, the Birdsville Track

Birdsville Track

The Birdsville Track is a notable outback road in Australia. The 517 km track runs from Marree, a small town in northern South Australia, north across the Tirari Desert and Sturt Stony Desert, ending in Birdsville in south western Queensland....

, the Strzelecki Track

Strzelecki Track

The Strzelecki Track is an outback track in South Australia, mostly unsealed but with a few short sealed sections to facilitate overtaking, linking Innamincka to Lyndhurst...

and the Canning Stock Route

Canning Stock Route

The Canning Stock Route is one of the toughest and most remote tracks in the world. It runs to Halls Creek from Wiluna, both in Western Australia. With a total distance of around it is also the longest historic stock route in the world...

. The Canning was regarded as the loneliest, the most difficult, and the most dangerous.

Decline

The gradual introduction of railways

Rail transport in Australia

Rail transport in Australia is a crucial aspect of the Australian transport network, and an enabler of the wider Australian economy. Rail in Australia is to a large extent state-based. The Australian rail network consists of a total of 41,461 km of track of three major gauges, of which...

from about the 1860s made some droving work unnecessary. However, the work of the overlanders and drovers in general fell away rapidly in the 1960s as trucking of animals became the norm. Road train

Road train

A road train or roadtrain is a trucking concept used in remote areas of Argentina, Australia, Mexico, the United States and Canada to move freight efficiently. The term "road train" is most often used in Australia. In the U.S. and Canada the terms "triples," "turnpike doubles" and "Rocky Mountain...

s carrying large number of animals are today a common sight in rural and Outback

Outback

areas. But during times of drought

Drought

, taking animals onto the “long paddock”, the fenced travelling stock route

Stock route

In Australia, the Travelling Stock Route is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another...

, along a public road, is common practice even today, and droving skills are still required. The modern drover is now typically assisted with modern equipment, such as a motorcycle

Motorcycle

A motorcycle is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions.Motorcycles are one of the most...

s, all-terrain vehicle

All-terrain vehicle

An all-terrain vehicle , also known as a quad, quad bike, three wheeler, or four wheeler, is defined by the American National Standards Institute as a vehicle that travels on low pressure tires, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control...

s, a truck

Truck

A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, with the smallest being mechanically similar to an automobile...

and/or trailer for the horses, if they are used. Caravans are commonly used, along with generators to provide extra comfort and convenience. Stock may be enclosed at night in an area that has been fenced off with a temporary electric fence

Electric fence

An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shocks to deter animals or people from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from uncomfortable, to painful or even lethal...

.

Localised droving was common in the Kosciuszko National Park

Kosciuszko National Park

Kosciuszko National Park covers 690,000 hectares and contains mainland Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko for which it is named, and Cabramurra the highest town in Australia...

and Alpine National Park

Alpine National Park

The Alpine National Park is a national park in Victoria , northeast of Melbourne. It covers much of the higher areas of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria, including Victoria's highest point, Mount Bogong and the associated subalpine woodland and grassland of the Bogong High Plains...

and High Plains

High Plains (Australia)

The High Plains of South-Eastern Australia are a region, or more strictly a string of adjacent areas, in and adjacent to the Great Dividing Range. They were long used for summer grazing, in some cases since the 1830s. Much of the region is now National Park....

areas, until the areas became National Parks. The drovers would often bring cattle from the lower pastures to the fresh green pastures for the summer months. During the summer months many of the drovers would often stay in mountain huts like Daveys Hut

Daveys Hut

Daveys Hut was built by Tom Bolton in 1909 for grazing. He moved into it with his new wife, Mary, in 1911. However the hut has since become a destination for readers of the book "If I should Wake in the Middle of the Night," by Pauline Downing....

, Whites River Hut and Mawsons Hut.

Notable drovers

In 1881, Nat Buchanan, regarded by many as the greatest drover of all, took 20,000 cattle from St George

St George, Queensland

St George is a town of approximately 2400 people in south-western Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre for the Shire of Balonne. It was named by Major Thomas Mitchell who crossed the Balonne River on St George's Day, 23 April 1846. At the 2006 census, St George had a population of...

in Southern Queensland to the Daly River

Daly River, Northern Territory

Daly River is the name of a river and a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. At the 2006 census, Daly River had a population of 468.- History :...

, not far south of Darwin

Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...

, a distance of 3,200 km.

Cattle stealing has long been part of Australia's history and some of the country's biggest droving feats have been performed by cattle rustlers or duffers. The most notable one was Harry Redford

Harry Redford

Henry Arthur "Harry" Readford was a well known Australian cattle thief or cattle 'duffer'. It is widely believed that the Captain Starlight character in Rolf Boldrewood's novel Robbery Under Arms was based on Readford as Readford's 1870 cattle drive was a major story arc in the book.Readford was...

who established a reputation as an accomplished drover when he stole 1,000 cattle from Bowen Downs Station near Longreach, Queensland in 1870 and drove them 1,500 miles (2,414 km). His route took him through very difficult country down the Thomson

Thomson River

Thomson River may refer to:*Thomson River , western Queensland, Australia*Thomson River , Victoria, Australia...

, Barcoo

Barcoo River

The Barcoo River in western Queensland, Australia that rises on the northern slopes of the Warrego Range, flows in a south westerly direction and unites with the Thomson River to form Cooper Creek. The first European to see the river was Thomas Mitchell in 1846, who named it Victoria Stream...

, Cooper

Cooper River

Cooper River may refer to:*Cooper River , a tributary of the Delaware River*Cooper River , a tributary of the estuary forming Charleston Harbor...

and Strezlecki rivers thus pioneering the Strzelecki Track

Strzelecki Track

The Strzelecki Track is an outback track in South Australia, mostly unsealed but with a few short sealed sections to facilitate overtaking, linking Innamincka to Lyndhurst...

.

It may be surprising to some that women have been noted as exceptional drovers. One of the true legends of the outback is Edna Zigenbine, better known as Edna Jessop, who took over a droving job from her injured father, and became a boss drover at 23. Along with her brother Andy and four ringers, they moved the 1,550 bullocks the 2,240 kilometres across the Barkly Tableland to Dajarra, near Mount Isa, Queensland

Mount Isa, Queensland

-Culture and sport:The local theatre group, the Mount Isa Theatrical Society, or MITS, often holds plays and musicals, at least once every few months or so....

Droving in popular culture

Much literature has been written about droving, particularly balladic poetry.

An idealised image of the droving life is described in the poem Clancy of the Overflow
Clancy of the Overflow
"Clancy of The Overflow" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889. The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, and is one of his best-known works.-History:...

, and more realistically depicted in the historical film The Overlanders
The Overlanders (film)
The Overlanders is a 1946 Australian-British film about drovers droving a large herd of cattle 1600 miles overland from Wyndham in Western Australia through the Northern Territory outback of Australia to pastures north of Brisbane, Queensland during World War II.The film was one of several produced...

. Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman

Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...

played a drover in the film Australia
Australia (2008 film)
Australia is a 2008 epic historical romance film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It is the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time, behind Crocodile Dundee. The screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood...

.

Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
- "The Ballad of the Drover" (poem)
- "Andy's Gone with the Cattle" (poem)
- "The Drover's Wife" (short story)
Banjo Paterson
Banjo Paterson
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, OBE was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales where he spent much of his childhood...
- "Clancy of the Overflow
  Clancy of the Overflow
  "Clancy of The Overflow" is a poem by Banjo Paterson, first published in The Bulletin, an Australian news magazine, on 21 December 1889. The poem is typical of Paterson, offering a romantic view of rural life, and is one of his best-known works.-History:...
  
  " (poem)
- "The Travelling Post Office" (poem)
Judith Wright
Judith Wright
Judith Arundell Wright was an Australian poet, environmentalist and campaigner for Aboriginal land rights.-Biography:...

- "South of My Days" (poem)
Adam Lindsay Gordon
Adam Lindsay Gordon
Adam Lindsay Gordon was an Australian poet, jockey and politician.- Early life :Gordon was born at Fayal in the Azores, son of Captain Adam Durnford Gordon who had married his first cousin, Harriet Gordon, both of whom were descended from Adam of Gordon of the ballad...

- "The Sick Stock Rider" (poem)
Rolf Harris
Rolf Harris
Rolf Harris, CBE, AM is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality.Born in Perth, Western Australia, Harris was a champion swimmer before studying art. He moved to England in 1952, where he started to appear on television programmes on which he drew the...

- "Tie me Kangaroo down, Sport!
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
"Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" is a song written by Rolf Harris in 1957 which became a hit across the world in the 1960s in two different recordings . Inspired by Harry Belafonte's calypsos, it is about an Australian stockman on his deathbed...

" (folk song)
Anonymous - "The Overlander" (folk song)
Anonymous - "Wrap me up in my Stockwhip and Blanket" (folk song)
Anonymous - "The Three Drovers" (Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

song)
Saul Mendelsohn - "Brisbane Ladies
Brisbane Ladies
Brisbane Ladies is an Australian folksong and is one of many adaptations of Spanish Ladies. The version given below is the most commonly sung, but the original mentions Nanango favorably as "that jolly old township".-History:...

" (folk song)
Hugh McDonald (of Redgum
Redgum
Redgum were an Australian folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriter John Schumann, Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were soon joined by Chris Timms on violin. All four had been students at Flinders University and...

) - "Diamantina Drover" (song)
Bill "Swampy" Marsh - Great Australian Droving Stories
Bok, Tricket, & Muir
Gordon Bok
Gordon Bok is a folklorist and singer/songwriter who grew up in Camden, Maine.-Career:His first album, self-titled, was produced by Noel Paul Stookey and released in 1965 on the Verve Records Folkways imprint...

- "Johnny Stewart, Drover" (folk song)
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...

- Hugh the Drover
Hugh the Drover
Hugh the Drover is an opera in two acts by Ralph Vaughan Williams to an original English libretto by Harold Child. According to Michael Kennedy, the composer took first inspiration for the opera from this question to Bruce Richmond, editor of The Times Literary Supplement, around 1909–1910:"I...

, opera
John Williamson
John Williamson
John Williamson is the name of:* Jack Williamson , American science fiction writer* John H. Williamson , American, North Carolina politician and newspaper publisher* John N. Williamson , American, U.S...

- Drover's Boy

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...

and Hugh Jackman

Hugh Jackman

appeared in the Australian period film Australia
Australia (2008 film)
Australia is a 2008 epic historical romance film directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It is the second-highest grossing Australian film of all time, behind Crocodile Dundee. The screenplay was written by Luhrmann and screenwriter Stuart Beattie, with Ronald Harwood...

, set around a droving trip in the remote Northern Territory