General News
28 August, 2024
Australia’s droving history must not be forgotten, say stockmen
Droving was a key part of the nation's history, the cattlemen claim.
Talking to old hands at the Camooweal Drovers Festival, no one is exactly sure when the golden age of droving actually ended.
It was mostly a gradual reduction in droving numbers on the stock routes as trucks became increasingly viewed as more efficient.
As one stockman explained to North West Weekly – it would take drovers weeks to move cattle the same distance that a truck could move them in a day or two.
It is generally agreed that droving ended as a viable job sometime in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, when the strange scenario of cattle on the stock routes and cattle aboard roadtrain trailers crossed paths with increased frequency.
By this time, technology had even caught up with the drovers - with small trucks carrying motorbikes and equipment included in the team.
These motorbikes were often sent ahead of the cattle mob to inspect watering holes ahead on the route.
There is still some droving taking place today, albeit infrequently – there is well known head drover Bill Little in Central Queensland. There are droving fundraisers that take place. When there is a drought, cattle are still moved along the old stock routes.
There is an effort to ensure governments protect these routes for future cattlemen.
Camooweal remains central to the story of the drovers.
For the first century of the town’s settlement, stockmen walked mobs of cattle down the Murranji, across the Barkly Tablelands to the Georgina stock route.
Droving camps could be either monotonous or dangerous as cattle could easily become spooked by the slightest rustle or tree branch falling and suddenly stampede towards the camp.
A barricade of saddles vainly separated the drovers from the cattle. When the beasts did rush the camp, a handful of sugar was thrown on the fire to release a whoosh of smoke and a flash of light that would turn the scatterbrained cattle in the opposite direction.
That would pose the next problem as the cattle still had to be mustered back together and settled down.
Head stockmen knew the stock routes like the back of their hand – and could move thousands of cattle for hundreds of kilometres without the need for a compass to course the direction, a watch to know the time or a map to know where the next watering hole would be.
The self sufficiency and the romance of the occupation was fodder for our greatest poets.
There have been books, movies, songs and poems all dedicated to the drover.
But many of the old hands who wandered mobs of cattle down the strictly-enforced stock routes are no longer around the tell their stories.
But a handful of men are keeping their memories alive.
Stumpy Adams spends a month each year at the beginning of the peak tourist season in May, volunteering at the Drovers Camp Museum – he also returns for the Camooweal Drovers Festival each year.
Stumpy told North West Weekly he was passionate about the drover’s story because it is vital link to our history.
He knew many of the old timers after decades working as a ringer and a stock inspector through the Northern Territory.
“It is important we keep telling the stories of the drovers – many Australians don’t know what these men and women did,” he said.
“They don’t know the skill and dedication it took – the bush knowledge that these men had. This event in Camooweal is keeping their spirit alive and I am proud to be associated with it.”