Drovers and their horses resting, c1850

Educational value

• This asset depicts a droving journey - before mechanised transport, the only option for owners wanting to move their animals any distance was for the herds or flocks to walk, accompanied by drovers; the journey could only proceed at the pace of the slowest animal.
• It shows drovers moving cattle - cattle were moved to and from market, to new pasture or to new stations; some journeys took several years, following the tracks of explorers such as Hume, Hovel, Sturt and Mitchell; between 1824 and 1836, settlers and squatters moved into the new pastoral lands with large herds of sheep and cattle; by 1840 there was continuous occupation of land from Port Phillip in Victoria to the Darling Downs in Queensland.
• It illustrates the occupation of droving in the 1850s - at this time stock was driven overland to new settlements in South Australia, and to feed the miners on the gold fields in Victoria; Gill travelled from South Australia to the Victorian gold fields in 1851, and from there to Sydney in 1856, and he probably encountered herds being driven overland to the gold fields during the course of these journeys.
• It shows large numbers of cattle - drovers and their herds were not particularly welcome on the unfenced stations they passed through, as the hard-hoofed cattle caused erosion and depleted resources of water and pasture; this led to the establishment of the 10-mile-a-day rule; when droving over occupied land, the drover had to keep the herd moving, travelling at least 10 miles (16 kilometres) per day, regardless of weather conditions.
• It reveals the typical style of clothing worn by drovers - moleskin trousers, made from a velvety cotton material, over high boots; a blue or red Crimean shirt, which was a garment without buttons and with a wide V-neck and collar, long sleeves and slits at each side, often worn with a sash or belt (usually outside the pants), and completed with a knotted scarf and cabbage tree hat; this last item was uniquely Australian, made from the cabbage tree palm, ‘Livistona australis’, grown in the Illawarra, New South Wales.
• It shows a swag, billy and mug beside the campfire - drovers were sustained by a diet of black tea, damper and stew; while one steer could feed five drovers for a week, cattle were slaughtered only when hunting proved fruitless; kangaroo and wallaby were the most sought-after game.
• It shows horses, which were the main form of transport in the 19th century - the seven horses that arrived on the First Fleet in 1788 had multiplied to about 70 by the turn of the century; after 1830 the 'Waler' (named after New South Wales), now called the Australian stock horse, was bred for strength and speed, and was commonly used on Australian properties.
• It provides an example of work by S T Gill depicting colonial life in the mid-19th century - after becoming bankrupt in South Australia, Gill tried prospecting in Victoria but found he could make a better living working at his art; for 15 years he recorded the lives and occupations of people on the gold fields before spending eight years in Sydney; his many artworks provide an insight into the lives of the pioneers.

Year level

5; 6; 7; 8; 9

Topics Australian history Cattle Drovers