Drover (Australian)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A drover in Australia is a person, typically an experienced stockman, who takes cattle over long distances, usually during a drought or season change in search of green pastures on which the cattle can feed.

Droving was extremely popular in the Kosciuszko National Park and Alpine National Park and High Plains 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 (a practice known as yaylag pastoralism). During the summer months many of the drovers would often stay in mountain huts like Daveys Hut, Whites River Hut and Mawsons Hut.

Droving life is described in the poem Clancy of the Overflow and depicted in the historical film The Overlanders.