ADVENTURE
Van Diemen’s drovers
Droving was once a way of life for cattlemen all over Australia, not just in the outback. Even Tasmania had its droving traditions, as the re-enactment of a famous late 19th/early 20th century events readily attests.
Story: Danny Gardner
Photos: Simon Plowright
Come
on girl, come on, come on girl! Come on! The drovers’ calls and whistles and
horses’ blowing ring out in the morning air, nudging the often-complaining
cattle towards the fast-flowing Pieman River in north-west Tasmania. It’s
a scene harking back to the 1880s in this part of the island state – one
that hasn’t occurred since 1936, but for more than 50 years from the 1880s
was the culmination of droving trips for cattle bound for winter pastures.
This
is the 2004 Greenham Bicentenary Cattle Drive, the brainchild of MP Tony
Fletcher, that is part of Tasmania’s celebration of 200 years of white
settlement. Seven drovers with 107 cattle are following old droving tracks
to Granville Harbour, where in the old days stock were fattened and sent
to Zeehan for slaughter. Back then the absence of refrigeration made cattle
on the hoof vital to the mining districts’ demand for fresh meat.
It’s difficult to know from ill-kept records exactly when the droving trips
began (the early 1880s is the general consensus) and how many cattlemen
and drovers were involved. But routes like the Montagu, Emmetts and Sand
Tracks
through buttongrass and ti-tree scrub verging into more heavily-timbered
country, had been established hand-in-hand with the explorations of prospecting
miners and farmers. 
Full story OUTBACK Issue 37 October/November 2004
