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Travelling Stock Routes: The Long Paddock That Carried Australia's Cattle

Wide verges, six-mile days and a drover's patience built a public network that moved livestock long before road trains.

What is a travelling stock route?

A travelling stock route, or TSR, is an authorized thoroughfare for walking domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another in Australia. Colloquially the network is the Long Paddock. You can often tell one from an ordinary country road because the grassy verges are far wider and the property fences sit much farther back, or the land is open and unfenced. The design is deliberate: it lets animals feed on roadside vegetation as they travel, especially in drought.

The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article on travelling stock routes, with cross-checks from the articles on the Canning Stock Route and Murranji Track.

How did the routes form?

An early route, the Snowy TSR, was pioneered during the drought of 1828, when water and fodder failed around Lake George in New South Wales. Local Aboriginal people recognized the stock's plight and led the animals and their owners into the country now known as Berridale. Colonial explorers and overlanders then pioneered many present-day routes along river systems, Indigenous trade routes and trails.

Before railways arrived, cattle were sometimes driven up to 3,220 km (2,000 miles) along the main routes. Established routes were recognized and dedicated as roads between the 1860s and 1890s. From the early 1900s state governments developed stock route water facilities, and most routes now have watering points a droving day apart.

The six-mile rule and how droving worked

By law, travelling stock must move six miles, about 10 km, a day. The rule keeps a single mob from stripping the roadside grass in one area. Bores with windmills and troughs may be placed at regular intervals where water is scarce. A travelling stock reserve is a fenced paddock set aside at strategic distances for overnight watering and camping.

The mob is driven by a drover and stockmen using Australian Stock Horses or vehicles, helped by working dogs such as Kelpies or their crosses. A packhorse or wagon carried supplies, and newer droves use four-wheel-drive vehicles and mobile homes. Droving was often the only way producers could get their product to market. Beef cattle went to a rail siding or abattoir 'on the hoof', and the journey, the feed and water and the drover's reliability all affected the condition of the animals at slaughter.

Famous stock routes and what went wrong on them

The Strzelecki Track, from Lyndhurst to Innamincka in South Australia, was one of the driest tracks used to take fat cattle to the Adelaide market. In 1870 Harry Redford drove about a thousand stolen cattle down it, was tried, and was found not guilty by a jury reportedly impressed by his feat. The Birdsville Track, about 520 km from Birdsville to Marree, was developed in the 1880s and relied on government artesian bores. In 1901 Jack Clarke left Warenda Station with 500 fat bullocks and arrived at Marree with 72.

Other routes include the Barkly Stock Route, pioneered by Nat Buchanan, now the Barkly Highway, the Tanami Track, the Canning Stock Route and the Murranji Track. The last of these, according to the article, saw a 1905 trip in which one man died, all but two stockmen deserted the drover and 800 cattle and 11 horses died.

Railways, road trains and decline

With railways in country areas from the 1880s, livestock usually reached major destinations in cattle wagons. Stockyards and ramps stood at nearly all rural railway stations, so drovers only had to reach the nearest rail depot. Droving continued until well into the 1950s in the Northern Territory, where roads were sealed in World War II, because trucks needed sealed roads. Trucks carrying 80 head of fat cattle a trip proved very successful after the war. From about 1980, road trains increasingly replaced both walking and rail.

The routes are not over. In extreme drought, when paddocks lack feed or water, owners have taken remaining animals to travel six miles a day on the roadside grass. That kind of emergency grazing is a reminder of why the system was built.

What Made It Work

The network lasted well over a century because it was public, predictable and cheap. The documented features show how.

There were hazards too. In 1997, 125 head of cattle died after eating mother-of-millions on a travelling stock reserve near Moree, New South Wales, a reminder that free feed was not always safe feed.

  • Public land: routes were recognized and dedicated as roads, and the reserves were administered by public boards.
  • Wide verges: the extra grass let mobs eat as they walked, which saved on feed.
  • Water at regular intervals: bores, windmills, troughs and reserves a droving day apart.
  • A daily rule: six miles a day spread the pressure on feed so one mob did not clear an area.
  • Rail links: drovers walked only to the nearest siding and then used cattle wagons.

Stock routes today

There are about 600,000 hectares of travelling stock reserves in New South Wales and 2.6 million hectares running across 72,000 km in Queensland. Today they are valued as corridors for native vegetation and habitat as well as for emergency refuge in floods and droughts and some local agistment. Even the Bradfield Highway across the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a designated travelling stock route, and the Cobb Highway is part of the New South Wales network.

For the wider story of Australian cattle droving, visit the ranching section on farm.FM, or read a farm.FM story about Australian drovers. For two specific routes, see the Canning Stock Route article and the Murranji Track article.

Timeline

  1. 1828Snowy TSR pioneered during drought near Lake George, NSW
  2. 1860s-1890sEstablished routes recognized and dedicated as roads
  3. 1870Harry Redford drives stolen cattle down the Strzelecki Track
  4. 1880sRailways reach country areas; Birdsville Track developed
  5. 1902Rural Lands Protection Boards begin administering routes (per the source)
  6. 1906-1910Alfred Canning opens the Canning Stock Route
  7. 1950sDroving continues in the Northern Territory as road transport grows
  8. 1980Road trains increasingly replace walking and rail

Frequently asked questions

What is the Long Paddock?

It is the colloquial name for Australia's network of travelling stock routes, public thoroughfares with wide verges where drovers walk livestock and let them graze on roadside grass.

How far must stock travel each day on a stock route?

By law, travelling stock must move six miles, about 10 km, a day. The rule stops a single mob from clearing all the roadside grass in one area.

Are travelling stock routes still used?

Rarely for routine droving, since road trains replaced them from about 1980. They are still used in drought or flood, and they are valued as wildlife corridors and habitat.

How big is the stock route network?

The source gives about 600,000 hectares of travelling stock reserves in New South Wales, and 2.6 million hectares running over 72,000 km in Queensland.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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