I've just come from Darwin to Gayndah, Queensland over the course of a few weeks and was commenting to the hitchhikers I picked up at Mt Isa about the poor grazing in drought stricken Western Queensland when I saw on Facebook today that the son of friends is going droving. 18,000 cattle from Winton/Longreach to Hay in NSW! May cause minor hold ups on the road if you have to wait for all those beasts to cross! I'd love to see - must be an awesome sight. The boy might get saddle sore though as they are looking at three months.
That's awesome, I'd have thought it would take longer than three months, but what would I know, the longest I've driven stock is 40ks lol. I reckon old mate's bum would be well used to being in the saddle by now. I'd say he already spends a lot of time riding. If not, he's in for a rude shock lol.
Saw a story about droving from QLD on telly recently. Things are tough. But what a sight that would be to encounter! Might even get an invite to camp the night with the drovers and share in damper, stew and a natter around the campfire.
Story I saw was the farmers getting anxious about droving being back in - the farmer interviewed had paid $2000pa for the right to graze his stock on the stock route that bounded his property. He wondered what would be left if droving went past his property again. He acknowledged they had a right to use the stock route but....
When I was heading into Longrech a few weeks back noticed dovers and their cattle and caravans about 15ks out heading towards Isisford. I also seen a huge cattle train heading towards Longreach.Funny thing was the only cattle road train I noted that I seen was in Emerald,that had side swipes the whole side of some poor buggers caravan out whilst attempting to turn right towards Roma at the round about.Guessing the truck did not allow enough space while turning.