THE STOCKMAN 203 



charged him with being sulky and lagging behind, and 

 finally struck him with his stockwhip. In revenge the 

 black killed him while he was stooping over his fiie. 

 Two new-chum stockmen chased the party, and picked 

 out the murderer, who was taken nominally to a distant 

 police-camp, but really was privily made away with.* 

 The case was typical. 



The stockman was capable. In Victoria in the 

 forties, tens of thousands of cattle were managed by a 

 single stockman (afterwards named a stock-rider) with 

 the aid of a black (known always as a blackboy) or a 

 white boy. They Avere remarkably independent, and 

 sometimes exasperating. Knowing their power and 

 seizing their opportunity, they would strike just when 

 a new station had been formed, or would demand an 

 impossible rate of wages. Especially was this the case 

 after the discovery of the goldfields, and indeed for 

 two or tliree years afterwards, when they were com- 

 pletely masters of the situation. Then, on many a 

 station, cattle and sheep w^ere herded and shepherded 

 by blacks. 



The stockman, like most Australians, had a high 

 notion of his own importance, and scornfully resented 

 identification with a parallel and, one would say, 

 equivalent functionary — the shepherd. His wages 

 varied a good deal at different times and from province 

 to province. About 1840 (I think it must be Mr. 

 Brodribb who makes the statement), shepherds in New 

 South Wales received £2 a week, and bullock-drivers 

 and stockmen " proportionally." I don't know what 

 " proportionally " means as here used, but elsewhere 

 he states that drovers and bullock-drivers received £2 

 a week and rations. According to Rolf Boldrewood, 

 who was squatting in Western Victoria about the same 

 time, wages were not high. One stockman and his wife 

 there received £30 a year, while another was paid only 

 ten shillings a week. On the Conda mine and its 

 tributaries experienced station-hands asked from £100 

 * Overlanding, pp. 37-8. 



