General News
3 February, 2026
Droving: The disappearing Aussie Icon
After the fires that swept through Victoria in January, people are once again talking about roadside slashing and burning. There is also renewed debate about whether farmers should have more access to this roadside fodder for their livestock as part of fire management.
Droving played an important part in the development of agriculture in the Wimmera, with drovers having a crucial role in moving cattle or sheep from one property to another before the arrival of trains and trucks.
Farmers relied on droving when they bought new land, sold livestock, or sent animals to an abattoir.
Today, droving is more common in Queensland and NSW than in Victoria.
However, the drover's role often involved travelling uncharted areas of Australia in search of feed and water for their livestock.
The skill and time required for droving were significant, and the practice was an integral part of the early agricultural development of the Wimmera district as drovers followed good rains and feed for their mobs.
Narrow strips of Crown Land, known as Stock Routes, were managed by the Pastoral Protection Boards.
Drovers used these Stock Routes, or 'The Long Paddocks', and had to move a set distance each day to avoid overgrazing.
It is illegal to drove livestock on the roadside without a permit, to help prevent accidents with vehicles.
Horsham Rural City Council’s Cam McDonald said droving was not as practical in the Wimmera as in other states due to the region's prolific feed, effective transport, and public liability insurance costs.
Cr McDonald said that biosecurity was also a consideration with lice, weeds or other threats that can easily be transferred from one property to another.
"Disease can be a very real threat," he said.
"And I think the risk may outweigh the benefits, plus there is not a lot of feed value on roadsides.
“It is mostly used now in desperate times. I don't think it is something we'll see here in the Wimmera in the immediate future."
Cr McDonald said the council has a robust slashing program, which is carried out twice a year.
"When people see overgrown roadsides, it is important to understand which roads are the council's responsibility and which ones are government responsibility," he said.
"I know some of the Highways are a disgrace, but they are not a council responsibility."
Cr McDonald said that while council can issue fire prevention measure notices to property owners, council can't issue the same to the government.
"However, I must say property owners in the Wimmera are very fire-conscious and maintain weed control well.
"Spraying programs can help control roadside growth, but it can also be a problem with protected plants."
Mr McDonald said he remembered when he first moved to the Wimmera during the 1980's drought, it was common to see whole stretches of road roped off as part of what was called the Long Paddock.
Motorists had to stop and remove the ropes across the road to pass through a mob of feeding cattle.
"That was a proper Long Paddock, not just roadsides," he said.
"There are still a few farmers locally who rope off a section of roadside adjoining their properties and run cattle there to keep the grass down, but that is more for fire prevention than a need for feed, I think," he said.
Across Victoria Alliance president Andrew Weidemann is keen to see the government relax its stance on highway roadside grazing and allow farmers to use it as part of the broader picture of fire prevention.
"We are a fire-prone state; it makes good sense,” he said.
"If we are not allowed to burn the roadside growth due to flora protection, grazing is the next best alternative," he said.
"Fires like we've seen this year and in recent years across Victoria create heat because of the extreme fuel load and a lack of preparedness," he said.
Mr Weidermann said roadside maintenance is everyone's responsibility and must be addressed.
Sadly, the classic Australian scene - billy boiling on the campfire, bacon cooking, stock grazing nearby, and dogs eager to work - is quickly fading away.
But that said, the Wimmera still holds the title of 'the longest sheep drive' ever undertaken in Australia, a claim that has become cemented in the history books.
In 1882, a 21-year-old drover, a team of men, and 11 thousand sheep made history with a 3500 kilometre trek from a small Western Victorian town of Donald in the Wimmera to the Northern Territory.
The trip lasted 16 months and would be recorded as the longest sheep drive in Australian history, a testament to the people who challenged some of Australia's harshest conditions in the early days of settlement.
The drover, Wallace Caldwell, has been documented by a Grampians farmer and vigneron, Tom Guthrie, who chronicles this remarkable feat and his ancestral link to the owner of the sheep, his namesake and great-grandfather, Thomas Guthrie, in his self-published book The Longest Drive.