Travelling the Beef Roads

Back on the road in the Territory, we revisited the Bush, travelling the Barkly Stock Route, a famous drover's trail or beef road where thousands of cattle would be driven for months to market. Droving survived into the 1960s as a way of life, but trucking made droving obsolete.

We loved how the town of Elliot had become Idiots.

Out here is cattle land: rolling plains, artesian bores, and cows and calves of all colours. Famous station names are here, like Brunette Downs, Anthony Lagoon, and Eva Downs.

Beside the road, stands the lonely grave of Boomerang Jack Brady, a drover and legendary horseman famed for riding the unrideable, whose leg had taken a thousand knocks into the shape of a boomerang.

Seen from the air, our progress is a small dot on a straight line to the horizon.

No other traffic all day, except for a roaring, dust-breathing roadtrain.

Inland dotterels crowd the roadsides in flocks, a goanna crosses with flickering tongue, and brolgas pose in groups beside bores.

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The Beef Route, Barkly Stock Route, Northern Territory