'Overlanders', 1865

• This asset depicts a droving journey - before mechanised transport, the only option for owners wanting to move their animals any distance was for the herds or flocks to walk, accompanied by drovers; the journey could only proceed at the pace of the slowest animal.
• It shows drovers moving cattle - cattle were moved to and from market, to new pasture or to new stations; some journeys took several years, following the tracks of explorers such as Hume, Hovel, Sturt and Mitchell; between 1824 and 1836, settlers and squatters moved into the new pastoral lands with large herds of sheep and cattle; by 1840 there was continuous occupation of land from Port Phillip in Victoria to the Darling Downs in Queensland.
• It is a record of the activities of drovers in the mid-1800s that helped open up Australia's outback - Gill travelled from South Australia to the gold fields in 1851, and from there to Sydney in 1856, where he probably encountered herds being driven overland to the gold fields along stock routes still occasionally used today; famous stock routes such as the Murranji Track, the Birdsville Track, the Canning Stock Route and the track from northern Queensland to Victoria had a significant impact on inland development.
• It illustrates cattle on the move - many drives took months, even years, to complete, often with the loss of large portions of the herd along the way; the drives were sometimes epic journeys, pushing drovers to extremes of courage and endurance, involving difficult and dangerous situations such as stampedes, illnesses, accidents, loneliness and deprivation; families were left behind to fend for themselves on isolated pastoral properties.
• It shows large numbers of cattle - drovers and their herds were not particularly welcome on the unfenced stations they passed through, as the hard-hoofed cattle caused erosion and depleted resources of water and pasture; this led to the establishment of the 10-mile-a-day rule: when droving over occupied land, the drover had to keep the herd moving, travelling at least 10 miles (16 kilometres) per day, regardless of weather conditions.
• It reveals the typical clothing of drovers - the men are dressed in Crimean shirts, which were garments without buttons and with a wide V-neck and collar, long sleeves and slits at each side; they were often worn with a sash or belt, usually outside the moleskin trousers which were made from a velvety cotton material; both men are smoking their clay pipes.
• It shows two drovers carrying their bedrolls on their saddles and supplies in their saddlebags - drovers were on rostered nightwatches, which meant being continually on the move around the herd; a mob of 1,200 cattle needed seven drovers, while 3,000 sheep needed only two.
• It is an example of the work of S T Gill that depicts colonial life in the mid-19th century - after becoming bankrupt in South Australia, Gill tried prospecting in Victoria but found he could make a better living working at his art; for 15 years he recorded the lives and occupations of people on the gold fields before spending eight years in Sydney; his many artworks provide an insight into the lives of the pioneers.

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