Droving Australia's Outback

One of Australia’s Outback legendary droving stories could have come straight out the annals of the “Wild West”.

Captain Starlight, of Robbery Under Arms fame, gave the Strzelecki Track notoriety. In 1870 Harry Redford, also known as Starlight, drove a thousand head of stolen cattle from Queensland, down the Barcoo and Cooper past Mount Hopeless, to Blanchewater where he sold them for $10,000. Although he was caught and went on trial for his crime, he was found not guilty by a jury largely impressed with his audacious feat of blazing a new cattle stock route, making him one of the greatest drovers in Australian history. This droving track goes from Lyndhurst in the south to Innamincka, South Australia and beyond in the north. It used to be one of the driest and loneliest tracks to transport mobs of fat cattle to the Adelaide market.

Here is an re-enactment of this story of Droving Australia’s Outback in 2014. A great account of a remarkable feat!