Stockmen: the cowboys of the Outback

Our next Australian history topic will focus on the stockmen: mounted herdsmen who worked on a large property called a station: the Aussie equivalent of the ranch. Stockmen camped near the herd and would sleep around the fire wrapped in their blanket rolls. Like the American working cowboy, they faced many dangers: cattle thieves, venomous snakes and wild animals like the dingo, a beast every bit as cunning and vicious as the coyote

Stockmen also used a unique slang similar to that of the cowboys. A Jackaroo was the Aussie counterpart of the Old West Buckaroo: a trainee cowboy

Deffinatly tea, no coffee at all. During my exploration days i'd camp out quite regualry in my swag.

What sort of gun would the 19th century stockman typically carry? Would he have a sidearm like a Colt Navy or rely on a surplus military rifle like the Snider or Martini-Henry?

The "Tatars of Australia" were very proud of their identity. The stockman despised "crawling shepherds" who worked on foot and would go an indefinite distance out of his way to kick one
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VwgwAAAAMAAJ&dq=australian%20stockman&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q&f=false

Description of a stockman, 1848
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ii0wAQAAMAAJ&dq=australia%20stockmen&pg=PA491#v=onepage&q&f=false

Originally posted by Nick1986 What sort of gun would the 19th century stockman typically carry? Would he have a sidearm like a Colt Navy or rely on a surplus military rifle like the Snider or Martini-Henry?

Australian Stockmen cannot be compared to the US cowboys. They may have had access to a rifle or a shotgun, but that was about it, and that more for use in disposing of sick and injured stock rather than people. Just a bunch of hard working, beer drinking blokes.