Shepherds were convicts until transportation ended in the late 1840s, when emancipists and free men were employed. Only convicts were used until the 1830s, when the number of sheep became too great, so ticket-of-leave men and emancipists were also employed. Both men and women worked as shepherds after transportation ended, especially when there were labor shortages, and occasionally a married couple would be hired, with the man working as the shepherd and the woman as the hut-keeper (Pickard, 69-70; Millett, 123). Women were also known to visit shepherding stations with their husbands (Rodwell, 19). Occasionally, older boys (teenagers) would also work as shepherds of smaller flocks (less than 500), but it was primarily a job done by adult men (Rodwell, 28).

Chinese and Aborigines were also employed, especially after the end of the convict system, as they could be paid less (Pickard, 70; Rodwell, 21, 26). These men, especially, would have suffered from loneliness, as they remained single and were isolated “geographically, linguistically, culturally, and by intra-national differences” (Rodwell, 26).

Eventually, shepherds were replaced by fencing when it became cheaper to fence sheep in than hire a shepherd.

Shepherds “worked in isolation, with poor accommodation and rations, exposed to a range of diseases, and were relatively poorly paid” (Pickard, 56). Shepherds’ job was to watch after the flock during the day and pen them at night. Shepherds were essential to preventing theft by Aborigines, keeping sheep (or cattle) from wandering off, and predation by dingoes. The shepherding system in colonial Australia was directly based off the British system, with one shepherd originally being in charge of about 300-400 sheep. However, the size of the flocks increased over time, reaching a maximum of 3000. This increase was a result of the end of transportation and the need to hire free labor (Pickard, 61). According to Peter Cunningham, the shepherd “takes his sheep out to graze before sun-rise…and brings them in after sun-set...In summer, he sees too that they have water during the heat of the day…The shepherd takes out his victuals with him, and is required to be on the alert all day long.” In Western Australia, it was also important to prevent sheep from eating poisonous plants, so a more experienced shepherd was necessary than on the east coast of Australia (Millett, 108-109). If they failed in their duty, men were often fined or flogged (Pickard, 58).

Once a year, shepherds went on an annual spree, which often involved the consumption of vast amounts of alcohol. Shepherds were looked down on for this behavior, but it also guaranteed that they would return for “another year of interminably monotonous shepherding” (Pickard, 68). Other than this, shepherds remained fairly isolated, with perhaps one or two other people for company at the station (Millett, 249).

Generally, there would only be one or two shepherds and a hut-keeper based in “an outstation which consisted of a hut with a set of yards of moveable hurdles for each shepherd” (Pickard, 56). Folds were used to protect the flock at night. Dogs were used widely by shepherds, but their role varied. Sometimes they were only used to guard the fold at night, while other shepherds used their dogs to help round up the sheep and lead them (Pickard, 59). However, many colonial shepherds lacked the traditional crook due to their inexperience with shepherding before they were transported.

Shepherds lived in huts, bark gunyahs, tents, or out in the open. “A well-established outstation had a pole-frame hut, perhaps eleven feet wide by twelve or fifteen feet long, covered with bark stripped off suitable Eucalyptus trees, or shingles…the fireplace would be lined with stones and clay and smoke dissipated up a bark chimney” (Pickard, 65). Most shelters were inherently temporary, as there was a constant fear that squatters would be pushed off their land.

Shepherds were provided with rations, often poor, of meat, flour, tea, sugar, and salt (Pickard, 67). These rations were often brought to the shepherd at the outstation (Millett, 169). In the 1840s, when paid labor became more common, shepherding stations were encouraged to be more self-sufficient, and as a result, small plots of land began to be cultivated (Rodwell, 22). Shepherds also had poor hygiene, as the water would often be contaminated by the sheep. Dysentery and scurvy were common problems. Shepherds also suffered from sandy blight, a disease that can cause blindness and is caused by poor hygiene, heat, and dust (Pickard, 67). Shepherds also got sick from the chemicals they used to treat sheep, such as mercuric chloride (Pickard, 68-69). If that wasn’t enough, their huts were often infested with fleas and bed bugs.

Most of this answer was based on John Pickard, “Shepherding in Colonial Australia,” Rural History (2008), 55-80; Edward Millett, An Australian Parsonage; Or, The Settler and the Savage in Western Australia, (1872) https://archive.org/details/anaustralianpar00millgoog ;Margaret Rodwell, Figures in the Landscape: The Experience of the Least Visible Workers on a New England Pastoral Station, 1850-1900, Labour History (2012), 17-38.

Also of interest might be R.H Gennys, “Shepherds and Shepherding in Australia,” (1925), https://www.rahs.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/02_Article-1_Shepherds-and-Shepherding-in-Australia.pdf. Hansford-Miller, The Grim Reality of Life for the Early English Settlers of Western Australia 1829-1850 (1990). Farwell, Squatter’s Castle. The Story of a Pastoral Dynasty. Life and Times of Edward David Stewart Ogilvie 1814-96 (1974). Peter Cunningham, Two Years in New South Wales: A Series of Letters, Comprising Sketches of the Actual State of Society in that Colony; of its Peculiar Advantages to Emigrants; of its Topography, Natural History &c. &c. (1827), https://archive.org/stream/twoyearsinnewso00cunngoog?ref=ol#page/n6/mode/2up.