for a little over a week to be able to buy a pair of elastic – sided boots, which cost ten shillings and sixpence.  The higher paid people, such as bullock drivers, received twenty – five shillings a week.  The blacksmith would probably be paid thirty shillings a week, because he was a semi – tradesmen.  The saddler would work under contract, and most of the fencing was carried out by contractors, as was nearly all the dam sinking ( or tank sinking as we called it ). One often wonders why people chose that kind of life.  Many of them avoided going to town, because they knew if they did so, they would stay a few days, get drunk, lose all their money, and return to the station completely penniless.  A number of quaint characters developed in the outback, such as Jack – Without  - a – shirt, Barefooted Harry, and Mad Ross, the bullock driver.  There was another bullock driver in the Bourke district who spoke differently from the other bullockies.  He had an Oxford accent.  Now, the ordinary Australian would break in a bullock with a lot a lot of cursing and extravagant language.  When a wagon was being unloaded, or stopped in front of a bush “pub”, the bullocks would lie down and rest.  To get them moving again required much swearing, kicking and prodding.  But the bullock driver from Bourke had a different method.  This driver  –  they called him the Honourable Archie – would simply address his team in a rich Oxford accent: “GENTLEMEN ON YOUR FEET”, and the bullocks would get up straight away.  That was the way he had broken them in!   There were always a few books and publications in the station hand’s quarters.  We had a Miller’s Guide, which gave us all the sporting records; the Australian Worker which supplied us  with A.W.U. union matters and politics (everbody had to subscribe to the Worker); the Sydney Bulletin supplied us with cartoons and general news; and the Adelaide Chronicle gave us agricultural information and a weekly summary of Australian and overseas events. The fastest transport in those days was Morrison Bros. Coaches.  They would leave Broken Hill at about 10 a.m. and arrive at Tibooburra two days later, a distance of 200 miles.  The first stop would be Thomson’s Dam, then Euriowie, Sandy Creek bore, Packsaddle, Iduna, Cobham, Milparinka, Tibooburra.  The Bullock Wagons would take about a fortnight to travel the same distance; horse teams were a little faster.  Camels would travel  at about the same speed as horses, if yoked to a wagon.  They did not pull as much weight as a horse as they are built to carry, rather than haul. There is a difference in the behaviour of animals, and bushmen have to to learn this.  With a mob of bullocks, the first duty as a teamster when pulled up at night is to take the bullocks to water, find some feed ( if available), and turn them loose.  When mustered in the morning, the bullocks would usually be gathered in a couple of mobs; with twenty bullocks there might be eight in one place, and twelve in another.  Horses are the same – they also have a tendency  to split up into groups.  As for camels  –  with  twenty camels there would be twenty mobs, as they are not a sociable animal.  They are the worse to muster, and it takes much longer.  Donkeys were also used in the teams, four abreast.  The last donkey – team man I knew was Andy Marks at Callabonna Station (where they dig up the bones of dinosaurs).  Donkeys have a survival instinct, and are always in sight of other donkeys.  Andy Marks would find the centre, bang on a kerosene tin, and they would all come together.  Tracking lost stock was an art that does not exist today, except perhaps in areas where horses are used.  But when I was a station hand every bushman was able to track.                                                                               CONTINUE