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Move Over Mr Drover – Girls Take It To The Guys In Greenham Bicentenary Cattle Drive Team

2004-01-16

If bush poet Banjo Paterson was around today penning his famous ballads about Australian horsemen and iconic bush characters, he might have to rethink his approach.

When the droving team for the Greenham Bicentenary Cattle Drive hits the trails in February, it won’t be so much a case of The Man from Snowy River, as the Women from Arthur River. Organisers have appointed a female head drover, who will lead a team of eight – with six of them being women from across northern Tasmania.

"It just goes to highlight the increasingly important and diverse roles women are playing in today’s cattle industry and agriculture in general," said organising committee chairman and well-known Tasmanian businessman Trevor Leis.

Head drover for the event will be Tania Abblitt, from Temma Farm, on Tasmania’s remote West Coast, supported by her husband Stuart as the number two drover. Both grew up on the historic Woolnorth property in Tasmania’s far north-west where they learnt to muster cattle on horseback. Today they are involved in the day-to-day running of Temma Farm and one of the region’s largest beef cattle herds, where droving remains an important skill.

Joining them will be their niece Chloe who, at 15 years of age, already has six years’ experience at driving cattle under her belt.

Mr Leis said every other member of the team also had longstanding links to the area – whether it was as an annual visitor taking part in mustering and driving cattle, or as a local resident continuing a tradition of involvement that spans generations within their families.

They include experienced drovers and Tasmanian Mountain Cattlemen’s Association founding members Judy Kilby and Tracy Boon from Hagley and Ian Atkins from Dunorlan.

Other team members are Tasmanian Mountain Cattlemen’s Association secretary Sandra Rybarczk and Deb Matthews.

An initiative of the Circular Head community, the Greenham Bicentenary Cattle Drive will be the centrepiece of a major cultural event, the Time to Discover Festival, which will run from late January to Easter 2004.

The cattle drive will kick off with a Cattlemen’s Ball at Smithton on Friday, February 27. A Drover’s Breakfast at Redpa, near Smithton, will see the team on its way on Saturday, February 28.

About 200 cattle will be driven from Marrawah along the State’s spectacular west coast, following a stock route created in the 1880s to deliver supplies to miners in Zeehan, finishing at Granville Harbour on March 6.

The event is underwritten by major sponsorship from Smithton-based meat processor and exporter Greenham Tasmania Pty Ltd.

The Greenham family has been involved in the Australian meat industry since the mid 1860s, and has quickly become an important part of the Tasmanian beef industry and the local community since taking over the plant at Smithton two years ago.

Further information about the event and opportunities to participate is available by contacting Trevor Leis 03 6452 1859 or Tony Fletcher on 0418 120 1944