The spellings jackaroo and jackeroo were both used from about 1880 to at least 1981. In 2010, the more commonly used spelling was 'jackaroo'. However, between the years 1970 and 1981, a sample of Australian newspapers referred to 'jackeroo' 18 times and 'jackaroo' 29 times.
In Australia a stockman (plural stockmen) is a person who looks after the livestock on a large property known as a station, which is owned by a grazier or a grazing company, traditionally on horse. In this sense it has a similar meaning to "cowboy".
In Australia, where ranches are known as stations, cowboys are known as stockmen and ringers, (jackaroos and jillaroos who also do stockwork are trainee overseers and property managers).
Ringer – a male or female stock worker on an Australian cattle station, so named from rounding up “mobs” of cattle. See our Working as a Ringer article. Ringing – A term for someone who is a ringer eg I've spent the last 10 years ringing in the Northern Territory.
The cowboys in Australia were and are called drovers or stockmen. What are some notable differences between Australians and Americans? In much of Australian cattle country, the word “cowboy” was an insult.
Ringer – A male or female stock worker on an Australian cattle station (mainly , so named from rounding up 'mobs' of cattle.
Cowboy demographics by race
The most common ethnicity among cowboys is White, which makes up 62.2% of all cowboys. Comparatively, 26.8% of cowboys are Hispanic or Latino and 4.8% of cowboys are Black or African American.
'Ranga' is an abbreviation of 'orangutan'. Used mostly in Australia, the word has gradually spread across the world and has now been adopted to refer to all redheads. It's thought that is began being used as a derogatory word around the 1990s in Australia school yards.
In Australia and New Zealand, a cattle station is a large farm (station is equivalent to the American ranch), the main activity of which is the rearing of cattle. The owner of a cattle station is called a grazier.
Dak derives from another Australian term daks meaning 'a pair of trousers'. The term is first recorded from the early 1990s but is probably much older than that.
someone who is not honest, careful, or skilful in their trade or business, or someone who ignores rules that most people obey and is therefore not considered to be responsible: Those builders are a bunch of cowboys - they made a terrible job of our extension.
Bloke is a slang term for a common man in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
A bush telly is a campfire, or the stars – in other words, what you watch for entertainment at night in the bush. It's rather a beautiful term and one that continues to this very day.
American football, known locally as "gridiron", is a participation and spectator sport in Australia. The sport is represented by Gridiron Australia, a member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), and also Gridiron Victoria, which operates independent of Gridiron Australia.
In Australia, a large land holding used for livestock production is known as a 'station' – this originally referred to the main residence and outbuildings of a pastoral property but now generally refers to the whole land holding.
In Australia the largest properties, which run cattle only, are called cattle 'Stations' ('ranches' in the American and Canadian equivalent).
Some Australian ranches, known as stations, extend more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles). The largest, Anna Creek station, covers almost 24,000 square kilometers (9,266 square miles). Cowboys are responsible for herding and maintaining the health of animals across these vast ranches.
The billy is an Australian term for a metal container used for boiling water, making tea or cooking over a fire. By the end of the 19th century the billy had become as natural, widespread and symbolic of bush life as the gum tree, the kangaroo and the wattle.
/ˈɔːzi/ (also Aussie) (informal) a person from Australia.
'Digger' was a colloquial name applied to Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) personnel that developed during the war (although the term was already applied to miners back in Australia and New Zealand).
Originally, White cowboys were called cowhands, and African Americans were pejoratively referred to as “cowboys.” African American men being called “boy” regardless of their age stems from slavery and the plantation era in the South.
But, as much as film stars John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry come to mind when “cowboy” is mentioned, the first actual cowboys in the Americas were Spanish vaqueros who introduced cattle to Mexico in the 1500s.
Cowboys came from diverse backgrounds and included African-Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans and settlers from the eastern United States and Europe.