Map of New South Wales Shewing Stock Routes 1880

Map Stocks Routes in New South Wales 1880

Rare, very large c.1880 map of the New South Wales Stock Routes, compiled by the New South Wales Department of Lands in 1880, records one of the colony’s most important pastoral infrastructures: the network of designated stock routes across New South Wales. Rather than depicting settlement alone, the map illustrates the arteries by which millions of sheep and cattle were moved between the inland grazing districts, markets, railheads and coastal ports. The routes represented the physical foundation of the colony’s pastoral economy during the second half of the nineteenth century.

The rapid expansion of pastoral occupation beyond the Great Dividing Range after the 1820s created an urgent need for recognised droving routes. Before the widespread construction of railways, livestock were walked hundreds of kilometres from remote stations to Sydney, Newcastle, Goulburn, Bathurst and later to the growing railway network. By the 1860s and 1870s the colonial government had begun reserving corridors of Crown land specifically for travelling stock, ensuring drovers retained access to water, pasture and overnight camping places while preventing disputes with adjoining landholders. These reserves became known as Travelling Stock Routes (TSRs) and collectively acquired the popular name “The Long Paddock.”

The map was produced during a period when the pastoral industry was undergoing rapid transformation. Wool had become New South Wales’ principal export, while expanding cattle production supplied both domestic markets and overseas demand. Simultaneously, railway construction was beginning to reduce the distances stock needed to be driven, with many routes terminating at newly established trucking stations where livestock could be loaded directly onto trains. Later editions of the map incorporated additional information, including tanks, wells, railways and trucking stations, reflecting this evolving relationship between road and rail transport.

The key on the map distinguishes existing stock routes from proposed routes and associated public works, demonstrating that the network was still being actively expanded in 1880. The greatest concentration of routes appears across the central-western slopes and river systems of New South Wales, linking the pastoral districts of the Darling, Lachlan, Macquarie, Castlereagh, Namoi and Upper Hunter with markets in the colony’s east. Water availability dictated the alignment of many routes, with reserves generally spaced a day’s journey apart for cattle or sheep.

Beyond their economic purpose, the stock routes became significant corridors through the landscape. Many followed much older Aboriginal pathways that had connected waterholes and river crossings for thousands of years before European settlement. Over time, the reserves developed considerable environmental importance as strips of native vegetation preserved amid expanding agricultural land, providing refuges for wildlife and remnants of pre-settlement ecosystems. Today, much of the original network survives as Crown land managed as Travelling Stock Reserves, although only a portion continues to be used for traditional droving.