Stockman

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Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame ( a museum in Longreach, Queensland, Australia )
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Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame
( a museum in Longreach, Queensland, Australia )

In the Australian lexicon, a stockman is the name given to a person who looks after the livestock on a station. Trainee stockmen are known as "jackaroos" (trainee stockwomen are known as "jillaroos").

Stockmen traditionally rode horses for livestock maintenance and mustering, but motorised vehicles are increasingly used. Station employees, including stockmen, who work at a number of different occupations within their work, are also known as 'station hands'.

There was a tribute to the Australian Stock Horse when stockmen rode 121 Australian Stock Horses during the 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony, where they portrayed "The Man From Snowy River", a famous Australian poem by bush poet Banjo Paterson, to music written by Bruce Rowland, who composed a special Olympics version of the main theme for the 1982 movie "The Man From Snowy River".

During 2002, Australian stockmen rode in the live stage musical "The Man From Snowy River: Arena Spectacular", which was based on Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man From Snowy River".

In Longreach, Queensland, Australia, a Museum and Memorial called the Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame was established to pay tribute to the pioneers of the Australian Outback.

The term stockman is also used in the United States and Canada to mean a person who raises livestock, principally cattle. In this usage, the term is similar to the Australian one, in that it is regionally equivalent to a person who raises livestock on a ranch. However, it is not the case that livestock operations in all parts of the United States and Canada are termed ranches, which is mostly applied to large livestock operations in the West.

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