G'day gnomad,

Thanks for that information. I would have expected the Australian term to be an English one ... modified, as appropriate, for the new conditions.

We still have the (rough) equivalent of your "drove roads" in the thousands of kilometres of "stock routes" - usually wide, usually grassed, areas running besides motor roads, these days. Except in the really wild country, these would be fenced at property boundaries, sometimes broken up into sections by cross fences and, at least nowadays, cattle grids. At appropriate intervals (~ 16 km/10 miles) there will be stock pens, where stock could be closed in for the night.

Nowadays, these are used more for "working the long paddock" - taking starving/drough-affected stock onto the stock routes to garner a bit of green grass. The reqirement to travel each day limits the abuse of the 'long paddaock'.

Regards,

Bob Bolton