Shepherd

===Australia and New Zealand===
[[File:Shepherds watch box.JPG|thumb|Shepherd's watch box, [[New South Wales]]]]

European exploration led to the spread of sheep around the world, and shepherding became especially important in Australia and New Zealand where there was great pastoral expansion. In Australia [[Squatting (pastoral)|squatters]] spread beyond the [[Nineteen Counties]] of New South Wales to elsewhere, taking over vast holdings called properties and now [[Station (Australian agriculture)|stations]].{{cn|date=September 2018}}

Once driven overland to these properties, sheep were pastured in large unfenced runs. There, they required constant supervision.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Frontier Country |publisher=Weldon Russell, Willoughby |year=1989 |isbn=1-875202-00-5 |editor-last=Coupe |editor-first=Sheena |volume=I}}</ref> Shepherds were employed to keep the sheep from straying too far, to keep the mobs as healthy as possible and to prevent attacks from [[dingo]]es and introduced predators such as feral dogs and foxes. Lambing time further increased the shepherd's responsibilities.{{cn|date=September 2018}}

Shepherding was an isolated, lonely job that was firstly given to [[Convict assignment|assigned]] [[Convicts in Australia|convict]] servants. The accommodation was usually poor and the food was lacking in nutrition, leading to [[dysentery]] and [[scurvy]]. When free labour was more readily available others took up this occupation. Some shepherds were additionally brought to Australia on the ships that carried sheep and were contracted to caring for them on their arrival in the colony. Sheep owners complained about the inefficiency of shepherds and the shepherds' fears of getting lost in [[the bush]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pemberton |first=P. A. |title=Pure Merinos and Others |work=ANU Archives of Business & Labour |year=1986 |isbn=0-86784-796-4 |location=Canberra}}</ref>

Typically sheep were watched by shepherds during the day, and by a hut-keeper during the night. Shepherds took the sheep out to graze before sunrise and returned them to brush-timber yards at sunset. The hut-keeper usually slept in a movable shepherd's watch box placed near the yard in order to deter attacks on the sheep. Dogs were also often chained close by to warn of any impending danger to the sheep or shepherd by dingoes or natives.{{cn|date=September 2018}}

In 1839 the usual wage for a shepherd was about AU£50 per year, plus weekly rations of {{Convert|12|lb|kg}} meat, {{Convert|10|lb|kg}} flour, {{Convert|2|lb|kg}} sugar and {{Convert|4|oz|g}} tea. The wage during the depression of the 1840s dropped to £20 a year.{{cn|date=September 2018}}

During the 1850s many shepherds left to try their luck on the goldfields causing acute labour shortages in the pastoral industry. This labour shortage leads to the widespread practice of fencing properties, which in turn reduced the demand for shepherds.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Alec H. |title=The Australian Encyclopaedia |publisher=Halstead Press |year=1963 |volume=8 |location=Sydney |page=103}}</ref> Over 95% of [[New South Wales]] sheep were grazing in paddocks by the mid-1880s. An 1890s census of fencing in New South Wales recorded that 2.6 million kilometres of fencing had been erected there with a contemporary cost of A$3 billion. [[Boundary rider]]s and [[Stockman (Australia)|stockmen]] replaced shepherds working on foot, who have not been employed in Australia and New Zealand since the start of the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.outbackmag.com.au/still-on-the-sheeps-back |title=Still on the Sheep's Back |date=January 29, 2009 |work=Outback Story |publisher=Outback magazine |issue=63}}</ref>