100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

The Drovers

4.25 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 20 ratings, 2 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In The Drovers, Evan McHugh takes readers on a journey through the outback, tracing the footsteps of the hardy drovers who drove cattle across Australia's vast landscapes. This biography and memoir explore the lifestyle, challenges, and tales of these resilient individuals, delving into their personal stories and the impact they had on Australian history. Through rich storytelling, McHugh paints a vivid picture of a bygone era, celebrating the legacy of these adventurous souls.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of The Drovers. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate exploring tales of rugged adventure and history set in the Australian outback. It delves into the fascinating lives of the drovers, capturing the spirit of Australia’s pioneering days with vivid stories that blend history, culture, and personal narratives. If you're drawn to memoirs and biographies that bring historical landscapes to life, this book offers an engaging and insightful read.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Deals with the hapless convicts attempting to round up the First Fleet's escaped cattle on foot; overlanders blazing through trackless wilderness to supply the vast stations carved from the bush; stockmen who risked blizzards to bring cattle to alpine pastures; and, drovers who crossed the Australian continent behind the largest mobs of cattle.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

From the High Country to the Outback, there are extraordinary stories of the men and women who have travelled across Australia behind mobs of cattle, sheep, and horses. These quiet achievers, of every race and creed, forged an Australian legend.

Evan McHugh brings alive the hapless convicts attempting to round up the First Fleet's escaped cattle on foot; overlanders blazing through trackless wilderness to supply the vast stations carved from the bush; stockmen who risked blizzards to bring cattle to alpine pastures; and drovers who crossed the continent behind the largest mobs of cattle the world has ever seen.

These stories overflow with colourful characters: cattle-duffers like Harry Redford, renowned boss drovers like Nat Buchanan and strong women like Edna Zigenbine and Red Jack, who could measure up to any man. They lived a life most of us only dream about and came to love the beauty of Australia's most famous and infamous stock routes, including the Birdsville, Murranji, and Strzelecki tracks, and the Canning stock route.

McHugh's meticulous research and vivid eye for detail is the closest you'll get to saddling up your moke and poking a mob of cattle off camp.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780143205296

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 29 August 2011

Country: Australia

Imprint: Penguin Random House Australia

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 131.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 268g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Evan McHugh's previous books include Shipwrecks: Australia's Greatest Maritime Disasters, Outback Heroes, Outback Pioneers and Birdsville. His book about true crime in the outback, Red Centre, Dark Heart, won the Ned Kelly Award for best non-fiction in 2008.

Also by Evan McHugh

View all
  • Outback Cop
    Outback Cop is set in one of the most remote police postings in Australia, Birdsville. Life here can be lonely and uneventful for weeks, until the dramas come thick and fast. From desert rescues to rising floods, venomous vipers to visiting VIPs, this is not a job for the faint-hearted. Senior Constable Neale McShane has single-handedly managed a beat the...
    Paperback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Outback Stations
    β€œFrom the helicopter I could see the property's waterholes surrounded by paperback trees, its red-stone cliffs lit by the rising sun. And grass, endless seas of grass. Here was the vision splendidβ€”Nat Buchanan's grass castle. Gurindji country. And my country, Australia.” This is big country, the outback, home to the largest cattle and sheep stations in the world. Yet few...
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • 1606
    1606 marked the first European sighting of Australia, when the Dutch ship Duyfken landed on Cape York. This gripping book tells the stories of the seafaring explorers, shipwrecks, and mutinies that followed, including the voyages of Torres and La Perouse, Dampier and D'Entrecasteaux. These are tales of adventure, discovery, and navigational triumph in the face of hardship, starvation, and fear...
    Paperback
    $3999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Shipwrecks: Australia's Greatest Maritime Disasters
    From the first wreck in 1622 off Western Australia to the tragedy of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, Evan McHugh captures all the drama of Australia's maritime history. There are swashbuckling mutineers, violent storms, uncharted reefs, enemy warships, as well as ripping yarns about Dutchmen and lascars, Aborigines and escaped convicts. In producing this remarkable book, McHugh has...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Outback Heroes
    The men and women you'll meet in this fascinating book come in all shapes and sizes, from convicts and engineers to cattleduffers and anthropologists. These remarkable Australians share an extraordinary ability to survive the rigours of the bush. In Outback Heroes, Evan McHugh brings together his favourite ripping yarns from the Australian frontier. He begins with escaped convict William Buckley,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Outback Legends
    These people are very different, but they have much in common. They're the salt of the outback, but they're not from long ago and far away. You can rub shoulders with them here and now. They're our outback legends. Immerse yourself in these armchair travels and heart-warming life stories as Evan McHugh, bestselling author of Outback Heroes and Outback Pioneers,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Outback Pioneers
    In Outback Pioneers, Evan McHugh gathers the enthralling stories of the men and women who opened up the Australian outback and, in the process, discovered the beauty and terror of this extraordinary country. We meet the little-known convict explorer John Wilson, the first European to cross the Blue Mountains, though history favours the proper English gentlemen Blaxland, Wentworth, and Lawson....
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Shearers
    For much of its history, Australia has been described as riding on the sheep's back. However, if the country rode on anyone's back, it was on the aching, creaking, flexing spines of Australian shearers. Armed with their blades, a sense of adventure, and a relentless work ethic, shearers have been a fundamental part of Australia's outback for centuries. From legendary...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Biography & Memoir

View all
  • This Angry Pen of Mine
    This Angry Pen of Mine by Layne Staley invites you to dive into the untold creative world of Layne Staley, the legendary voice behind Alice in Chains. This extraordinary collection showcases his handwritten lyrics, deeply personal poetry, stunning original artwork, rare photos, fan tributes, and so much more. Step into the world of Layne Staley like never before. For the...
    Hardback
    $7299
    Elsewhere:
    $8999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Famesick
    Chronicling the tumultuous decade between the premiere of Girls to her 2021 shotgunΒ wedding (minus the baby, because she has no uterus), Lena Dunham takes us through herΒ journey with her trademark mix of humor, unsparing honesty, and keen eye for detail. We peek behind the scenes - of her work, her family, her relationships, and her battle to reclaim her body...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Dogs, Boys and Other Things I've Cried About
    From the social media superstar behind @SimonSits, Isabel Klee--known for her heartwarming tales of dog rescue--comes an utterly winning memoir about a twentysomething woman's search for true love in New York City and the dogs who helped her find it. A Jersey girl by birth, Isabel Klee had always wanted to live in New York City. At age 20, she...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Signed Copy
    New Release
    Stakes
    Read our interview with author Noelle McCarthy! A darkly funny, sparkling follow-up to the author’s bestselling memoirΒ Grand. You have to invite him in. You have to want the vampire’s badness in the house with you. Growing up in Catholic Ireland, Noelle McCarthy is captivated by Bram Stoker’sΒ Dracula. The vampire is a risk-free fantasy, a suave alternative to the fraught realities...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Built for This
    Raised among strong women, butcher's benches, and hard ideas about what men are meant to be, Brad Poulter grows up knowing he's different long before he has the words for it. But in late '90s small-town New Zealand, 'different' isn't discussed, it's managed. Joining the Royal New Zealand Navy offers escape, certainty, and belonging. The rules are clear, the uniform...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • Even the Good Girls Will Cry
    Thanks to a thrown beer bottle and a fan letter to a P.O. box, Melissa Auf der Maur's first band scored an opening slot for the Smashing Pumpkins in her bohemian home town, Montreal. Sensing Melissa's talent, Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love. Whisked from her local scene, Melissa joined Hole just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    An Ocean and a Day
    An utterly riveting, moving and poignant memoir of grief and loss that will speak to anyone who's ever lost someone they love. An Ocean and a Day is Hannah Richell's personal account of losing her husband, Matt, in a surfing accident on Tamarama beach in 2014. It is the story of the grief journey she travelled over the first two...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    A Place to Stand
    A Place to Stand by Clare Ward is a profound memoir that delves into the life of a country doctor living and working in the Hokianga Harbour area in the far north of Aotearoa New Zealand. This region is sparsely populated and poses numerous health challenges. This thoughtful account details Clare’s thirty-year career, highlighting the people she works with and...
    Hardback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Rory
    TheΒ New York TimesΒ bestseller The #1Β Irish TimesΒ bestseller The definitive biography of Rory McIlroy, the most important, popular and confounding player of the post-Tiger era. Rory McIlroy contains multitudes. The child of a working-class family from a small town in a war-torn homeland now commutes to work in his own private jet and counts billionaires as confidants. He can overwhelm a golf...
    Paperback
    $3699
    Elsewhere:
    $4199
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Te Kaikaukau | The Swimmer
    Novelist, memoirist and playwright Witi Ihimaera – author of Pounamu, Pounamu and The Whale Rider – decided, at the age of eighty, to dive back into the water and spend a year full-time at Te Wānanga Takiura, immersing himself in his own language, in te reo Māori. This book tells the story of this kaikaukau, this swimmer, and his year...
    Paperback
    $3500
    Elsewhere:
    $4500
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    This Is Me: A Reckoning
    This is a searingly honest and moving memoir from double Golden Globe-nominatedactress Hayden Panettiere. Hayden Panettiere has been in front of the camera since before she could talk. She roseto stardom typecasted as Hollywood's blonde girl next door. As a young celebrity,naysayers were certain she would crash and burn. Not one to disappoint, she did.Hayden Panettiere's irreverent memoir satisfies our...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow
  • New Release
    Beyond Life and Death
    From martial arts icon and global film star Jet Li comes a revelatory, profound and inspiring guide to self-mastery and spiritual wisdom, distilled into 10 essential life lessons. Martial arts legend and international movie star Jet Li distils 10 powerful insights from his iconic career, his personal life and philosophies, and his 30-year Buddhist practice. Jet Li's story defies legend....
    By Jet Li
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships tomorrow

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.