A bullocky is an Australian English term for the driver of a bullock team.  Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers.

Carriers were an integral part of the rural economy during the 19th century; they transported wool and supplies by drays drawn by teams of draft animals (either bullocks or horses).  They travelled constantly across the landscape, servicing the pastoral stations and settlements a long way from regional transport hubs and urban centres.

Early references

The following reference is from the The Australasian (newspaper) of 17 July 1869 (page 17): “Cornstalk and gumsucker are both of colonial growth, and so, I think, is… bullocky (a teamster)”.

Percy Clarke’s ‘New Chum’ in Australia (1886) has the following reference (page 137): “I knew a ‘bullockie’ (as these men are dubbed) who had a team of twelve beasts under his command which obeyed his every word and never received a word, which a ‘high-born ladie’ might not have listened to”.

References

See also

• Bullock cart