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Text: 'A Barcoo Cocktail' v2 Chapter 2, Tallying

from plowie, 25.06.09

Wherever stock are handled in the bush, one thing that becomes second nature to the stockman is counting the animals he sees on his rounds.

Knowing that there should be 127 head of cattle in a certain paddock he notes 43 in one mob, 68 in another and a further 32 in several smaller lots. Hey! Hang on. That's 143 head! Then it's his job to look closer and find out who owns the extra 16 and how they came to be in that paddock. If his count is less than there should be, it may or may not warrant an immediate search for the rest, but he'll certainly note it for future reference. Horses are always a matter for concern, and if the tally is out the stockman will go out of his way to discover the reason. In every case his findings will be relayed to the boss or the overseer in due course.

Troublesome animals like kangaroos, emus and pigs may not be counted with a specific total in mind, but their numbers are constantly observed. A marked rise in numbers or in the size of individual groups may call for culling before things get out of hand.

Sheep cannot be counted so readily when there are perhaps three or four thousand running together in a scrubby paddock 4000 hectares in extent, but the experienced stockman becomes quite adept at estimating the number in a mob with a fair degree of accuracy. A true count can best be made by yarding the flock and counting the sheep through a narrow gate. Sometimes a newcomer will ask, in all innocence: "How do you manage to count them so accurately?" The standard reply from the old hand is: "Count the legs and divide by four!" or even "Count the ears and divide by two!" Sometimes this classic piece of vital information is taken quite seriously, causing much hilarity for all except the unfortunate victim of the joke. In any case it reminds the newcomer that he has much to learn. Two people generally do the counting. As the sheep run through a narrow gateway one man counts to 100, and calls loudly "Hundred". The second man, the tallykeeper, responds with "One". It follows on with "Hundred" "Two" "Hundred" "Three" until they are all through. There are little mechanical tally counters too, which is fine if you happen to have one in your pocket when it's needed. Some tallymen pick up a pebble each time the hundred is called. Without such back-up devices it is very easy to become distracted from the job and forget where you're at! Different counters have different methods. One man will count in pairs, and at the 98/100 stage he calls "Hundred". Another very popular way is to count to 33, with each digit representing three sheep. That gets him to 99, and the extra 'one' is accounted for as he calls "Hundred". Sometimes an experienced team can 'dribble' the sheep along a fence, so that a counter can come up with an accurate tally. Professional drovers, of both sheep and cattle often become very good at this, and some are true masters of the art. The system can have its problems, too. You work up a lather of sweat trying to control the mob, and when the count is about 2700 the sheep beat you after all and get boxed up again, and you are back to square one. That's when you say: "Yair. I reckon there's about 3250 in this lot!" No one in the team is inclined to argue, let alone be so foolish as to say: "Let's run 'em through again!"

Some of these chaps could count like a computer but were a bit shaky on mental arithmetic.

"Hey Joe, wots seventy six an' twenty one? Would that be about ninety five?"

"Dunno mate." With a stick Joe makes complicated heiroglyphics in the dust, rubs them out with his boot and starts a fresh calculation.

"Yair, more like prob'ly around ninety seven. Always used to be, before we went into th' metrics. Could be different now."

Of course sheep are never so co-operative as to run through a gate in neat little twos or threes for the convenience of the counter. He has to rely on the speed and accuracy of his eyesight and the alertness of his mind. He can't afford to daydream for a second.

My mother had her own system, and one which I have never seen practised by anyone else. Keeping an ever growing tally in her head, Mother would add on whatever number happened to burst through the gate at once, be it three or five or two or four or one. Moreover, her counts were infallible. That really takes lightning fast mental arithmetic and razor sharp concentration! Any stockman who came up with a different tally at the end of the day would have to admit he made a mistake! All this counting may seem like a lot of work for not much visible result, but it is vital for the proper control and management of stock, and woe betide the new hand who tells the Boss that he saw some cattle but can't say how many there were!

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