They date back to the 1800s but stock routes are just as important now as they ever were, especially when rising petrol prices make droving stock cheaper than trucking them in some places.

A proposed new management plan has opened up the way for many of the stock routes to be sold off, logged and cleared.

The plan prompted hundreds of concerned drovers from across NSW to meet in Dubbo yesterday, amid fears that the State Government plans to sell off NSW’s remaining travelling stock route network.

The drovers met at the Dubbo saleyards yesterday and formed a group called ‘Mates of the Stock Route’ to push for its retention.

They join more than 450 ecologists and wildlife scientists from across the country that have called to protect the stock routes, which have nationally important environmental, economic and cultural heritage values.

Mogriguy drover Robert Groth - who has a family lineage of droving that dates back 156 years - said people’s livelihoods were at stake if stock routes were sold.

“I’m a professional drover and these routes are vital, and if you get rid of the little routes how much pressure is that going to put on major routes so they will end up closing anyway because they will be chewed out,” Mr Groth said.

“The financial impact will be on the drovers but also on the town itself, it’s not just the country but the towns that will suffer too.”

A recent government review recommended the Rural Lands Protection Board no longer manage the stock routes and instead the Department of Lands should take over.

Third-generation Quandialla drover Ray Penfold said drovers were worried that the RLPB didn’t have their interests at heart.

In 1975, the network was estimated to cover 2.3 million hectares - just 33 years later only a little over a quarter of travelling stock routes remain.

The Wilderness Society’s Cecile van der Burgh addressed the meeting yesterday and warned of the potential environmental damage if travelling stock routes were not protected and managed properly.

“Travelling stock routes are not just a vital drought-relief network for graziers. They are important corridors for threatened animals to move through and a large variety of native plants are also found there,” Ms van der Burgh said.

belinda.galloway@ruralpress.com