Baz Luhrmann's movie Australia promotes the image of the drover as the white male embodiment of all that is quintessentially Australian.
Hugh Jackman's character, "The Drover", is a legacy of the legend created by those who have really lived their lives on the Long Paddock pushing mobs of stock with a "vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended", like Banjo Paterson's Clancy of the Overflow.
But as Luhrmann's outback epic is taking the romance of the drover to movie screens around the world, out on the dusty stock routes of NSW battlers like Geoff Johnstone, 53, fear their fabled way of life will soon be at an end.
About 600,000 hectares of NSW is still covered by stock reserves managed by rural lands protection boards, and the boards' state council has embraced a report that recommends unprofitable stock routes be handed back to the Department of Lands as part of a widespread shake-up of the board system.
The report said mechanised livestock transport had largely made the routes redundant, and because they rarely paid their way they were an unfair burden on the 139,000 board ratepayers who must subsidise them for users who are mostly opportunistic non-ratepayers.
Many reserves have not been used by travelling stock for decades, but board rangers have to do pest and weed control, fencing and maintain watering points.
Only five of the state's 47 boards - Cobar, Moree, Narrabri, Northern Slopes and Coonamble - made a profit from their stock routes in recent years, and the role of routes "has evolved to be one of providing fodder, especially in times of drought, hosting remnant vegetation and satisfying community, recreational and conservation uses", the report said.
But for Mr Johnstone, a comprehensive stock route system is the only way he can make a living.
"I have always had cattle and I have always wanted to have cattle. I can't afford land so the only way I can afford to do it is use these stock routes. Our way of life is coming to an end."
Drovers, environmentalists and farmers met in Dubbo recently to discuss the survival of the stock route network amid fears much of it will become off-limits and damaged through it being leased or eventually sold off.
Many farmers believe it is vital to retain stock routes for times of emergency, such as drought, fire and flood.
Nearly 2.5 million sheep and cattle used them last year.
Environmentalists say they are a green web providing vital corridors for native plants and animals, while drovers argue the stock routes are their livelihood and should also remain for heritage and cultural reasons.
The Department of Lands says "there are no plans to sell [travelling stock reserves] that contribute to the environmental values or social, cultural and economic needs of the community."
They will revert to ordinary Crown reserve land and "be managed for a multiple range of purposes including conservation, agricultural, recreational [and] cultural."
Cecile van der Burgh of the Wilderness Society said she welcomed the Government's position, but the survival of stock routes needed to be guaranteed by legislation.
The town of Narrandera was born because it was a place where drovers could get their stock across the Murrumbidgee River, but the Narrandera Rural Lands Board is about to die after 130 years as the 47 boards are amalgamated into 14 new authorities.
Narrandera's outgoing chairman, Tom Manning, said the district would inevitably lose some stock reserves, but the main ones should stay because they were important fodder reserves in times of crisis and part of the north-south "Driftway" through the heart of NSW that allows stock to walk from Queensland to Victoria.
Pushing his mob beside the Newell Highway near Narrandera, Mr Johnstone said he loved droving because "you are your own boss, away from people".
He is not the movie cliche drover. He has a "dodgy ticker" and prefers mechanised transport because "I've got so many aches and pains I hardly ever ride a horse any more".
But just as Jackman's drover has Nicole Kidman's Lady Sarah Ashley for company, Mr Johnstone has his wife, Kaye, and daughters Kirby, 15, and Lexie, 13, helping him.
The girls have grown up on the stock routes and the family lives together in a ramshackle caravan surrounded by their horses, dogs and cattle, with the girls doing distance education.
Lexie and Kirby have heard their father talk about the demise of his droving days so much that they are already resigned to it.
"It was probably coming to an end anyway, so there's not much you can say or do," Lexie said.
* Click here for a Slideshow of photos and interviews with the Johnstones.
Email a friend