English

Noun

bangtail muster ‎(plural bangtail musters)

1. (Australia) A muster of cattle, for counting and any of various other purposes, during which any animals not previously counted are bangtailed, treated and released.
   • 1926, Parliament of Australia, Parliamentary Debates, Volume 113, page 2099,

     There has since been a bangtail muster and already 1,400 cattle are in hand.

   • 1965, Australian Veterinary Association, Australian Veterinary Journal, Volume 41, page 352,

     Investigation shows that during the period studied, five properties made no accurate count of breeders (bangtail muster), while two made one count.

   • 1973, Hector Holthouse, S'pose I Die: The story of Evelyn Maunsell, page 123,

     A bangtail muster was a count of every beast on a property, and every one of them had to be yarded and have its tail cropped to show it had been counted.

   • 2010, Michael Pearson, Jane Lennon, Pastoral Australia: Fortunes, Failures & Hard Yakka: A Historical Overview 1788-1967, page 169,

     There was, for example, a rapid build-up of Ord River station cattle numbers depastured on the river flats, from 400 in 1885 to 30,000 in 1896 and 47,000 at the bangtail muster in 1901-02.