The horse and its rider are a potent symbol galloping across the cultural landscape of Australia. In this original and entertaining book, Nanette Mantle explores the myth of the stockman, the boundary rider and other heroic horseback figures in nineteenth-century Australian literature and art. Lavishly illustrated with beautiful images, this study traces the stockrider imagery to medieval chivalry and argues that images of the Australian stockman preceded those of the American cowboy by at least fifty years.