jackaroo/jackeroo:
(plural: jackaroos; female: jillaroo)
(in Australia) a young helper on a large sheep or cattle farm (cattle station/ranch);
a cowboy on Australian ranches or cattle stations,
a jackaroo tending cattle
e.g.
When he dropped out of high school, Shane got to the outback and trained to be a jackaroo at a cattle station.
The immigrants to Australia face a lot of hardships in their early days after landing, and most of them end up on ranches and cattle or sheep stations and become jackaroos or jaillaroos.
Because they get some novel experience with some real physical exercise out in the open, most of the Australian young people are making a beeline to go to the ranches and live like jackaroos and jillaroos in their holidays.
For an article that shows us what a jackaroo does, please click here, for an advertisement, with a video clip, offering training to prospective jackaroos & jillaroos, please click here, for an item of local news about the disappearance of traditional jackaroos and jillaroos on Australian properties, please click here and for the story of a rural journalist when he was a jackaroo, please click here.
