bangtail muster

From bangtail (“to dock the tail brush”) + muster (“a roundup”).

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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.