A bullocky is an Australian term for the driver of a bullock team.  Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers.

Carriers were an integral part of the rural economy during the 19th century; they transported wool and supplies by drays drawn by teams (either bullocks or horses).  They travelled constantly across the landscape servicing the pastoral stations and settlements in regional districts of Australia which were distant from regional transport hubs and urban centres.

Early literature references

The following reference is from the The Australasian (newspaper) of 17 July 1869 (page 17): “Cornstalk and gumsucker are both of colonial growth, and so, I think, is… bullocky (a teamster)”.

Percy Clarke’s ‘New Chum’ in Australia (1886) has the following reference (page 137): “I knew a ‘bullockie’ (as these men are dubbed) who had a team of twelve beasts under his command which obeyed his every word and never received a word, which a ‘high-born ladie’ might not have listened to”.^[1]

References

1. ^ Ramson, W.S. (ed.), The Australian National Dictionary: A Dictionary of Australianisms on Historical Principals, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 105.