Walkabout

For similar terms, see Walkabout (disambiguation).

Walkabout is a term dating to the pastoral era in which large numbers of Aboriginal Australians were employed on cattle stations. During the tropical wet season, when there was little work on the stations, many would return to their traditional life back home.

The term was also used to describe unexplained absences of any kind. This was commonly treated as the product of what was erroneously assumed to be a nomadic predisposition to wander aimlessly.^[1][2][3]

See also

• Australian Aboriginal culture
• Walkabout, a 1971 film based on a book of the same name
• The Songlines, a book combining fiction and non-fiction by writer Bruce Chatwin
• Australian Walkabout, television series