rural translations

There are many different breeds of horses and cows all over the world but they’re easily recognisable as horses and cows so the names used to describe them are relatively consistent.

This is not so for the land that supports beef cattle grazing enterprises because there are so many variables. For example there is a vast difference between extremely intensive European mixed enterprises and the extensive grazing enterprises in the Americas and Australia.

The following lists include some of the nearest equivalents in countries that have relatively small areas of land running cattle:

Names for the owner’s or manager’s house on a cattle station:

• ‘big house’ – Australia (‘homestead’ in more closely settled, farming country)
• ‘hacienda’ – Mexico
• ‘casco’ – Argentina
• ‘galpões’ – Brazil

Names for living quarters for stockmen (some very basic):

• ‘ringers quarters’ – Australia
• ‘bunkhouse’ – U.S.
• ‘puesto’ – Argentina
• ‘tambo’ – Quechua language (‘place of rest or refuge’ in the Quechua language which is the most commonly spoken Indian language in South America; mainly in Peru & Bolivia but also southern Columbia and Ecuador, northern-western Argentina and northern Chile)

Names for a shed on a station (ranch):

• ‘shed’ – Australia (often open sided and used for storing equipment, supplies, vehicles and machinery. Livestock are not usually housed anywhere in Australia and only a few horses are stabled, in southern areas)
• ‘barn’ – U.S.A., Canada (usually closed in, due to snowy winters; houses stock as well as the above)
• ‘tenada’ – Spanish

Words used to describe grassland that is used to graze livestock:

• ‘downs country’ – Australia (natural grasslands with few trees; referred to as ‘savanna’ by ecologists)
• ‘prairie’ – U.S. & Canada
• ‘pampas’ – Argentina
• ‘llaneros’ – Colombia & Venezuela
• ‘paramos’ – Ecuador
• ‘veldt’ – Southern Africa (or ‘veld’)
• ‘steppe’ – Eurasia

Words used to describe (largest scale) cattle grazing enterprises:

• ‘station’ – Australia & New Zealand
• ‘ranch’ – U.S. and Canada
• ‘hacienda’ – Spain, Mexico and Spanish–speaking parts of South America such as Peru.
• ‘latifundios’ – Mexico and northern South America. Especially large ‘hacienda’, with implications of being unfairly large and not efficiently managed. ‘Latifundios’ is often mentioned in the same sentence as ‘oligarchy’, which means a form of government in which power is (unjustly) held by very few.
• ‘fundo’ – Chile
• ‘hatos’ – Colombia and Venezuela (llanos region)
• ‘estancia’ – Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay
• ‘fazenda’ – Brazil
• ‘manade’ – Camargue (south of France)
• ‘run’ – New Zealand, Canada
• ‘farm’ – U.K.

What about farms?

The term ‘farm’ in Australia usually refers to smaller holdings, landholdings that run mixed enterprises or properties on which crops are the sole enterprise.

‘Market garden’ in Australia refers to a vegetable growing business, which is usually very small in area and extremely intensively farmed. ‘Orchard’ refers to a fruit producing enterprise. ‘Hobby farm’ is a small farm owned by someone who lives and works in town who is not reliant on farming income for their survival. (Also variously referred to as 'Collins Street', 'Pitt Street' and 'Queen Street' farmers, after the main streets in the C.B.D. of the state capital cities. Term usually applied to someone viewed as having more money than sense, and little knowledge of agriculture.). The closest U.S. equivalent is 'dude ranch'.

There are a multitude of different names in other countries with different applications. For example in Argentina ‘granja’ refers to a farm, ‘chacra’ to a small farm and ‘finca’ refers to a vineyard or where fruit is cultivated.

Just to complicate matters similar words sometimes have quite different meanings in other countries. For example a ‘rancho’ in Argentina does not mean a large ‘ranch’, it means a humble adobe, straw-roofed house housing poor people. ‘Rancho’ in Mexico means a small farm, usually family owned and run. These are language pitfalls for the unwary!

Where does the term ‘Station’ come from?

How did the Australian term ‘station’ come about? Presumably it was used by early British settlers because people were ‘stationed’ (situated) on these particular spots. 'Sheep station' and 'cattle station' were terms commonly used by Australian settlers throughout the 1800s.

‘Outstations’ (in the past also referred to by some as ‘outposts’) are small versions of the homestead complex, located in distant corners of the largest stations and usually permanently occupied by at least a skeleton staff. If a full stockcamp don’t live on the outstation full time then they’ll visit from the main station complex a couple of times a year to muster the surrounding area. There are now very few stations that have permanent staff living on outstations, Alexandria in the Northern Territory is one of the few exceptions.

Interestingly, the word ‘estancia’ which is used over much of South America to describe a large cattle property, is derived from the Spanish word for ‘station’ - ‘estación’ (from the Latin word ‘stantia’).