The early Anglo‐Celtic settlers in Australia arrived with a ‘cattle‐culture’ developed in Britain over many centuries, but their cattle‐handling technology proved inadequate for the unique conditions of Australia and new methods were soon devised. For most of the nineteenth century these new techniques required the use of a yard, but eventually the ‘bronco’ method was developed which did not require a yard and which involved a specially constructed ‘bronco panel’ and the use of a lasso thrown by a mounted horseman. This new method became the dominant cattle‐handling technique in the outback for nearly a century and is still practised on a small number of cattle stations.