An ox-wagon or bullock wagon is a four-wheeled vehicle pulled by oxen (draught cattle). It was a traditional form of

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

, especially in

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

but also in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. Ox-wagons were also used in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The first recorded use of an ox-wagon was around 1670, but they continue to be used in some areas up to modern times.

Design

Ox-wagons are typically drawn by teams of oxen, harnessed in pairs. This gave them a very wide

turning circle The turning diameter of a vehicle is the minimum diameter (or "width") of available space required for that vehicle to make a circular turn (i.e. U-turn). The term thus refers to a theoretical minimal circle in which for example an aeroplane, a g ...

, the legacy of which are the broad, pleasant boulevards of cities such as

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

, which are wide, and

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, which are "wide enough to turn an ox-wagon". The wagon itself is made of various kinds of wood, with the rims of the wheels being covered with tyres of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

, and since the middle of the 19th century the

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, beari ...

s have also been made of iron. The back wheels are usually substantially larger than the front ones and rigidly connected to the tray of the vehicle. The front wheels are usually greater in diameter than the clearance under the tray of the vehicle so that the steering axle could not turn far under the tray. This makes little difference to the turning circle of the wagon because of the oxen drawing it (see above) and it makes the front of the wagon much more stable because the

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

is never much less than the width of the tray. It also allowed a much more robust connection between the hauling traces of the oxen and the rear axle of the wagon (usually iron chain or rods) that is necessary for heavy haulage. Most of the load-carrying area was covered in canvas supported by wooden arches; the driver sat in the open on a wooden chest (Afrikaans: ). File:Bullock Team Wool Wagon.jpg, Bullock wagon carrying wool in New Zealand, c1880. File:SLNSW 75765 Bullock Team Drawing II Ton Marshall Engine.jpg, Bullock Team drawing II Ton Marshall Engine (Australia early 20th century) File:Ox wagon at Aliwal North.jpg, Ox-wagon with four wagon wheels. File:Ox-wagon front assembly.jpg, Ox-wagon

front axle assembly Turning radius was a longstanding problem with wagons, dictated by the distance between the front wagon wheels and the bed of the wagon—namely, the point where the rotating wheels collide with the side of the wagon when turning. Many earlier des ...

Australia

Bullock wagons were important in the colonial history of Australia. Olaf Ruhen, in his book ''Bullock Teams'' remarks on how bullock teams "shaped and built the colony. They carved the roads and built the rail; their tractive power made populating the interior possible; their contributions to the harvesting of timber opened the bush; they offered a start in life to the enterprising youngster". Bullocks were preferred by many

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

s and teamsters because they were cheaper, quieter, tougher and more easily maintained than

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s therefore making them more popular for draught work. Frequently comprising long trains of bullocks, yoked in pairs, they were used for hauling drays, wagon or jinker loads of goods and lumber prior to the construction of railways and the formation of roads. In early days the flexible two-wheeled dray, with a centre pole and narrow iron tyres was commonly used. The four-wheeled dray or box wagon came into use after about 1860 for loads of and was drawn by 16 to 18 bullocks. A bullock team was led by a pair of well trained leaders who responded to verbal commands as they did not have reins or a bridle. The bullock team driver was called a

bullocky A bullocky is an Australian English term for the driver of a bullock team. The American term is bullwhacker. Bullock drivers were also known as teamsters or carriers. History Bullock teams were in use in Sydney, New South Wales in 1795 wh ...

, bullock puncher or teamster. Many Australian country towns owe their origin to the bullock teams, having grown from a store or shanty where teams rested or crossed a stream. These shanties were spaced at about intervals, which was the usual distance for a team to travel in a day.

South Africa

The Voortrekkers used ox-wagons () during the

Great Trek The Great Trek ( af, Die Groot Trek; nl, De Grote Trek) was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyo ...

north and north-east from the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with ...

in the 1830s and 1840s. An ox-wagon traditionally made with the sides rising toward the rear of the wagon to resemble the lower jaw-bone of an animal is also known as a ''kakebeenwa'' (jaw-bone wagon). South Africa has 800 varieties of wood of which 17 varieties were used for wagon building. South African wood varieties are regarded as the best for wagon building. Wood varieties used for wagon making ranged from hard yellowwood to Boekenhout, is a softer wood and was used as a shock absorber but still stayed firmly in place. The iron rim around the wheel was burnt onto the wheel, the charcoal would protect the iron rim from rust and rot, making it easy to cross rivers. The ox-wagon could be pulled by 12-16 oxen. The ox-wagon could also be disassembled in five minutes by hitting out four pegs on the wheels, then lifting the top of the wagon in seven pieces and carried by four people over rough terrain or across rivers. The ox-wagon could also twist 40 degrees which made it ideal for traversing difficult surface areas. The wheels of the ox-wagon were painted in red lead paint which acted as an excellent water repellant. Various flower and ornament designs were also painted on the wagons and the chests the wagons carried, making them look very colourful. Often the wagons where employed as a mobile fortification called a

laager A wagon fort, wagon fortress, or corral, often referred to as circling the wagons, is a temporary fortification made of wagons arranged into a rectangle, circle, or other shape and possibly joined with each other to produce an improvised milita ...

, such as was the case at the

Battle of Blood River The Battle of Blood River (16 December 1838) was fought on the bank of the Ncome River, in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa between 464 Voortrekkers ("Pioneers"), led by Andries Pretorius, and an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Zulu. Es ...

. After the discovery of gold in the Barberton area in 1881, ox-wagons were used to bring in supplies from former

Lourenço Marques Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088 ...

James Percy FitzPatrick Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, (24 July 1862 – 24 January 1931), known as Percy FitzPatrick, was a South African author, politician, mining financier and pioneer of the fruit industry. He authored the classic children's book, '' Jock of the Bu ...

worked on those ox-wagons and described them in his famous 1907 book '' Jock of the Bushveld''.

Afrikaner symbolism

, the ox-wagon was adopted as an

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Cast ...

cultural icon. The ''ossewa'' is mentioned in the first verse of "

Die Stem Die Stem van Suid-Afrika (, ), also known as "The Call of South Africa" or simply "Die Stem" (), is a former national anthem of South Africa. There are two versions of the song, one in English and the other in Afrikaans, which were in use e ...

", the

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...

poem which became South Africa's national anthem from 1957 to 1994. When a pro-

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Afrikaner

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

organisation formed in 1939, to oppose South Africa's entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

on the British side, it called itself the ''

Ossewabrandwag The ''Ossewabrandwag'' (OB) (, from af , ossewa , translation = ox-wagon and af , brandwag , translation = guard, picket, sentinel, sentry - ''Ox-wagon Sentinel'') was an anti-British and pro-German organisation in South Africa during Worl ...

'' (Ox-wagon Sentinel).

Gallery

File:Relief of an ox-wagon, Voortrekker Monument.jpg, Relief of an ox-wagon on the laager wall File:Kruger House Church Street Pretoria 049.jpg, A replica ''kakebeenwa'' located in the Kruger Museum File:Voortrekker Monument Laager.JPG, The Voortrekker Monument in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

is encircled by a wall depicting Ox-wagons

References