Squatting (pastoral)

In Australian history, a squatter was typically a man, either a free settler or ex-convict, who occupied a large tract of Crown land in order to graze livestock. Initially often having no legal rights to the land, they gained its usage by being the first (and often the only) Europeans in the area. Eventually, the term Squattocracy, a play on "aristocracy", developed to refer to some of these squatters.