The Cattle King by Ion L Idriess
At the age of thirteen, Sidney Kidman ran away from home with just five shillings in his pocket. He went on to become a horse dealer, drover, cattle buyer and bush jockey and he also ran a coaching business. Ultimately Kidman created a mighty cattle empire of more than one hundred stations that stretched from the Top End to the Great Australian Bight, fighting droughts, bushfires, floods and plagues of vermin.