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.