Cattle ahead sign
Cattle may be on or beside the road here, so slow down and be ready to stop.
- Group
- Warning signs
- The group at a distance
- Diamond, standing on one point, with no exceptions in this group. Yellow ground, black symbol.
- Does this group carry the law
- Not enforceable on its own. It changes nothing about right of way.
- In the sign deck
- 3 questions ask about this sign
What to do when you see it
In the order you do it, from the moment the sign comes into view.
- Slow right down and be ready to stop completely.
- Look for a farmer or a working dog moving stock across the road.
- Pass at walking pace and without sounding the horn if the herd is on the road.
- Watch for a gate or a stock crossing point marked on the road surface.
Where you see it
On rural roads through grazing country, near stock crossings between paddocks, on unfenced roads and around saleyards.
Across the states and territories
Unfenced roads where livestock wander freely are far more common in the Northern Territory, outback Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia than in the south east, and in those areas stock on the road is routine rather than exceptional. The sign means the same thing everywhere, but the likelihood behind it is not the same.
Tell it apart from these
Both signs at the same size, next to each other, with the one line that separates them. These are the pairs people mix up under time pressure.
- Cattle aheadthis pageKangaroos ahead
Native animals arrive fast and unpredictably. Livestock are slow, visible and often being moved by someone.
Kangaroos ahead: Kangaroos cross the road along this stretch, most often around dawn and dusk, so slow down and scan the verges.
- Cattle aheadthis pageRoadwork ahead
Both can mean a full stop on an open road. The difference is that a stock crossing has no traffic controller and no warning distance.
Roadwork ahead: Work is going on in the road ahead, so slow down and watch for changed conditions.
How the knowledge tests use it
Questions ask what to do when animals are on the road, and the answer is to slow to a stop and wait rather than to drive through the herd.
A real question from the sign deckWhat does this sign mean?
Stock warning signs go up where cattle cross or are moved along the road, often between paddocks or near a grid.
State and territory driver handbooks, warning signs
Try it in a question
The sign tests draw the artwork above the question and ask what it means, which is closer to the way you meet a sign on the road than reading a page about it. They are original questions written for this site rather than an agency's published bank.
More warning signs
Yellow diamond with a black symbol.