It started as a side hustle, a way for a travelling salesman to get home to his family, but turned into a love letter to the land, an educational tool and one of the most successful Australian board games of all time — and it's all about sheep farming.
Squatter simulates the highs and lows of earning a living as a farmer and is still in production six decades after it was launched.
Its inventor was Bob Lloyd, a city lad from Melbourne who gained a deep connection to rural life working as a farmhand on his in-laws' property in Loch, South Gippsland.
Bob, who died in 2019, is remembered by his son, Richard, as a fun-loving bloke, a dreamer who loved the latest toys and gadgets.
"He got excited about fun little things," Richard says.
"One occasion, he brought back a toy ... it had suction cups on it and walked up the wall and across the ceiling and down the other wall. We had fun with it, but I think Dad had more fun watching it than we did."
In 1956, Bob was on the road working, desperate to find a way to support his family and come home to them full-time.
A man of faith, he prayed for inspiration.
"He was driving through the Wimmera region in western Victoria and just after he prayed, he looked out the window and noticed the sheep grazing in the paddocks, and the thought suddenly came to him," Richard says.
That evening, Bob sat down and penned Squatter all in one night.
And while the board game industry is booming, with more choice than ever, Squatter has stood the test of time, having sold more than 700,000 copies since it was first published in 1962.
University of Melbourne board game researcher Melissa Rogerson says Squatter's popularity remains strong at a time when "it's very easy to sink in that sea of new board games".
"Board games do extremely well, there are thousands of new board games published every year," she says.
Got to be in it to win it
Each player starts with a sheep station made up of five natural pasture paddocks — the first player to irrigate all their paddocks and to be fully stocked with sheep, wins.
The stations reflect each state of Australia and all are made up, apart from Coorumbene station – the name of his in-laws' sheep farm.
The original design of Squatter, an agricultural board game designed by Bob Lloyd in 1956. Supplied
Players travel around a board with Monopoly-like squares that feature the perils and pleasures of farming life. Supplied
Bob Lloyd sat down one evening in 1956 and penned Squatter and all of its rules in one night. Supplied
The first player to irrigate all their paddocks and to be fully stocked with sheep, wins. Supplied
Players travel around a board with Monopoly-like squares that feature the perils and pleasures of farming life – from Flood Damage to Stud Ram and win a fee.
But unlike Monopoly, every player in Squatter is in the fight until the last roll of the dice.
"He hated that idea of playing and the only way you could win was to defeat everyone rather than winning on your own merit," Richard says.
Gaming as an educational tool
Eventually working for an agricultural firm, Bob wanted his game to be an "educational tool" for farmers.
"In that era, the agricultural community was very resistant to new ideas," Richard says.
"He knew that if they could manage things better, that they would make more money."
Dr Rogerson says there is a long history of educational games, most of which "tend to be a bit rubbish", but Squatter manages to "kick up that fun, as well as the educational element".
She says despite its niche topic, Squatter was the most successful Australian board game around at one stage.
"What really stands out about it is its longevity."
Down, in large part, Dr Rogerson says, to "a big nostalgia boost" people get from playing the game.
Ode to life on the land
National Wool Museum director Padraic Fisher says Squatter's biggest impact is to give the wider community an insight into farming.
But the game is also as an important cultural artefact.
"In terms of its place within the Australian psyche … it also holds on to parts of Australian culture that may have disappeared," he says.
Richard says Bob heard first-hand the impact Squatter had on the industry when two young farm workers told him they knew how to work on the land but "didn't know why we were doing these things until [they] played Squatter".
"That's probably some of the most cherished feedback that Dad ever heard," Richard says.
Squatter became Bob's ode to Australian farming and those long days on his in-laws' property.
"One of his daily jobs was to ride the boundary of a 300-acre [121-hectare] property and to check on the livestock. He enjoyed that time more than anything else," Richard says.
"He really loved the rural community."