: The unnamed protagonist. She is the embodiment of resilience, stepping outside traditional 19th-century gender roles to perform hard manual labor and protect her home.
: The family's fierce, protective "dog-of-all-breeds" who serves as the wife's only true guardian in the wild. The Drover's WifeHD
: The bush is not a romantic landscape but a hostile adversary. The snake is just one of many threats, alongside past battles with bushfires, floods, and droughts. : The unnamed protagonist