Sentence:  In Parliament, at least, the <WSD>squatters</WSD> were secure. &para; In the early 1840s a severe depression threatened livelihoods in all the colonies except South Australia and many <WSD>squatters</WSD> resorted to slaughtering their sheep and boiling them down for tallow. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A large-scale grazier and landowner.