Dana, in describing getting hides from shore to ship mentions "droghers". I found a site describing them as relatively small boats used for transporting cargo from shore to ship.
"A discussion of early shipping on the Clarence would not be complete without mentioning the droghers. These small local vessels were used for transporting all types of cargo on the river from logs, pigs, produce, etc, to deliveries of the latest goods offloaded from the sea-going steamers from Sydney."