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Livestock mobility is practised by pastoralists to cope with some of the variability and unpredictability of limited forage resources and because a diverse portfolio of strategies is needed to manage risk. The global trend towards rangeland privatisation, fragmentation and land-use intensification is eroding many of the institutions that have traditionally facilitated pastoral mobility. While Australia's pastoral industry was developed as a European private-property system, livestock mobility has recently been increasing, indicating an important response to variability regardless of a nation's wealth or development. This paper discusses how opportunistic movements of livestock over large scales by trading grazing rights between enterprises are effective but imperfect. Knowledge about the trustworthiness of individuals and local environments is often limited and poorly monitored. There is scope for policy to support mobility by targeting these institutional failures. The Australian system of trading grazing rights can inform efforts to maintain spatial flexibility in the industrial era.