Blog Archive
The Inaugural Colt Starting Competition in Coonamble!
Host: Dr Jillian Kelly All small communities wouldn’t run without volunteers on local event committees and I’m just so proud to be part of the Coonamble Challenge & Campdraft committee – an event that began in 2015 and has grown in size and reputation in just four short years. Have a read of one of my […]
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CSI: Coonamble
Host: Dr Jillian Kelly Sometimes I feel like I’m part of the “CSI” team – investigating livestock illness and death and putting all the little pieces together – history, clinical signs, lab testing, and an examination of the paddock – to get a diagnosis and fix the problem. A while back I got called out by […]
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The Power of a Cup of Tea
Host: Dr Jillian Kelly Smoko: a rest from work for a smoke; a tea break. Everyone knows that smoko is the best meal of the day (closely followed by beer time, might I add). This is very important to me in my job as a veterinarian for several reasons. Not only do I love cake, I […]
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Meals on Wheels
Host: Dr Jillian Kelly Our district has been in a severe drought for a long period – many farmers have been hand feeding cattle and sheep for months, and in some unfortunate cases years. I spoke to one lady this morning in the hairdressers that has been hand feeding stock for five of the last seven […]
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Finding beauty amongst the drought
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Lindy Hick Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 “Photography is a love affair with life.” Buzz Uzzle. My name is Lindy Hick, […]
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Community Supporting Public Education
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Michelle Eulenstein Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 Michelle Eulenstein grew up on Magnetic Island in Far North QLD and fell in […]
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Home tutor challenges
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Jacinta Wilson. Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 Scenario: It’s ten o’clock in the morning. The baby is grizzling – It’s time […]
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Tulloona Education Hub: Brought to you by a bunch of really awesome women!
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Michelle Eulenstein Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 Michelle Eulenstein grew up on Magnetic Island in Far North QLD and fell in […]
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A Bush Christmas Exhibition
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 It’s on again as we venture into the 22ndyear of this amazing exhibition of creatives principally from rural […]
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The Variety Bash Hits Tulloona!
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Michelle Eulenstein Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 Michelle Eulenstein grew up on Magnetic Island in Far North QLD and fell in […]
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A REAL School
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 I have a little story to tell. I am the Govie at a tourist park in a remote […]
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What Does a Farmer Look Like?
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Kim Storey Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 Back in 2016, I was in a conversation with some people on twitter about […]
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Small school success
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Michelle Eulenstein Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 Michelle Eulenstein grew up on Magnetic Island in Far North QLD and fell in […]
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Why save Moora Residential College?
Host: Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Written by Tracey Errington Save the date for the 2018 Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association Federal Conference to be held in Canberra, August 1-2. This promises to be a great conference! Find all information at this link: https://www.icpaconferenceaust.com/ #ICPAconf18 Moora Residential College was initially opened in 1974 to enable isolated students from throughout […]
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Caretakers
Host: Kalyeeda Station Written by Barbara Camp We often describe station work as seasonal. Up here in the Kimberley we only have two – the wet and the dry. Bet you can’t guess the major weather difference between them. When working cattle the majority of the hard yakka is done in the more temperate dry season. […]
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The New Model
Host: Kalyeeda Station Written by Barbara Camp “She’s proper rooted this time, Barb. There’s no coming back” “But what do you mean? She’s always rooted! It’s her constant state of running! she’s been rooted for as long as you’ve had her! She’s had more lives than the cat! Surely we can fix her! We can always […]
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Lessons from a child
Host: Kalyeeda Station Written by Barbara Camp I’m watching my twelve week old baby trying to lift himself up on his forearms. It’s causing him a lot of effort and hard work. He can manage for a while but then his head gets too heavy and back down it goes to the floor. His little muscles […]
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On Wednesdays we wear pink
Host: Kalyeeda Station Written by Barbara Camp Station work is hard work. But there’s an old saying – if you love what you do you’ll never work another say in your life. This must be true for life out bush. On a station your typical easy day starts with a 5am breakky and ends with a […]
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From beach side living to outback and beyond
Host: Abingdon Downs Station Written by Laine-Jon Hughes, Governess. We are lucky to have long term employees and the current governess is on her third year at Abingdon. She took a leap of faith and signed up for her very first job a long way from home. My journey so far, having completed grade 12 […]
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A Kiwi on an Aussie Outback Adventure
Host: Abingdon Downs Station Written by Mairi Whittle, Stationhand. We have employed a number of Kiwi’s over the years and they have been fantastic and often have returned. This is our latest kiwi sheila’s experience on Aussie outback at Abingdon. I was lucky enough to get a job as a jillaroo on Abingdon Downs Station. I […]
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From Fine Dining to Station Cooking
Host: Abingdon Downs Station Written by Anita Steffan, Station Cook When advertising for a station cook I had received an enquiry as to whether we would consider taking on a retired couple to share the position. Years ago I had an older travelling couple share the cook’s position for 6 months and it worked out […]
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A big wet!
Host: Country Downs Station Written by Nikki Elizovech, Station owner/manager The end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 hosted the biggest wet season that most of the Kimberley has seen in many years. By the end of March 2018, two cyclones and an intense tropical low system passed over the West Kimberley area and dumped […]
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Another Story by Will
Host: Country Downs Station Written by Will Elezovich Like last year, William, our eldest son, was happy to write another blog telling everyone about some of things that he did over the last year. So, I will pass you over to Will for you to see and read about what we have done through the eyes […]
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From a Hobby Farm in QLD to a Station in WA
Host: Country Downs Station Written by Cortney Sonter, Governess. As in previous years, I have always asked if anyone who has worked or is working for us if they would like to write a blog. I believe that whilst its great for Kurt and I to wax lyrical about what we do and why, it is […]
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Repairing the Land – A True Work of Passion
Host: Country Downs Station Written by Nikki Elizovech, Station owner/manager As I mentioned yesterday, there were many parts of Emu Creek that have been degraded over time and even though some forms of rehabilitation have been undertaken about 15-20 years ago, the hangover from the sheep days is still obvious and in need of rectifying. In […]
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The big move
Host: Country Downs Station Written by Nikki Elizovech, Station owner/manager Yesterday I told you all that we made a temporary move to the Pilbara for 2017, but what I didn’t mention was where exactly that was. At the end of February 2017, we uprooted the family, packed up half a house, half a workshop, 3 dogs, […]
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A reflection of 2017
Host: Country Downs Station Written by Nikki Elizovech, Station owner/manager As I said in our Day 1 blog last year, the years are just passing us by way too fast! I am astounded that another year has passed us by and trying to remember what we have done over the last year finds me going back […]
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My first trip to the US of A
Host: Saltriver Horsemanship Written by Heath Stewart – Owner, Saltriver Horsemanship and Topstock WA Feed Services. *This story is being published post-humously in loving memory of Heath Stewart. This story was written in 2017* When the say everything is big in Texas, they’re not kidding. After landing at Dallas airport we were 10 minutes into the […]
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The unexpected Mexico
Host: Saltriver Horsemanship Written by Heath Stewart – Owner, Saltriver Horsemanship and Topstock WA Feed Services. *This story is being published post-humously in loving memory of Heath Stewart. This story was written in 2017* Last year we got the opportunity to travel to Mexico and the United States to conduct horsemanship clinics and lessons which was […]
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The Samoan Ag Show
Written by Dr. Renee Orange, Veterinarian, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Samoa. Every year the Ministry of Agriculture holds an Agriculture Show, and up until 2017 a separate one was held on each island, Upolu and Savaii. Each technical division of the Ministry (Fisheries, Livestock, Crops and Quarantine) prepare displays for the public to view in […]
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The night the cattle arrived – part 2
Written by Dr. Renee Orange, Veterinarian, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Samoa. This is part 2 of a two part series. Find part 1 here. Our stock truck and the portable yards were standing by at the cattle station, 2 hours away. After much back and forth with our boss, he and the consultants agreed that […]
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The night the cattle arrived – part 1
Written by Dr. Renee Orange, Veterinarian, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Samoa. There’s one night in 2015 that is a night which has been forever etched in my mind. It was the night our brand-spanking new Droughtmaster cattle and Dorper sheep arrived from Australia, however, things did not go completely according to plan. This is not […]
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Balmy Bovines – raising cattle in Samoa
Written by Dr. Renee Orange, Veterinarian, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Samoa. The Animal Production & Health Division (APHD) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) office at Vaea, near the centre of Upolu Island. 56,000. According the Samoa Bureau of Statistics Agriculture Survey, that was the total number of cattle in all of Samoa […]
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Dr. Renee Orange
Written by Dr. Renee Orange, Veterinarian, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Samoa. I thought I could do a short bio on myself, so you know where I am coming from in my stories and why I write the way I do. My name is Renee Jayne Avea-Maloamata Orange, people call me Renee, Nay or Ray. My […]
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Mustering with Pantaneiros
Written by Lindsey Perry This is the fifth and final installment in a series about life on a cattle station in Brazil. You can find part one here, part two here part three here, and part four here. I was sleepy and admittedly a little hungover, but the rhythmic footfalls of my chestnut, Madrinador (meaning old wise […]
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The stolen ranches of Brazil
Written by Sarah Martin This is part four in a 5-part series about life on a cattle station in Brazil. You can find part one here, part two here and part three here. This past week I’ve talked a lot about the great experiences I had in Brazil, but that’s not to say that the country […]
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Yarns from Brazil
Written by Sarah Martin This is part three in a 5-part series about life on a cattle station in Brazil. You can find part one here and part two here. While out on the property, we had no access to phone reception or internet. I am guilty of being on my phone way more than I […]
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Mustering in Brazil
Written by Sarah Martin This is part two in a 5-part series about life on a cattle station in Brazil. You can find part one here. Our alarms were set for sparrow’s fart – or, given that we were now in the Pantanal, curicaca’s fart. The curicacas were crowing long before the sun and they […]
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Brisbane to Brazil
Written by Sarah Martin This is part one in a 5-part series about life on a cattle station in Brazil. Vivid. It was the only word we could find to truly describe how Brazil felt to us. The culture, the food, the animals, the music, the traffic. Everything in Brazil just seemed so much “more”. […]
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Fall works
Host: Mescalero Apache Cattle Growers, New Mexico, USA Written by Ruth Wold, Managers Assistant This is part 5 in a 5-part series about managing a Native American Reservation ranch. Find part one here, part two here, part three here and part four here. While the glamour and romance seem, for a newbie, to be wrapped up in […]
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What it means to be a “Ranch wife”
Host: Mescalero Apache Cattle Growers, New Mexico, USA Written by Ruth Wold, Managers Assistant This is part four in a 5-part series about managing a Native American Reservation ranch. Find part one here, part two here and part three here. Let me state very clearly here that I do not consider myself a cowgirl. I can ride, can’t […]
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Spring Works, aka Branding
Host: Mescalero Apache Cattle Growers, New Mexico, USA Written by Ruth Wold, Managers Assistant This is part three in a 5-part series about managing a Native American Reservation ranch. Find part one here and part two here. As I write this, spring and branding seems a far cry away. Our winters are usually cold, snowy […]
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Life on the Rez
Host: Mescalero Apache Cattle Growers, New Mexico, USA Written by Ruth Wold, Managers Assistant This is part two in a 5-part series about managing a Native American Reservation ranch. Find part one here. Well, in all reality, life here on the Rez ranch (Native American Reservation) really isn’t that different than life on any other […]
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Our life on the Mescalero Apache cattle ranch
Host: Mescalero Apache Cattle Growers Written by Ruth Wold, Managers Assistant Let me introduce myself and our family. My name is Ruth Wold, my husband, Dusty, is employed by the Mescalero Apache Tribe to run their cattle operation on their Reservation in Central New Mexico, USA. We have four boys, Rafe, Cal, Cord, and Grant. […]
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The Hayes Family
Host: Undoolya Station Written by Nikita Hayes The Hayes family has a long history in Central Australia. Here’s a look at how this pioneering family began back in the 1800’s. HAYES, WILLIAM 1827-1913, a pastoralist, William was born in Liverpool and brought up in Wales, where he became a butcher. He claimed that when he […]
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Two thousand and fourteen
Host: Undoolya Station Written by Nikita Hayes Trigger warning. Sexual violence, sexual assault, and suicide are some topics mentioned in this blog. Let me tell you a little about my story and how I was taken over by depression. This is a very hard story for me to write as I have not told many […]
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Wild dog vs calf
Host: Undoolya Station Written by Nikita Hayes Living so close to Alice Springs we have a really big problem with wild dogs. We are roughly 20 minutes from the border of town and we surround the whole east side. Like all stations and farms, we all have pests, whether it be dogs, cats, foxes, horses […]
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Herd Of Hope
Host: Undoolya Station Written by Nikita Hayes The Herd Of Hope is a team of 6 stock men and women who visited Sydney on horseback with a herd of Australian Poll Hereford cattle in March this year. Each of the riders has been directly connected to a life-changing organ transplant and the cattle drive was to promote organ […]
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My story
Host: Undoolya Station Written by Nikita Hayes My name is Nikita Hayes, I’m 22 years old. I grew up on my families cattle Station called Undoolya, we are located east of Alice springs in the NT. We run 5,000 head of Poll Hereford cattle on 144,400 hectares. The owners of the station are Jim and Gail Hayes, […]
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Rebuilding a herd and trying to make ends meet!
Host: Boreelum Station Written by Adam Coffey – Station Owner/Manager Now you might be wondering if we actually run any cattle at all here at Boreelum?!! Well, yes we do. We currently have a mixed enterprise, running agistment cattle, trade cattle and our own breeders. Ultimately we’d like to just have our own breeding herd with […]
