Host: Anthony Lagoon Station
Owner: Australian Agricultural Company (AACo), Managers: Anthony and Cassie Cox
Region: Barkly Tablelands, NT
Nearest town for shopping, doctors etc: Tennant Creek, approximately 440kms
Nearest Roadhouse: 235kms south to the Barkly Homestead
Number of staff: 21
Size of station: Anthony Lagoon is run in conjunction with Eva Downs Station and covers 9,349 square kilometres, 934,900 hectares, 2,310,188 acres
How often and how the mail is delivered: Mail is delivered every 2 weeks via the stores and a supplies truck.
How often and how the stores shopping is done: Stores are delivered once a fortnight via roadtrain from Mt Isa (over 700kms away).
How far off the bitumen you are: 9kms off bitumen, along the Barkly Stock Route.
Anthony Lagoon Station is a large cattle breeding operation located on the Barkly Tablelands in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is owned and operated by the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo), who are Australia’s largest vertically integrated beef business – that means they take cattle all the way from our cattle to your plates. From breeding to growing, fattening and processing – AACo is working to perfect the most efficient and sustainable way of bringing the best beef to your barbeques! Anthony’s is run together with neighbouring station Eva Downs and is managed by a terrific team – in Station Manager Anthony Cox and Operations Manager Nick Handley.
Here at Anthony’s we are part of the “Breeding” sector of the AACo supply chain. We run around 25,000 head of our breeding cows, in addition to their calves, weaners and any unjoined heifers, at any one point during the year. We also carry around 12,000 head trade cattle in our Tarrabool Lake country. These cattle are made up of a number of different breeds but are mainly the AACo Barkly Composite a mixture of both Bos indicus (slick skin cattle generally with a hump that survive will in the extreme temperatures of The Territory) and Bos taurus (British and European hairy breeds that are more muscular and have higher quality meat) so we are getting the best of both worlds – tough, fertile, breeding cattle that turn off strong, growthy, muscly weaners!
Some of the crew after a remote first aid course!
Managers Anthony and Cassie Cox.
Episode 70. Helen Kempe – The life of “Miss Helen”
Helen Kempe was born on Macumba Station in 1950, as the fourth generation of her family to be involved in the S Kidman and Co Pastoral empire. At the age of 16 Helen moved to the Northern Territory and to this day she has never left. Everyone knows Miss Helen, and Miss Helen knows everyone. […]
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Episode 69. Mitch Scott – It’s now or never
What would you do if you knew your life was going to change irrevocably, and there was nothing you could do to stop it? That’s the predicament Mitch Scott found himself in when he was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome – a rare genetic disorder primarily characterized by deafness and a progressive loss of vision. In […]
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Sex and the Station
“Here’s the RFDS box. It’s got everything in it, from Panadol to the morning-after-pill. Just come see me if you need it.” If I need it? I reel back in horror. What kind of first impression have I made on the station wife if I’m already being shown the emergency contraception? Scanning my potential shagees, my […]
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Episode 67. Frances Cooper – Something was missing
After high school, Frances Cooper ticked all the boxes society told her to: go to university, get a great job, land a promotion, and keep climbing the career ladder. On paper, Fran’s life looked like hard work and success. But… something was missing. So, in her late 20’s she took off to Africa – a […]
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Ode the the MacDonnell Ranges in the time of COVID-19
Written by Tanya Heaslip The ochre painted ranges of Central Australia loom large as the sun slips to the west. The intense glow subsumes its rocks and plateaus and ridges, one by one, into a wall of fire. It is pure, iridescent gold. Sitting long and high, running east to west as far as the eye […]
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Episode 66. Matilda Robinson – An open chat about Mental Health
Conversations in the agricultural and rural community pertaining to mental health generally don’t go beyond raising awareness of mental health itself and what it is. We think it’s time for the conversation to move forward from simplying saying “It’s ok not to be ok”, and to discuss what we can do to look after ourselves […]
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Episode 64. Norman Fisher – The Croc wrangling, buffalo breeding Cattleman
We all know that when you work on a cattle station, you’re bound to come across creatures other than cattle. If you’re in the desert country, it might be camels and donkeys – and if you’re way up high in the top end, you’ll probably see water buffalo, and if you’re lucky… or … well… […]
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Want to work on a Live Export ship?
Being a shipboard stockie is a great way to use your livestock handling skills and broaden your career options – and there’s an online course starting soon! It’s run by LiveCorp, which manages the accreditation program for live export stock handlers. They’re responsible for caring for cattle during the voyage, with help from the ship’s […]
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Episode 63. Jodie Grant – Fighting Cancer on a cattle station
Living so far from town is often one of the perks that draws people to work on a cattle station. When you live out bush you can enjoy wide open spaces and often your neighbours are tens of kilometres away, if not hundreds. But what happens when you need services which are only provided in […]
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Episode 61. Tylah Bonisch – Her first year as Head Stockwoman
Since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, Tylah Bonisch knew she wanted to work with cattle and horses. She didn’t travel to the north for a gap year, but to start her career in the pastoral industry. In this episode Tylah and I speak about her time in the industry so far, and how she […]
