Host: Mount Sarah Station
Managers/Owners: Managers – Cameron and Kirsty Williams. Owner: Williams Cattle Company
Region: Far North, South Australia
Nearest town for shopping, doctors etc: Adelaide – 1120km, Alice Springs – 650km, Coober Pedy – 280km (Grocery shopping), Oodnadatta – 80km (RFDS flies in fortnightly for a clinic)
Nearest Roadhouse: Oodnadatta – home of the famous “Pink Roadhouse”
Number of Cattle: 3000 head
Number of Staff: Cam and myself as well as 3 others full-time – Depending on what is happening at the time e.g. mustering, we share staff with the other properties within the company
Size of station: 617764 acres – 250000ha
How often and how the mail is delivered: Twice a week to our door via road (weather permitting)
How often and how the stores shopping is done: Food can be ordered weekly from Coober Pedy and sent out on the mail run but it is unrefrigerated so you have to order according to the forecast!
Large stores ordered come from Adelaide and are delivered via a freight company that comes to Oodnadatta once a week.
How far off the bitumen you are: 280km
George, Cam, Lucy, myself and Jack.
Mount Sarah is located 80km North of Oodnadatta on the edge of the Simpson Desert, smack bang in the middle of Australia! It gets bloody hot in summer with weeks of over 40 degrees but winters are something to brag about.
The land consists of low lying sand hills, gibber stone flats as well as excellent flood out country during good seasons. The Oodnadatta country is known to be harsh at times, but rain at any time of the year produces short, sweet feed.
Mount Sarah.
Cam and I moved to Mount Sarah in 2012 where prior Cam was working on one of the other family places and I was teaching. 5 ½ years and 3 kids later, with a mountain of experiences and stories to tell, many that make you laugh, some that make you cry and others that you just have to shake your head at, it has been one heck of a ride.
Flood out after a big rain!
Having both grown up with a rural background, we couldn’t have wished for a better place to bring up the kids. One day is never the same as another. The work is at times relentless where it’s not all McLeod’s Daughters of fixing fences and riding off into the sunset. But what it is, is so much more than just a job, it is a damn good lifestyle!
Cam with his first love!
School fun, in the middle of nowhere
Written by Maddie Johnston, Governess – Mount Sarah Station My name is Maddie and I’m the luckiest govie alive to have a job on Mount Sarah Station with Kirsty and Cameron Williams. I supervise two of the four children with their schooling through Port Augusta School of the Air (SOTA) with their classroom teachers located […]
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Baby, can you handle the heat?
Written by Kirsty Williams, Mount Sarah Station With the car packed to the roof, three kids plus a new baby to take home, looking in the rear-vision mirror heading out of Adelaide in the early hours of the morning was a great feeling. After being away just shy of four weeks whilst waiting to have baby […]
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Assumptions
Written by Kirsty Williams, Mount Sarah Station. Whether you are born into it, married into it or just fell in love with it, those in agriculture are simultaneously dealing with drought, floods, bushfires, fluctuating prices, international trade tension, animal welfare and misled consumers. Livelihoods are reliant on something completely uncontrollable – the weather. There are good […]
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Little people, huge hearts!
Written by Kirsty Williams, Mount Sarah Station I was nervous with George starting kindy given all he wants to be when he grows up, “is a worker!” But easing into kindy days bit by bit, stretching the time out longer and longer over the weeks (and a few bribes of toy tractors and the like) saw […]
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Don’t dwell on the small things!
Host: Mt. Sarah Station Written by Kirsty Williams – Manager, Mt. Sarah Station. I won’t deny that there are moments where I miss being able to catch up with a best mate for an impromptu coffee and a chinwag. I’ve wondered what life would be like doing a school drop-off rather than saying goodbye to […]
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Desert Ed
Host: Mt. Sarah Station Written by Mia Ackland – Governess, Mt. Sarah Station. When you wake up every morning feeling excited for what the day will bring, you know you’re in the right job. Hello! I’m Mia, the Governess at Mount Sarah Station and I supervise Lucy (five years old) who started reception this year […]
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Green is good, brown is bad!
Host: Mt. Sarah Station Written by Kirsty Williams – Manager, Mt. Sarah Station. With the nearest town having the claim to fame of “Australia’s hottest and driest town,” images of a cottage garden with lavender and seaside daisies weeping over the edge of the garden path probably isn’t exactly what comes to mind. Either delusional […]
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Ringer from the top end – of South Australia!
Host: Mt. Sarah Station Written by Alex Josefski – Station Hand, Mt. Sarah Station. To me, the greatest part of my job is being able to learn something new every day. Whether it is a major skill; like driving a truck or something as simple as tying a knot. No matter how big or small […]
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Little boy in a big man’s world!
Host: Mt. Sarah Station Written by Kirsty Williams – Manager, Mt. Sarah Station. Stations kids are immersed in the day to day real-life running of the station, growing up surrounded by adults, and often swearing like one too! You can’t hide the facts of life from them or sugar-coat it for that matter. The steak […]
