Water, Water, Everywhere!
Host: Kalyeeda Station
Written by Wave Camp – Owner, Kalyeeda Station.
Kalyeeda Station is a 122,000 hectare property including 45km of Fitzroy River frontage and 42,000 hectares floodout with eight natural waters. To cater for the dispersal of 8,000 head of cattle, including 3,600 breeders, we also have 13 bores and three dams. These are driven by windmills, solar systems, and pumps. It takes a boreman a full day’s driving to check these every three days.
Servicing the Goose Hole pump.
John’s toy; the excavator, and pumping for the first time.
Jeremy getting ready to clean the tank (“it’s a long way down!”); John and Peter discussing logistics.
The homestead has always relied on Goose Hole Billabong for the water supply, but this week a new bore pumping 8,000km per hour and a solar system pumped 2.2km to the 7,000 gallon tank at the homestead for the first time – this is a dream for us! Goose Hole has an ecosystem of fish, crocs, hundreds of water birds, horses, cattle, two donkeys, and feral pigs. From October as the water level lowers it becomes an acquired taste; the vast aquatic life left little room for us, and we are happy to leave it to them.
John Lemmey and his wife Hazel visited Kalyeeda in 2011; John is a retired plumber from Busselton and found himself in plumber heaven. They now spend 12 weeks a year here. John has set up a reticular system for the homestead and yards, meaning no more lugging sprinklers all day, dragging pumps in the yards or washing down horses with a bucket. Most of all, it means no more dust for us or the animals! Thanks to the fantastic sprinkler systems he laid, we now even have a thriving orchard of lush fruit trees: orange, lemon and grapefruit, and trees and grass around our lawn for the poddy calves.
Kalyeeda Homestead – What a difference 10 years makes!
