Doug McBean is was raised on a cattle station in the Victoria River District in the Northern Territory. With 30 years under his belt as a helicopter mustering pilot, he’s seen and done a fair bit around the traps. So, you might think that a podcast episode with Doug would involve all sorts of wild […]
Written by Tanya Heaslip November, 1974. ‘But Mum!’ I said with tears in my eyes. ‘If I wear this, I won’t know who I am’. The image staring back at me from the mirror was definitely someone I didn’t know. It might as well have been a scarecrow. Thin arms stuck out of an oversized […]
Abbro Woolnough was born a 6th generation dairy farmer on the NSW north central coast. However, despite being surrounded by dairy cattle, he developed a passion for the beef industry. After his initial career plans didn’t work out, he moved to Mt Riddock Station in Central Australia as a jackeroo. But, that’s not the end […]
I am literally penning this entry from the safety of my single horse trailer, wedged firmly in sand, along with my trusty ute…somewhere in the outback. We are meant to be heading back to the big smoke. The next post was meant to be about reacclimatising after the isolation of the station. Instead I find myself laden with all […]
Campbell Duff came to the Northern Territory thinking he knew it all and was ready to take on the world. Today, he is a completely different person. In this episode we speak about what prompted him to grow up from an overly confident teenager to a settled young man who has been given the responsibility […]
With two cattle stations in the Northern Territory, a cattle property in Queensland, and a helicopter business, Rebecca and Steven Cadzow were in the perfect position to continue expanding their business interests and develop a pastoral empire that so many dream of. But, instead they made the decision to downsize to just one cattle station. […]
Written by Steph Coombes. “We’re going to do a killer, would you like to come?” “Sure!”, I replied enthusiastically. “I haven’t done a killer in years!” My enthusiasm wasn’t toward the prospect of killing an animal, but the opportunity to be involved in harvesting meat. I consider it to be an incredible privilege. Knives were […]
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. […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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… […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Most stations have a plane or a helicopter, and at some point you’re going to get offered a flight. Here’s how to totally ruin your chances of ever having a second go. 6am and we’re just pulling up to the airstrip – a wide gravel road a short way from the homestead. Inside the old […]
Jess Di Pasquale is a born and bred Territory girl. Even though her childhood was colored with living on and visiting cattle stations, she went on the excel in the English equine discipline of Mounted Games, competing overseas 3 times while Representing Australia. In this episode, Jess shares her latests plans to compete in the […]
Let’s be honest, we love to judge. It’s second nature to take someone at face value and make assumptions about them. In social science, this phenomenon is called schema are mental structures that an individual uses to organize knowledge and guide cognitive processes and behaviour. So what that means, is that we use Schema to categorize objects and […]
