David Bird is a fourth-generation pastoralist who has spent his life learning to read the country at Indiana Station, in Central Australia. For him, running a station in the desert comes down to understanding what the land can provide, preparing for what nature might throw at you and making the most of the opportunities that […]
Meg Officer came to Western Australia from Scotland on a six-month working holiday in 1969. More than six decades later, the Murchison remains the place she calls home. At around 10 years old, Meg Officer would follow an old shepherd in Scotland, watching him tend his sheep and help with lambing. She remembers being allowed […]
Written by Debbie Dowden, Challa Station Raucous laughter fills the workshop as the mustering crew gathers for ‘tribal council’ after a long hard day of mustering. Stories are shared, grievances aired and points handed out for mistakes and misdemeanours. The points are tallied and a pink nightie is handed over to the person who won […]
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 […]
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 […]
Written by James Christian There’s nothing more satisfying than having a property owner leave you in charge for a bit while they take off on holiday, and when they return you can honestly report that nothing is broken or lost, and that the livestock are healthy and fat, the dams are full and the grass […]
When is it too early to ask your new boss about the existence of aliens? Day two, probably. So we’re out on a windmill run. The station owner might need a hand pulling a windmill (or is it pulling a bore? Not sure….) As he climbs the precarious ladder up the side of this rusty […]
ICPA Australia is calling on the Federal Government to formally recognise the role that parents play in distance education with the launch of Geographically Isolated Distance Education Day on 1 December. The day recognises and honours the ongoing plight of geographically isolated families who must educate their children at home at all times. A heightened […]
Written by Kate Fairfax – Margaret River Station, WA On a scale of one to ten, how dangerous is a chicken? I mean, compared to the feral bulls, snakes, crocodiles, wild cattle and dingoes that live in the Kimberley, I wouldn’t have thought chickens could be any worse than a 3… and it’d have to […]
This article has been contributed anonymously under the pen name “Howgirl Cowgirl”. I’m a bit of a hippy at the best of times, there’s no denying that. So it’s no wonder that, when faced with the prospect of raising babies, I like to break convention and embrace new age ideas. My poddy calves were the […]
Hooley dooley! It’s already November, and jobs for the 2021 pastoral season are not only being advertised, but filled! Here’s a list of handy articles to read while you’re on the hunt for your first (or next) job: So you want to be a ringer? So you want to be a ringer? Part 2 Tips […]
Prompted by the personal observations of Chris Henggeler that span 40 years I hear, I forget… I see, I remember… I do, I understand … thank you for that quote, Jim! What could pastoralism do for Australia, if consumers understood the challenges facing us in our back-yard? Apart from remoteness, we are only limited by our […]
Written by Bobby Henggeler – Kachana Station “By Gee that’s chewy” … “Yer – how’s that flavour but?” If I had a dollar for the meals where that or a similar remark was spoken… well! ‘The Drover’s Cook’, a ripper poem, or ‘The cook runs the station’ is another truth often told when the subject […]
Written by John Fargher, Co-founder of Agriwebb Public perception still believes that time somehow stopped for the everyday farmer and left us lagging behind, needing to catch-up. If growing up on Wirrealpa Station in South Australia has taught me one thing – it’s that the spirit of Australian innovation runs deep in our veins and […]
Written by Sally Towne – Gogo Station As October is Breast Cancer awareness month, I feel the time is now right to share a very personal journey that I have experienced. My aim for this story is to reach out to as many people as possible, both men and women, particularly in rural, regional and […]
Mustering, fencing, checking waters and dropping lick. These are standard tasks on any cattle station in Australia. The first three are fairly self explanatory, but the last one..? Not so much! How can I describe ‘lick’? It’s something that pastoralists spend tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands (or millions) of dollars on. It […]
Written by Sally Scott – Yougawalla Station What on earth could persuade us to leave our beautiful farm, garden, house and family in Margaret River to go to one of the most geographically isolated properties in the Kimberley? Well, there are a lot of reasons: a bored husband, family succession planning, a yearning to get […]
Written by Sarah Cook – Aileron Station. Bush people are drawn to our own circles. We live together, we work together – and then we socialise together. We appear to have similar values, think similarly and heck – even vote the same way. It makes me wonder, is there any other industry quite as full […]
Written by Frances Cooper – Mt Riddock Station Studying land management at university seems like a fairly normal pathway into working in Australia’s extensive rangelands…right? Well, maybe if I’d studied in Australia it would be. However, I completed my studies in the UK and let’s just say that Central Australia is a little bit different […]
Written by Barbara Camp – Kalyeeda Station I am writing this to you from the precipice. The precipice of something big. It’s July of 2020 – the year that wasn’t. I don’t need to tell anyone that surviving unscathed to the mid-point of this year is nothing short of miraculous. COVID has rocked our world […]
