Lake Nash Station (2015-2017)
Host: Lake Nash Station
Managers/ Owners: Managers Fred and Sarah Hughes, Owned by Georgina Pastoral Company
Region: Barkly Tablelands, Northern Territory.
Nearest town for shopping, doctors etc: Mount Isa
Nearest roadhouse: Camooweal
Number of cattle: 60, 000 head
Number of staff: 35
Size of station: 4.2 million acres
How often and how the mail is delivered: Monday/Thursday by road. Mail plane Friday.
How often and how the stores shopping is done: A monthly order is placed with supplier based in Mount Isa. Stores are normally collected by Toyota ute with mobile cold room behind. Over the wet season, Fred or Sarah collect the order by plane.
How far off the bitumen are you? 160km off the bitumen on a rough & dusty dirt road
Fred & Sarah Hughes. Photo credit: Blythe Moore (ABC)
Lake Nash is owned by Georgina Pastoral Company which also runs Caldervale, Tambo & Keeroongooloo, Windorah. Having a good team is the key to any successful operation. Lake Nash employs 35 staff members from all around Australia (and sometimes from overseas). Last year we had an Italian cook straight out of Positano treating the staff to delicious pizzas, pasta and lasagna. We love to see delightful characters such as Luca stop in and experience the remoteness and beauty of the Australian bush.
Lake Nash Station covers an area of 4.2 million acres and is bisected by the Georgina River. The aggregation includes Georgina Downs and Argadargada Station with a total carrying capacity of 70,000 head. Much of the country consists of rolling plains of black soil well covered in Mitchell grass and overlaying limestone. Lake Nash, along with Georgina Pastoral’s other stations, has recently attained organic certification. The station is ideally located for organic production and currently runs a mixed herd of 55,000 cross bred cattle with an additional 6000 joined purebred Wagyu females. The majority of the herd are joined to Ultrablack bulls (13/16 Angus x 3/16 Brahman) which are highly fertile and homozygously polled, which means all progeny should also be polled.
It’s difficult for Australians who have been brought up in urban landscapes and never ventured to the outback to comprehend what it is really like to live on the land. I suggest if you are one of these people, come and visit us at Lake Nash.
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 […]
Share this:
Flying Shy
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 […]
Share this:
Episode 60. Jess Di Pasquale – Equine adventures in Australia and abroad
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 […]
Share this:
Episode 58. Danyelle Haigh – Don’t judge this book by its cover
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 […]
Share this:
From brats to bovines
Written by Sarah Johnson It started off as a distant dream back when I was in high school. You know.. the good old year 10 subject “careers”, when it’s that dreaded time where you’re almost an adult and have to start making career choices. Everyone else was expressing that they wanted to become lawyers, engineers, […]
Share this:
Episode 57. Luke Hayes – Venturing off the pastoral pathway
Luke Hayes was born a 6th generation pastoralist on Deep Well Station in Central Australia. You’d be forgiven if you assumed that Luke was planning to continue in the same line of work as the previous 5 generations of his family – it just makes sense, right? However, that is not Luke’s story. As a […]
Share this:
Rain man
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 […]
Share this:
Episode 55. Tanya Heaslip – An Alice Girl
Tanya was raised on a cattle station north of Alice Springs during the 1960s and 1970s. The stories from her childhood sound like something out of book – too wild and wonderful to be true. As it turns out – they are so extraordinary Tanya has published them into a memoir called An Alice Girl, […]
Share this:
First Impressions Count
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 […]
Share this:
An Alice Girl
An Alice Girl is Tanya Heaslip’s extraordinary story of growing up in the late 1960s and early 70s on a vast and isolated outback cattle property just north of Alice Springs. Tanya’s parents, Janice and Grant ‘the Boss’, were pioneers. They developed the cattle station where water was scarce, where all power was dependent on […]
Share this:
When the boss bought home a wife
A copy by memory of poems by W. DeBeuzeville, who worked for Berte Wilkinson at Yallowin (a stock dealer in the years 1905, 1906, and 1907, before the days of motor cars). When the boss bought home a wife Yes, he’s married is the old boss now, And leads a quiet life A sitting round […]
Share this:
Episode 54. Steph Coombes – It takes a village
Welcome to the final Central Station podcast for 2020! As per usual, you’re listening to me, Steph Coombes, who is the host of this podcast and who also manages all of the Central Station platforms. Today’s episode has been inspired by Lucy Daley, who featured on Episode 52. When asked what message would she put […]
Share this:
When the warning signs aren’t there
Written by Lara Jensen, Wondinong Station I answered the knock at the door the night my brother and his two friends were killed. It was just before midnight when two local police officers arrived at our Murchison homestead. Shearing was due to start the following day. Around our kitchen table, we learnt that three beautiful […]
Share this:
International Contributors
Comments
Share this:
AGP Indonesia (2013-2015)
Host: Lisa Wood Company: PT. Agro Giri Perkasa (AGP) Business: Importer of Cattle to Indonesia Location: Indonesia My Role: Traceability Manager Short bit about myself: I came to Indonesia as a traceability officer on a steel fabrication project for a WA mining project. While I was working on this project The Ban occurred. I remember […]
Share this:
Hodgson River Station (2013-2015)
Location: Hodgson River Station, NT Website: Cattle Producer Hello Central station readers, I’m located in the NT with my husband and 2 children. We operate a small cattle property in the Roper Gulf breeding Droughtmasters. Our main turnoff is to the live cattle export trade, particularly Indonesia but also the countries that take heavier […]
Share this:
Katherine Outback Experience (2016-)
Host: Katherine Outback Experience, Riverboyne Horsebreaking & Training Manager/ owner: Tom Curtain Region: Katherine, Northern Territory Nearest town for shopping: Katherine – 6km Nearest roadhouse: Katherine Number of Cattle: 1 Brahman steer, his name is ‘Tin Shaker’! Number of Staff: 2 Size of Property: 20 acres How often and how the mail is delivered: Mail is […]
Share this:
Helen Springs Station (2015)
Host: Helen Springs Station Managers/ Owners: Helen Springs Station is owned by S. Kidman and Co Ltd and is managed by Chris Towne, along with his wife Sally Towne. Brunchilly, the outstation to Helen Springs, is managed by Luke Giblin. Region: Helen Springs and Brunchilly are situated in the Barkly Tablelands in the Northern Territory. Nearest town […]
Share this:
Undoolya Station (2018-)
Station Name: Undoolya Station Owners/Manager: Ben and Nicole Hayes Region: Alice Springs, Northern Territory Nearest town for shopping, doctors etc: Alice Springs, 30km Nearest Roadhouse:Alice Springs, 30km Number of Cattle: 5000 Breeders Number of Staff: Size of Station: How often and how is the mail delivered: How often and how the stores shopping is done: Comments
Share this:
Manners Creek Station (2014)
Location: QLD/ NT Border Let me first introduce myself- I’m Jodie and together with my husband Dusty and three daughters Willow (1 year old), Jaz (2.5 years old) and Emily (15 years old) we manage Manners Creek Station- a cattle station on the QLD/NT border. Manners Creek is just under two millions acres in size […]
