Meet the Anthony Lagoon Team
Host: Anthony Lagoon Station
Written by Georgia Clark – AACo Graduate Program 2016.
As a rookie from NSW straight out of University, learning I was heading up to Anthony Lagoon Station in the NT sounded like an epic adventure and an amazing way to start my new role as a graduate with AACo. Little did I know that I wasn’t just moving to a workplace – where you live, breathe, sleep and eat beef – I was moving into a community. A station and station life is similar to that of a small rural town, where you work together, play together and sense of comradery is everything.
Anthony Lagoon Station is lucky to have 20 talented, fascinating, and diverse staff members, each with a different role to fill both in the workplace and in the social club!
Meet the Goonies! The best way to get them all in a photo is to dress them up as Aussie Legends! L to R: Dionie, Maz, Lachie, Antonio, Connor, Brenna, Sandy, Doug, Pete, Rick Addy, Michelle, Georgia, Toby, Cassie and Charlotte, Coxy, Andy, Mick, and Fergy.
The Managers:
Anthony and Cassie Cox, along with their gorgeous daughter six month old Charlotte, make up the management team here at Anthony Lagoon. Aside from major decision making on cattle movements, stocking rates, pasture budgeting, and the yearly schedules for the station, both Coxy and Cassie work in the office, out in the yards, and wherever the station needs them, all with a baby in tow!
The Stock Men and Women
The Head Stockman:
Rick is the Head Stockman and along with partner Addy, this is their first year at Anthony Lagoon. They have come with a wealth of knowledge and have already had a great impact on the stock camp that Rick supervises. Addy works under Rick in the stock camp (what a power couple!) and they are both involved with the day to day running of the station, including mustering, drafting, trucking, fencing and any other jobs that Coxy and Rick can think up to make sure the cattle and the station are kept in top shape!
The Leading Hand:
A leading hand supports the head stockman and in Anthony Lagoons case, we have a terrific team! Michael has been with AACo for a number of years and is in his second year leading Anthony camp. Mick is so supportive to all the crew and is a very valuable stockcamp 2IC.
The Stock Camp:
Anthony Lagoon Station has a stock camp of 5 terrific Station-hands/Ringers/Jackaroos/Jillaroos. Addy, Toby, Connor, Sandy, and Billy are all talented at so many of the different aspects of station work. While they come from a number of different backgrounds, they all give 110% every day (at work and in the pub on weekends off!), working hard for each other, as a team. The job description of a station-hand is impossible to fit in this blog! Already this year they have been mustering on horses and bikes, drafting and trucking in yards, fencing, driving trucks and machinery, checking stock, fencing, lick runs, branding cattle including tagging, castrating and vaccination, pregnancy testing, pasture spraying, and more fencing! Each camp member brings something different and important to the team and they all take the time to assist each other in developing their skills – just an all-round terrific mob of gals and guys!
Anthony Lagoon stock camp and Maz the cook all prepared to be patients at the remote first aid course . . . They have to practice on someone!
The Truck Driver and Technical Assistant:
Doug, the Anthony Lagoon/Eva Downs truck driver and Brenna, the Technical Assistant/Office Lass, are another super couple we have here in the Anthony community. Doug trucks cattle everywhere, from between the properties and across to other AACo places, although he always jumps in to help with loading, drafting, and sometimes mustering if he can sneak out on a bike! Brenna is the multi-talented office lass who looks after the cattle identification, recording, and inventory system along with maintaining the administration side of the station. Brenna can hold down the fort while the camp is out, helping out with mustering and trucking etc, and she is also the boss of the social club, certainly one of the most important jobs in any community!
The Water Diviners
The Bore Mechanic:
Saffa (Matt) is our Bore Mechanic. With his 2IC Antonio, they manage all the bores on both Anthony Lagoon and Eva Downs stations. This includes repairing, replacing or restoring bore equipment and motors to ensure we have water for cattle 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Bore Runner:
Parrot (Andy) is our man on the ground. As a bore runner, Parrot will visit each bore, tank, turkeys nest, trough, or watering point on Anthony Lagoon station at least one or twice a week – that’s nearly 60 bores alone! Parrot manages the bores and ensures water levels are suitable for cattle at all times. One of the most important roles on any station has to be maintaining water – therefore the bore runner!
The Workshop Crew
The Mechanics:
Alan is the head of the workshop and has it looking and running smoothly in its day to day operations. Dionie works alongside Alan and they are always either pulling something apart or putting it back together! They service and maintain vehicles and machinery and manage to fix almost any mechanical problem we find on the station, from vehicles to hydraulics and camp equipment!
The Compound Crew
The Cook:
Maz is our star cook here at Anthony’s. She is the main stay in the compound, providing meals for everyone on site for Breakfast, Smoko, Lunch, and Dinner. Maz also puts together a killer BBQ on weekends off and is famous around the Barkly for her amazing Smoko’s!
The Pilot:
Pirate Pete is Anthony Lagoons on-site fixed wing pilot who spends his time split between flying staff into town, paddock and bore checks and mustering. In his days on the ground he is everything from chief whipper snipper, assistant bore mechanic, fencer, or stock camp sub!
The Chopper Pilot:
We also have a helicopter pilot here during the mustering seasons. Lachie is currently here at Anthony’s and is an important team member when the stock camp are out mustering or moving cattle. Choppers are such an effective method of moving cattle that Lachie spends a number of hours in the air, involved with most of our musters.
The Domestic/Gardner/Compound Crew:
Michelle has travelled all the way from Denmark to spend a working holiday here at Anthony’s. Michelle keeps the grounds of the station compound looking beautiful as a gardener, cleans and prepares for the many guests we have visit the station and keeps the social club well-stocked – very important! Michelle will always jump at the chance to help out with stock work and has been very handy filling in mustering, trucking cattle and even branding when the stock camp need extra hands or the compound crew (the extra office staff) have to run the show!
The Anthony Lagoon Station family are a close knit community that work together to keep beef on the plates of people all over Australia and the world! Each and every one of the diverse group have helped me through my first four months in the territory and their individual knowledge of the beef industry and working on the land is immeasurable.
They are a terrific group and love visitors so if you are calling through, make sure you give Cass or Brenna a call in the office and swing by for a cuppa!
I cannot thank them enough for being my first, and helping me fall in love with The Territory and Station Life!
I hope you enjoy a few of our blogs over the next week!
– The Rookie Graduate