Host: Anna Plains Station
Managers/Owners: David, Helen and John Stoate
Region: Kimberley, Western Australia
Rainfall: 400mm pa
Nearest town for shopping, doctors etc., Broome 270km, 17km on dirt off the highway to Homestead, nearest roadhouse is Sandfire.
Number of Cattle: 18,000 head
Number of staff: 6 full time staff and 5 seasonal workers
Size of station: 381,537 ha or 943,000 acres
How often and how the mail is delivered: Twice a week via road
How often and how the stores shopping is done: Usually once a week to Broome
How far off the bitumen you are: 17 kms
My name is Helen Campion and together with my husband, David Stoate, I manage Anna Plains Station. ‘Anna’ is proudly run and owned by the Stoate family with 3 generations still calling it home today and who’s involvement dates back to 1983.
The Anna Plains family
Helen
Anna Plains Station is located on the remote Kimberley coast of northern Western Australia, approximately 250km south of Broome. It is just under one million acres of open rangeland stretching from the shores of the Eighty Mile Beach to the Great Sandy Desert.
My husband David Stoate and I took over management in 2006. Prior to this I was a city girl working at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney as an operating room nurse while David worked at Rabobank. The time had come for David’s father, John Stoate, to hand over the reins to the next generation … and so we came, along with our two wonderful children, Timothy and Joanna, having no prior experience working on a station to discover a way of living, loving and working.
Joanna
Timothy
We run the station in an environmentally sustainable manner to produce cattle for both domestic and international markets. Such practices include matching the cattle in a paddock to the feed available, allowing the cattle to graze and the land to recover as nature intended. This holistic approach which I was able to translate to station work from my years of nursing aims to benefit not only the land and the cattle in their quality of life whilst being reared here at Anna.
Our ‘crew’ consists of fulltime staff, seasonal workers and backpackers. The jobs, like the people vary depending on what the cattle and land command of us, but ever-present roles include a cook, boreman, mechanic, plant operator and stockmen. Every one of my staff and the roles they fill are vital to the smooth operation of the station.
Archives
A station manager’s perspective
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Helen Campion, Owner, Anna Plains Station People ask me what it’s like to live on and manage a remote Kimberley cattle station… After having spent the last 12 years at Anna Plains Station, I can honestly say that this job is probably not what you think it is. In […]
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Missing Anna
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Greta Stonier, 2017 Crew Member. After finishing school, I had no idea what I was going to do with myself… I applied for a few local Sydney Universities, an apprenticeship with the AFL head office, and to a recruitments company for cattle stations on the northern end of Australia. […]
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Gap Year (poem)
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Jackson Scott, 2017 crew member. Don’t be original, it’s all they ever say, but being a ringer, its not ideal pay. Stockmen from the top end, young and hard and mean, but half of them from boarding school, nothing but a teen. Too cool for uni and filled with […]
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My “Plain Life” – a little less cheesy!
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Karlee Barber, Station Cook. My name is Karlee Barber, I am from a small town called Bemboka. On the far south coast of NSW, nestled in the Bega Valley (yes that’s right, the home of Bega Cheese). Growing up I always had an interest in farming and the country […]
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The pretend Jillaroo
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Natasha Mahar This Broome girl needed some time out and a purpose again as there was way too much binge Netflixing happening while I wondered what to do next in my life. My dear friend Helen, aka Mrs Boss made the call… “Tarshy, get your arse down here to […]
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61, turning 3
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Helen Campion, Station owner/ manager. Mardie, 61 year old gentleman celebrating his 3rd birthday on the Plains. The humming of the Royal Flying Doctor Services (RFDS) jet engine approaching was a comforting sound after a long night of uncertainty. Touchdown on our all weather gravel airstrip gave us […]
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Bush vs. City
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Helen Campion, Station owner/ manager. It’s been twelve years since we left our house in Sydney to live on a cattle station in the Kimberley. The time has flown by. The little children we brought out from the city have grown up, so much so that one is at […]
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Mooing to medicine
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Tim Stoate When your parents decide to live 270kms from the nearest town, growing up in regional Western Australia is as interesting as it is different from the typical child. I was very fortunate in my upbringing. Having just under one-million acres to play around on was any little […]
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Up ‘n’ out
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by Helen Campion, Station owner/ manager. The sound of the alarm to get the camp moving at 5.10am sometimes comes around too quickly for a few members of the crew. Others have been smart and gone to bed early the night before. However, all are present for a 5.30 am […]
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The industry, a decade on.
Host: Anna Plains Station Written by David Stoate – Owner, Anna Plains Station. The ten years since we moved from the city life to outback life have been tumultuous from a personal point of view but also from an industry point of view, with more ups and downs than the Grand Old Duke of York. […]
