Host: Dr. Campbell Costello
Campbell had a typical bush upbringing on his family’s beef cattle stations near Charters Towers, North Queensland. Campbell completed his primary schooling through school-of-the-air Charters Towers before leaving the station for boarding school. After finishing his final two years of secondary school in Brisbane, Campbell returned to his family’s stations for a gap year before commencing his Bachelor of Veterinary Science at James Cook University, Townsville. His graduating 2010 class was the first cohort of undergraduate veterinarians that James Cook University had ever produced. Campbell moved to Victoria to work in large animal mixed practice, with a predominant focus on dairy medicine and surgery, with some beef.
In 2012 Campbell successfully rode, and completed, the world’s longest horse race, The Mongol Derby. After three years of dairy and beef practice, Campbell decided to join an expedition through the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan and then found himself working as a wildlife veterinarian in the North West Provence of South Africa. Campbell spent most of his days darting large South African game from a helicopter. He returned to Australia several months later and has been heavily involved in beef cattle consultancy and beef and dairy cattle live export.
In 2016 he moved to Kazakhstan for several months as the station manager and head veterinarian of a small Angus Beef operation. Campbell returns to Mongolia annually as one of the senior veterinarians for the Mongol Derby and is one of the veterinarians for the Iditarod Dog Sled race in Alaska.
When Campbell is not walking the path-less-travelled, he enjoys returning home to this family’s cattle operation to help out and undertake the veterinary work. Campbell finds his job rewarding when he is able to make small or large business more efficient, sustainable, and diverse and loves travelling to weird and wonderful destinations around the globe.
NEW PODCAST: Cattle Station Classroom
Have you ever wanted to know more about the northern beef industry? Traditional opportunities to learn about the industry include: university, TAFE, short courses, schools, and on-the-job training. For a number of reasons, whether it be time, money, and/or access, not everyone has the same learning opportunities. The Cattle Station Classroom podcast is a free […]
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Episode 41. Chris Henggeler – The backpacker who bought a cattle station
Imagine this: building a pastoral lease from scratch. I’m talking about walking onto a piece of land that has never been managed or developed – no fences, no man-made waters, no roads – nothing. Sounds like something from the 1800’s right? A story of the settlers? Well, this actually happened in the late 1980s, when […]
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Adventure, before dementia!
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 […]
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ISTJ’s – the most common tribe in the bush
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 […]
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Sustainability: different country, same concept
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 […]
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Episode 39. Ben Mills – Floods and droughts on Mandora Station
in today’s episode I am sitting down with Ben Mills … who, as you heard in the introduction, came onto the podcast very willingly and with much enthusiasm. If you’re a long time listener of the podcast, you’ll be familiar with Ben’s wife Caitlin, who featured in episodes 29 and 33. In this episode Ben […]
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The Picnic Races
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 […]
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Has anyone got a copy (Part Three)
Written by Steph Coombes – Central Station editor I’m known to my friends for my shocking lack of direction. And, in my old age I’ve come to learn to laugh at myself and the silly things I’ve done, rather than shrink away in embarrassment as I used to do. So, I’ve decided to share a […]
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Employment and unemployment
Written by Roley James – Hidden Valley Station When I was asked to write an article for Central Station I had to pause and think for a while. I wondered what would be the most useful or interesting advice that I could give people in the industry or wanting to get into it? Below are […]
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Has anyone got a copy (Part Two)
Written by Steph Coombes – Central Station editor I’m known to my friends for my shocking lack of direction. And, in my old age I’ve come to learn to laugh at myself and the silly things I’ve done, rather than shrink away in embarrassment as I used to do. So, I’ve decided to share a […]
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Episode 37. Hannah Purss – From city girl to cameleer to cattle stations
After 36 episodes talking about cattle, we thought we’d mix it up and talk about another four-legged herbivore that is also found on many cattle stations… camels! Our guest today is an incredible woman named Hannah, who, as you’re about to learn, knows an awful lot about camels and has no shortage of yarns about […]
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The unspoken struggle
 This may sound like just another city girl meets country boy love story but stay with me. Hopefully, it will be worth the read. Five years ago, I was living in the city enjoying all the perks it had to offer. I had just returned from travelling Europe and was in search of a new […]
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Has anyone got a copy? (Part One)
Written by Steph Coombes – Central Station editor I’m known to my friends for my shocking lack of direction. And, in my old age I’ve come to learn to laugh at myself and the silly things I’ve done, rather than shrink away in embarrassment as I used to do. So, I’ve decided to share a […]
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180km just to check the mail
Written by Stephanie Coombes  – editor It’s often the most simple things in our day that we take for granted – hot water at the turn of a tap, wifi that loads a YouTube video almost instantly, a quick trip to Woolies to satisfy that craving, and a short walk down the driveway to collect […]
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Low-stress wife handling
Written by Connie Wood – Blina Station Jim Lindsay, Eat Your Heart Out. She lowers her head, shakes it a little and a bit of snot comes out as she snorts and stomps the ground with her foot. He’s not sure if its fear, adrenalin, or pure fury that’s got her shaking like that but […]
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Episode 35. Pip Bain – A childhood on Mt Clere station and losing a parent to suicide
What’s it like growing up on a cattle station? In this episode we chat with Pip Bain, who grew up on Mt Clere station in Western Australia in the early 90’s. Pip talks about spending her days looking for bush tucker, helping out the stockcamp, and how she followed in her family’s footsteps to pursue […]
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Episode 33. Caitlin Mills – Challenges come in threes
Caitlin Mills has spent the past decade working on cattle stations in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia. In this episode we chat about Caitlin’s time in the Kimberley, including being a first time manager at Mandora Station with an initiation by fire, flood and drought (literally!). You can listen to the episode […]
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Basic beef
*This blog has been contributed anonymously. The number one thing I have found from working in the northern beef industry is that there is as much to be learnt from doing things the wrong way as there is from doing them the right way. Let me back up for a moment: over the previous 30 […]
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Macro and Micro isolation – A bold contrast
Written by Munro Hardy I recently moved to Sydney for a new position with a Tech company – a complete 180 for me. I’d spent the last 13 years in the Northern Territory working in the great outdoors (aside from 2 years working underground, where I was focussed on saving money for my chopper license […]
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When it’s time to admit defeat
Written by Aticia Grey – Glenflorrie Station The hardest part is to know when it’s time to admit defeat. Zen & a young premature calf saved via cesarean & survived. Raising orphan calves is something we have always done here at Glenflorrie. My parents taught me early on the value of compassion and Dad would […]
