Host: Legune Station
Managers/ Owners: Privately Owned (Australian owned), Managed by Cameron & Belinda Rasheed
Region: Kimberley Region, Northern Territory
Nearest town for shopping, doctors etc: Kununurra WA, 120kms and across the NT/WA border
Nearest roadhouse: Kununurra
Number of cattle: 30,000 head
Number of staff: Anywhere from 3 staff in the Wet Season to 25 staff in the Dry Season
List of current Staff: Managers (Cameron & Belinda), Overseer (Corey), Bookkeeper (Susan), Governess (Kate), Operators (James, Kim & Will), Cook (Julie), Gardener (Robert), Mechanic (Mick), Bore Runner/Stockcamp (Tom S), Grader Driver (Phil), Stockcamp (Lex, Jonty, Charlie, Max, Tom H, Lachlan)
Size of station: Approx 741,000 acres or 3000 km2
How often and how the mail is delivered: We have mail delivered/collected via the Katherine Mail Plane every Friday.
How often and how the stores shopping is done: Fresh and dry stores are ordered and collected with a station vehicle every fortnight from Kununurra.
How far off the bitumen you are: 70kms
Over the week we will give you the run-down… a little insight into the remote existence that is Legune Station.
The Team
To begin there are the basics. Similar to most stations we are remote, hardworking and passionate about what we do – if we weren’t we wouldn’t be out here in the middle of nowhere; we would be in the aircon at Starbucks ordering a large take away trendy mocha frappuccino double soy extra sugar-free latte.
We work beyond the 9-5, and as a close community, we all care for and appreciate the same core goals. Everyone puts in 110% which has allowed Legune to develop into such a well recognised and successful station. We make do with what is available and rely on common sense to survive and grow. This property’s beauty more than repays us for the extremes she dishes out!
The Stockcamp are a close-knit bunch
We carry 30,000 head of Brahman cattle, for domestic slaughter and live export. In doing so we are, as a part of a greater industry, sustaining our own people and feeding the world. Similar to many stations around the area we program in 2 rounds of mustering; relying on horses, bikes, helicopters and our dedicated stockcamp to get the job done.
‘Yarding up’ Bundaberg Yards from the air
As the station compound is 120 kms from Kununurra, the grounds are a well maintained oasis from the heat and harsh landscape that surrounds.
The Social Club deems most popular after 6pm
As an example of the owners and managers innovative approach to developing the pastoral land, later in the week we will show you our 55,000 megalitre private dam and how we have a ‘second wet’ each year. How we deal with King Tides on our Northern boundary and develop our pastures. This collective appreciation for progressive land management and the live export industry will excite and inspire you over the next few days…
Did I forget to tell you that our Northern Boundary is the Timor Sea? I’ll have more on that too.
The Rasheed Clan enjoying sunset by the dam
Love your (cows) guts
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 […]
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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 […]
