Matt Wood started managing Blina Station in the West Kimberley at the ripe old age of 23. In the past 13 years he has met his wife, become a father, and grown as a manager, friend, and member of the Kimberley community. Matt and Connie recently said a fond farewell to Blina Station, where they […]
Dating a co-worker can be tough. But, what about when you’re dating the boss? And the boss is a station manager, and you’re a jillaroo in the stock camp. Ok, before your imagination starts running wild – this is not a tale of some forbidden love affair! When Connie Wood started dating her future husband […]
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 […]
Written by Connie Wood – Blina Station Being part of the management team at Blina, I wear many hats, one of these being the stand-in bore runner when we have been short staffed, or down to skeleton crew over the wet. This has meant that I’ve done more than a few miles on different occasions […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Wood – Manager, Blina Station. Holding Cattle (Photo Credit Yasmin Gray). At Blina, we have 15 breeder paddocks and they are mustered twice a year. The reason we muster twice a year is so that our cows are able to put on weight again over the wet season and […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Wood – Manager, Blina Station. I was getting really stumped about what to write for Central Station and worried that I was running out of ideas for interesting and relevant things to write about. I turned to our lovely station cook (who is also my mother’s close friend) and […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Wood – Manager, Blina Station. Being on a station isn’t just a job. It is a lifestyle choice. I often joke that Matt manages the stations, and I manage the manager. Our life revolves around the station, sometimes it is hard when you have plans to attend a party […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Wood – Manager, Blina Station. My husband has two wives. One is tall and blonde, with a quick temper and a big smile. The other is warm, brown and at times, unforgiving. Sometimes she demands all that we have. She is not truly his, she belongs to another man […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Wood – Manager, Blina Station. I never knew that snakes drank milk. I had never thought about it. When I was visiting a neighbouring station last year, the cook there told me that milk powder attracts snakes. Incredulous, I followed the python we were looking at, straight to the […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Grey – Manager, Blina Station. Every year, about December – Matt and I receive a swag of resumes from the Jumbuck head office to draft and select the coming seasons station hands. When you split them between girls and boys – we have about seven female applicants to one male […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Grey – Manager, Blina Station. When I tell people that we muster on horses, images of handsome ringers on horseback, dashing helicopter pilots, beautiful McLeod’s Daughter-esque jillaroos with pretty bandanas, tight wrangler jeans, and perfect hair may come to mind for some. But often it is a long hard slog, […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Matt Wood – Manager, Blina Station. We always hear about the Managers, the Headstockmen, and the Ringers that embody the station life. However, all too often we forget about a group of people that do a huge amount of skilled and important work behind the scenes to keep the station […]
Before the wedding was the proposal – read the story here. Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Wood – Manager, Blina Station. I’ve never been one of those girls who dreamed about their wedding. To be honest, I thought that getting married and living happily ever after was one of those things that happened to […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Constance Gray – Manager, Blina Station. My cool, calm, and collected partner was unusually nervous as we headed from Blina to Broome for the last rodeo of the season, followed by the Broome Cup. He was twitchy and weird, watching saddle bronc riding flat out on his phone and being cagey. […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Connie Gray – Manager, Blina. Over the 2014 wet season, my trusty old ride-on lawn mower spontaneously combusted . . . literally spontaneously combusted. She was a Greenfield and she looked about 100 years old . . . I swear this thing was the first ever ride on mower invented […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Connie Gray – Manager, Blina. Fitzroy Rodeo – Lead up and the Actual Event This year Matt took on the enormous task of President of the Fitzroy Valley Rodeo Club. Matt and the committee (myself included) had the gargantuan task of pulling together the first rodeo of the year for […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Sylvia Richards – Cook, Blina. Sylvie Richards. I was born in the summer of ’65, in the month of July. I travelled overseas from Europe to this great land in ’71 (I also sound a lot like the Highwaymen when I write). I grew up in the outer western suburbs […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Connie Gray – Manager, Blina. Written about Stuart Jones: Earthmover, Cattleman, Lover of Carlton Dry. Stuey Jones. Stuey Jones has been the grader driver and head of the earthmoving department at Blina for the past five years. He spends most of the year camped out on the road in his […]
Host: Blina Station Written by Connie Gray – Manager, Blina. Hello Again, Central Station!! I survived my first year at Blina!! Pats on the back for me. It wasn’t easy, but very well worth it. I look back on last year with pride. The crew all go home for the season in November, and we […]
Host: Blina Station Written by – Connie Gray, Station Hand, Blina Station. To finish off the week with Blina, I would like to tell you a little about our crew. Dan McCreedy – Headstockman. Dan McCreedy – Originally from Hokianga, NZ, Dan has been the headstockman at Blina for the past two years. He has one […]
