James Christian’s childhood couldn’t have been further from that of his cousin, Sams. While Sam was growing up on a cattle station in Central Australia, mustering cattle, James lived 2000km away on the beaches of Sydney, preparing to compete in the Sydney to Hobart sailing race. However, as fate would have it, a spur of […]
Written by James Christian There’s nothing more satisfying than having a property owner leave you in charge for a bit while they take off on holiday, and when they return you can honestly report that nothing is broken or lost, and that the livestock are healthy and fat, the dams are full and the grass […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian Since moving from the station to the bustling metropolis of Alice Springs I’ve had to adjust to a number of lifestyle changes. Some of them are probably for the better, some of them make my mother happier, and some of them I could do without. My commute […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian We’ve been solving puzzles in the beef industry since the first caveman rolled his first beast and tried to drag it back to his campfire. What’s the best way to use the animal – eat it or use it to breed more? How do you grow it […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian Once I was given the not-too-difficult task of driving a truck and trailers out to a set of yards on a station I’d blown into for a month or so’s work. I’d been to the yards a few days before, though only as a passenger, and naturally […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian Though they are clearly worlds apart, there are faint parallels that can be drawn between mustering wild animals on horseback or motorbike, and the Charge of the Light Brigade as immortalised by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in his poem of the same name. It was during the Battle […]
Host: Kadiaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Owner, Kadiatcha Pastoral Company. It’s a difficult thing explaining to people what it is that attracts me to the bush, and why I’ve been out here for the last couple of years. As identified in earlier articles for Central Station written by both me and others, […]
Host: Kadiaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Owner, Kadiatcha Pastoral Company. We’ve had a busy time at Napperby recently. So busy, in fact, that we ran out of meat in the cool room. Usually we would have another beast hanging as the shelves get bare, when only mince or the suspicious off-cuts plainly […]
Host: Kadiaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Owner, Kadiatcha Pastoral Company. I moved back to the Territory in 2012 to work for Precision Pastoral, a company now partnered with Tru-Test, that makes remote livestock walk-over weighing systems (Remote WOW), which are solar-powered, NLIS tag-recognising, bathroom scales for cattle, to which draft gates or […]
Host: Kadiaitcha Pastoral Company Written by Sam Chisholm – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. With a fresh breeze, bag and swag on the passenger seat, and the dust fading into the distance by the Avgas drums. The life of a mustering pilot in its prime, never in one spot for too long, hungry for long days, […]
Host: Kadiaitcha Pastoral Company Written by Sam Chisholm – Owner, Kadiaitcha Pastoral Company. One day an old man was walking through the bush when he came across a frustrated jackaroo. The Jackaroo was trying to cut down a Mulga tree, to build a yard, and was swearing and cursing as he laboured in vain. “What’s […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. Back in February 2006 I travelled out to Napperby Station from Sydney to visit my aunt and uncle and have a “working holiday” for two weeks. With the benefit of hindsight I’m now aware that meant they had to do their jobs plus […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. I have an exceptionally grand plan for marketing Australian beef to the rest of the world. It would require a vast amount of planning for huge levels of resources: tonnes of hay, fleets of trucks, a pub full of confident ringers, willing producers, skilled […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. Due to the agenda of animal rights activists and their deplorable, contrived footage of extremely uncommon events, the former federal agriculture minister had an unimaginably bad knee-jerk reaction and put the kybosh on the northern live export cattle trade. This catastrophic decision had […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. My cousin Sam and I got talking about ways to prop up our wages and decided beef cattle production was the best way forward. Kadaitcha Pastoral Company had the simplest of origins. I was staying in Brisbane overnight with my cousin Sam, en […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by James Christian – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. It is very easy to over-analyse what farming is about. Here is a simplistic, unveiled look at what we really are aiming to do. The theory behind being a beef farmer in central Australia isn’t particularly difficult, in my opinion anyway. All you […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by Sam Chisholm – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. There is something about a cattle station that evokes a primitive disposition from everyone who is lucky enough to step foot over the boundary grid. The rawness of the environment has an enchanting power that casts a spell, which can never be broken. […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by Sam Chisholm – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. I was born a rambling man, there’s no two ways about it. I’ve been living out of a bag since I went to boarding school at 10 years old. After school, becoming a mustering pilot was a natural progression, not that it came […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by Sam Chisholm – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. As a helicopter mustering pilot working on cattle stations in Northern Australia you are constantly operating in a dangerous unpredictable environment with hot days, rough terrain, long hours, tough cattle, and wild weather. Aviation is inherently high risk and pilots are at the forefront […]
Host: Kadaitcha Pastoral Company Written by Sam Chisholm – Owner, Kadaitcha Pastoral Company. Everyone loves a good top ten and Central Station is no exception. Given the lack of voice coming from the middle of Australia, this list will fill you in on everything you’ve been missing from the Outback’s best-kept secret. 1. Bloody Good Beef […]
