Sorry, sorry, sorry - I am alive I've just been a wee bit slack at getting this posted up!! 

Here we go, grab a cuppa tea to keep you going, it's a long one! .....

Friday 14th June – day 32

Day of fencing.  Whilst the others worked on making some new hay spears to fix onto the loader, I headed out in the morning to check the fences in Nora Creek and Boroma Paddocks.  This took me right up until lunch time, and I got to see parts of the paddocks I hadn't seen before (I am hoping this will help me navigate the paddocks better when it comes to doing more mustering).  Found a few holes and broken wires so got to work fixing this up using the chain straighteners.  I quite enjoy fencing, but this was the first time I have been out on my own fixing them up, so it took a few attempts (along with expressing a few choice cuss words, kicking the car tyre and having a bit of a paddy!) before I was able to get the straighteners working correctly.  After lunch I headed out again to check another couple of paddocks, this time I went out on the quadbike so got to have a bit more fun tearing around and making my way across the riverbeds.  I wish I had taken some before and after pictures to show off all my hard work.  And because it’s Friday we headed off to the usual Friday night tennis and caught up with all the gang.

Saturday 15th June – day 33

Once the weeners had been fed we dolled ourselves up and headed out to Cloncurry for the show.  Sadly we missed most of the show (equine events, crazy motorbike stunts etc)  as we spent too much time playing cards and having pre drinks, although we did get to see the demolition derby and the pretty spectacular firework show.  Most importantly we were there for the disco so spent the night dancing away and listening to the live band.  (Who were very amusing and even performed our request of Tenacious D, Tribute.)  After hours of dancing and laughing we dragged ourselves back to the house we were staying at for the night and crashed out.

Sunday 16th June – day 34

Recovery day.  Not much can be said about today, I spent most of it in bed reading and snoozing!!

Monday 17th June – day 35

Water run in the morning, and then I went out on the four wheeler checking fences in two of the paddocks.  Again I forgot to take photos of my beautiful repair jobs.

Tuesday 18th June – day 36

Cleaned the other house and cottage today ready for the big boss and his guests to stay this coming weekend for the McKinlay races… It’s been a while since the house and cottage have had a proper intensive clean so it took a fair bit of elbow grease to get the place spick and span… (Even with the head start Marie gave us when the Harrisons were staying)  I felt like Kim and Aggy in How Clean is Your House, and by the time we were done the house looked great. 

Wednesday 19th June – day 37

The radiator on the quadbike has a bit of a slow leak, so today I donned my mechanic overalls and got to fixing it.  Unfortunately unlike in a car the quadbike doesn’t have a bonnet, so in order to get to the radiator I had to disassemble most of the external plastic guards (panelling), steel framework and bulbar.  I was so terrified of forgetting where all the nuts, bolts, screws and rivets went that I made sure to draw a diagram and take photos of where all the various bits went.  It took me most of the day to do this.  Taking it apart was relatively easy but putting it back together proved to be a real pain in the butt and got me a little hot under the collar at times.  The biggest problem is that the plastic panels have twisted (due to numerous altercations with cows/bulls/trees/rocks etc) and so trying to get things to fit back together proved tricky, but I did it.  Just another skill to add to the list!

Thursday 20th June – day 38

Water run in the morning and then we headed out to the racetrack for a working-bee (helping to get things set up and ready for race day on Saturday).  The weather has turned pretty chilly and the clouds even spat out a little bit of rain this evening.  Who would have thought that I would be wearing multiple layers a beanie and gloves in the outback during the day!  I hope it warms up a bit in time for the races otherwise we will all freeze in our pretty dresses!

Friday 21st June – day 39

Left at 6am and drove 3 hours out to Mount Isa to get Jet fuel for the big boss, Peter, who is flying in tonight with his friends and family.  Isa is the largest town in the nearby area and has a reasonable selection of clothes shops and even has a nice big Coles and Woolworths (supermarkets) … or so we have been told.  After driving three hours there we got there only to find out that all the shops were closed due to the Mount Isa Show!!  Typical, it’s just as well myself and Nena already had outfits for the races sorted!!.  Fortunately the place that sold the Jet Fuel was open, so it wasn’t a totally wasted day.  Had a bit of a drama on the way back from Isa as one of the front tyres blew and ended up bouncing off out into the bush, even the rim came off… this time we stood and watched Luke fix a new tyre.  Once we finally got home we went to check on the weeners and give them their feed.  They are looking much better although we lost another two, not sure why as they were quite large healthy looking ones, the only thing I can think is that the recent cold weather got to them.  Once we were finished we got to meet the big boss, Peter along with his family and some friends.  After the usual introductions we headed into McKinlay ‘town’ to the Walkabout pub for some dinner.  Complements go out to the Chef who happens to be the lovely Johnny.  The food was scrumptious but the portion sizes were ma-hooo-sive!  I guess they normally feed hungry truckers.  I had to ask for a doggy bag to put some of my lamb chops in.. still had some room left for pudding though!  After gorging on great grub we did the usual Friday night tennis social before heading home to get some beauty sleep ready for a big day at the races tomorrow. 

Saturday 22nd June – day 40

McKinlay races baby!!  Time to get dressed up and fancy again; who would have thought life in the outback could be so sophisticated?!  (although after looking through the photos from the night, I think the sophistication ended at the fancy clothing!)  What a great day and night.  I managed to get a few photos of the horses (especially for you mum), had a bit of a flutter and won $7 (from a $5 bet), however I was having such a good time that I forgot to collect my winnings!!  Oops.  Highlight of the evening was watching the Lions vs. Wallabies rugby game.  GO THE LIONS!! J yippee!!  The Ozzys took it reasonably graciously, more so than I would have had the result been the other way around! (and thank goodness we won, all that backchat I was giving out would have slapped me in the face if we lost)  Once the game was over I put on my dancing shoes and twirled the night away to celebrate our win J.  It really was a great night dancing with all the gang.  I think the combination of dancing for hours and alcohol meant that when it came to camping I didn’t feel cold at all.  Although I was wearing tights, thermal leggings, jogging bottoms, thermal top, fleece, t-shirt and was in my minus 6 sleeping bag, inside the swag (a heavy waterproof/wind resistant canvas sack which has a thin mattress and bedding in it that you roll out and acts as your tent for the night and is usually rolled out wherever you happen to fall!)  All in all it was a very fun day and evening – totally worth the SPLITTING headache that I woke up with!

Sunday 23rd June – day 41

Considering we had been dancing away until gone 1.30 am the night before, we were all up and about at 7.30.  I think it was the smell of bacon and eggs coming from the caterers that tempted us all out of our swags.  I had the best cup of tea that I have ever had from a polystyrene cup, which managed to revive me sufficiently in order to get everything packed up.  We all then did a breathalyzer test to make sure we were under the legal drinking limit (as we had been advised that the Mount Isa road police were pulling people over and checking) and headed home to say goodbye to Peter and his family before spending the rest of the day chilling out watching movies and playing Monopoly deal (which by the way I continue to dominate!)  Fab weekend, think I need to go on a detox for the rest of the week though!  

Sunday 9th June – day 27

Technically today was a day off, however we all decided to head over to Dina-a-Ling station to help our ‘neighbours’ out with some mustering and drafting.  (If you can call people who live 40 mins along the highway at 120km/h neighbours)  The country out there was quite a bit different to our station.  On the plus it was fairly open (so easier to spot cows), there was only one creek (so didn’t get stuck trying to cross over it) and the paddock was a regular rectangle shape (so easier to navigate)… however on the downside, it was covered in Mitchell (aka MOUNTAIN) grass, with the added negative of lots of holes as well as huge tufts of grass AND giant moon rocks, all of which made for a very bumpy ride!!  Anyway we managed to get the cows into the yards and spent the rest of the afternoon drafting them.  These cows were nice and quiet, apart from the odd few Micky Bulls (a male bull minus the dangly bits) who gave us a bit of a charge.  I realised that I’d chosen to wear a red shirt that day, I wonder if that had anything to do with the extra charges?!  Didn’t get home until after dark, gave the dams a quick check to make sure that there was nothing bogged – all good.  Even better was that we got paid, and a bottle of wine for helping out J .

Monday 10th June – day 28

Johnny (who works at the Walkabout Pub in McKinlay and is from York) came out to the station today to help out.  We spent the morning feeding the weeners (hay and special feed), did some maintenance on the loader, and headed out on the standard water run to check all the lick tubs and make sure the water troughs were all in working order, as well as checking for any bogged cows in the dams.  It was great having Johnny along, it’s a shame he didn’t manage to find suitable station work, I think he would have loved it, he certainly fitted in well! 

Tuesday 11th June – day 29

We did our weekly Cloncurry food run, picked up some tyres and also loaded up on cow lick (feed).  On the way back we stopped off al Eloise Mine to pick up some pods (which we will modify to make into some new super sized lick tubs).  Apparently this mine is 1.4km deep and they mine for gold and copper.  Luke used to work here, and said that its about 90% humidity and 60 degrees down there.  Based on that I don’t think I will be heading for a job in the mines next, I’d be a gooey puddle on the floor in those conditions (plus the 12 hour, 7 days a week, 2 weeks on, 1 week off shift pattern sounds less than desirable!).  Once we got back from town Nena and I set about changing tyres on one of the Utes.  We are now pro tyre changers!  (Not a bad skill to pick up really).  Once all 4 tyres were put on we headed out to check all the dams and make sure the weeners are ok.  Sadly another of the really little ones passed away, but the others were all ok, some are even looking pretty impressive – which is great news, the hay and special feed is obviously helping perk them up. 

Wednesday 12th June – day 30

Luke had a meeting in town today, so we were left to our own devices all day, and man did we do well.  We managed to get done all of the tasks Luke set us (with the exception of washing one of the cars).  Started the day by taking all the pods off the truck from yesterday.  We then used the loader to move three pallets of feed, and then hand stacked the feed into the shed (20x 40kg bags of feed = the equivalent of a heavy weights session at the gym!).  We then moved onto the fun stuff; using a grinder (electric  hand held rotary blade) to cut the pods in half to make feed tubs.  It’s the first time I have used that type of powertool so was a little bit hesitant at first, but it was good fun and much easier than trying to saw it by hand.  We both finished with all digits and limbs intact so it obviously went well.  I won’t however be taking up the odd hobby of dancing with a grinder (see photo from show in Mexico) , those sparks bloody sting, even when you are wearing jeans and long sleeves!  After lunch we put a new battery into the grader (big truck used to level roads) and transferred the older battery into the tractor (all without any glitches! proud.com) and then headed up to feed the weeners.  I don’t know how Luke makes all of these tasks look so easy.  The weener feed is in 1 tonne bags, so we have to use the loader to lift the bag of feed above the feeding troughs.  One person then has to undo the shoot at the bottom of the bag, holding it closed to stop to it all coming out at once, and then scrabble along on their knees whilst the person in the loader drives it along the feed troughs.  Sounds easy enough, but not when you are trying to hold back 1 tonne of feed, on your hands and knees!!   Once we had successfully managed to put all the feed into the troughs, we had to get 8 very large bails of hay into the paddock.  Nena picked the bails up with the tractor and then I rolled them into the appropriate places… sounds easy but those bails are bloody heavy.  I suspect I will be a wee bit sore tomorrow.  A quick whizz across to check the dams and the day just flew by.

After reading this back, it doesn't sound like we really did all that much, but trust me we worked pretty much solidly from 8am until 5.30 with the exception of lunch and a quick morning smoko (break)  I am pretty sure that Luke is suitably impressed with our efforts…. Or at least he better be!

Thursday 13th June – day 31

Did the routine water run this morning, nothing to report back with as everything was in order.  After lunch I set to cleaning the Toyota (inside and out) … No one is allowed in with their shoes on now!  Once the car was clean, Luke gave us an introductory lesson in how to weld.  Let me tell you it is nothing like Flashdance!  It’s pretty technical and takes a good steady hand and patience.  I hadn’t realised but the type of light and heat let off by it is enough to give you a suntan (hence the need for a large mask, gloves and heavy clothing.)  I managed to do a few decent lines of welding but I think it takes a fair bit of practice to get the hang of it.  No photos of my welding attempts, just imagine a bit of a wiggly, blobby looking line!

Tuesday 4th June –day 22

Time to move some animals…. Started the morning by mustering the 7 horses and 4 camels living in house paddock and moving them into Ram Paddock.  It’s so much faster mustering horses and camels.  The horses pretty much knew where they were going;  the Camels were a little more difficult to steer but it didn’t take much effort to get them moving in the right direction.  Whilst mustering Nena found a baby Kangaroo out on the road …. So meet baby Jack.

Turns out Jack is actually a girl, although we didn’t know it at the time of naming and the name has sort of stuck.  She is a little bit ugly, buggy alien eyes with the body of Dr Evils cat, Mr Bigglesworth.  Ugly but in a cute, helpless way.  We think she is about a month old, and because she has no hair she needs to be kept warm, wrapped up in lots of fluffy towels and then put in a Coles ‘chilly’ bag with a silver thermal lining.  We have to keep blasting hot air from my hairdryer in the bag, and Nena feeds her every two hours.  One of the ladies from a ‘nearby’ station has rescued several kangaroos and wallabies and so she gave us some special baby kangaroo food to feed Jack.  She is very skinny and still quite dehydrated.  Hopefully she will pull through and grow up to be a healthy Roo. 

This afternoon we mustered Nulgara Paddock which seemed HUGE!  In a way it was a bit easier to muster as there are lots of wide open spaces so easier to spot the cattle, but the place was covered in damn Mitchell grass (otherwise know as mountain grass!)  This stuff grows in tufts that seems to form small mounds of earth around the tuft…. It is a nightmare to ride a motorbike or quadbike over.  Hours of mustering over that stuff and I felt like one of Bond’s Martinis, very well shaken.  I still have not mastered riding a motorbike so I stuck to tearing around on a quakbike; lots of fun and less chance of falling off when riding over the mountain grass, however it’s not as good as the motorbikes when it comes to getting across steep banked riverbeds… I had a bit of a paddy at one point when I got stuck on one side and couldn't for the life of me get over to the other side where the bloody cows were hiding out.  Oh well hopefully I will be able to find some time to get practicing on the motorbike. 

Wednesday 5th June - day 23

Today we drafted the cattle, sorting them out into what ones would be sent off for sale and what ones would go back out into the paddock.  For some reason these cows were VERY moody, maybe it was because it was a hot day; or maybe it was because as Luke sorted them he kindly identified them as FAT cows (who were in good condition and to be sent off for sale) and POOR cows (who were a little bit skinny and would be sent back out to the paddock to graze another day).  I am sure the cows took some offence to being called fat.  He also called lots of them heffers, although apparently that’s a term used for young cows, and not meant to be a dig at their weight and bone density!  Anyway as a result of Lukes insults the ladies were very huffy and I think we all had to dodge a few charge downs and kicks, I even saw one literally paw at the ground.  Although in hindsight that one did have a right to be a bit annoyed at me.  I was counting them through the gate and she was going to be one too many so I closed the gate on her … Sorry!

Thursday 6th June – day 24

Packed the first lot of cattle off for sale in Winton today.  These cows were looking pretty good so hopefully they will get a good price.  They were still rather moody so it took a bit of effort to get these ones down the run and up onto the truck. 

The Harrison’s have been here for about two weeks now, helping out with all the mustering.  Its been great having other people around, and today it was Breanna’s birthday so we had a bit of a party to celebrate.  Marie (the mum) cooked LOADS of delicious cakes; cinnamon scrolls, cupcakes, super chocolate brownie, cheesecake … the list goes on.  I have definitely put back on any weight I lost in the first couple of weeks all thanks to Marie’s cooking (not that I can complain really!)   

Heidi the cow also got to join in with the party .. 

Friday 7th June- day 25

The family left early this morning, so said our goodbyes.  Its going to be so quiet here now!  As you all know I am horrible at goodbyes so I was sad they had to go home.  Made me think about my family back home and how much I miss them.  No time to dwell on any feeling of homesickness however as we headed off to load the last of the cows onto the truck.  They seemed to be in better spirits today, maybe it is because we gave them some hay to munch on last night.  Anyway we got them all loaded up in record time (just under 45 minutes).  I headed back home in the truck with the quadbike and a motorbike on the back whilst Nena and Luke drove back on the leftover motorbikes.  No sooner did I leave the highway than I got a flat rear tyre.  I managed to get all the equipment out and had just started to jack the car up when the others caught up with me… and then proceeded to watch me change the tyre!  It was pretty hard work jacking up the truck, wasn’t made easier due to the heavy load on the back.  Never mind I managed to get it changed, all with a little extra motivation from Luke with the jigger (electric cattle prodder!)

Once the tyre was on we headed home for an early smoko (equivalent to elevenses) and then spent the afternoon doing odd jobs.  Fixing the tyre and then headed out on a water run, checking all the water tanks and troughs.  We were home in plenty of time to get back, have a shower and I even had time to dry my hair before heading out to McKinlay town for Friday night drinks and tennis. 


Here are some photos of the last few days ...

Thursday 30th May – day 17

Today we all headed out to the nearest “town”, Cloncurry.  It is about a two hour drive from the station, and is where we have to go each week to get all the food shopping.  It is also the closest place to go clothes shopping with a total of two women’s clothes stores, which sell mostly jeans, check shits and cowboy boots.  I desperately needed to buy a dress to wear to the Cloncurry races this coming Saturday; having left all my nice clothes back in Melbourne, expecting Camp drafts (Rodeo’s)  and cowboys not races and fancy frocks.  Unfortunately the selection was in ‘Curry was not the best so started to get a bit worried that Cinderella may not get to go to the races L

Once we got back from town we headed out to feed the weaners some hay and weaner feed.  It’s been pretty tough for them being off their mothers milk and we seem to lose a calf a day at the moment.  It’s sad to see them die but we are doing all we can to feed them up and get them stronger.  Unfortunately with the crappy price of beef it’s just not cost effective to try and rearing them – there also just aren’t enough of us here to spend the time doing that. 

One thing I did forget to mention about yesterday was that we went spotlight shooting  that night.  I know kangaroos are the national symbol and all, but they are a bit of a pest; breaking through fences and eating what little grass there is.  We were also out looking for any wild pigs or cats who are a bit of a pest out here too.  Clearly the Roos got the memo that we were out shooting as there were hardly any about!  I myself didn’t shoot any, I’ve never really shot a gun like that before and was a bit hesitant about shooting at the Kangaroos; didn’t want to miss the vital organs and cause a non fatal shot.  Also didn’t want to shoot myself in the foot or anything!!  Once we were finished with spotlighting we came back to the house and lined up some tin cans to shoot at – I surprised myself, I’m not a bad shot!! Sooo, boys beware, if I don’t manage to castrate you I’m a pretty decent shot!  :P  

Friday 31st May – day 18

Today we headed out to Nulgra paddock to check for any holes in the boundary fences.  We will be mustering the cattle in this paddock next week so needed to check the fences to make sure that we don’t get any escapees!  We found a few holes to fix up and loose wires to tighten.  It can get a bit frustrating at times when myself and Nena are struggling to remember all the knots and how to use the wire strainers properly, then Luke strolls over and does it all standing on one foot and using his pinkie finger!  I guess he has had a lot more practice than we have.  After lunch we continued the fence check in 4 mile paddock.

As it is Friday we headed out to Friday night tennis in Mckinlay, which is more just a chance to sink a few stubbies than actually play tennis.  One of the girls from another station bought me some of her dresses to try on for the races tomorrow.  Thankfully they fitted so Cindy gets to go to the races!


Saturday 1st June – day 19

What a great day, was fab seeing everyone all dolled up and I very much enjoyed having a ‘few’ glasses of vino to drink!  Brilliant day and night all round and eventually rolled in at about 3am.  Don’t think any of us felt especially brilliant the next morning though!   Took a few photos from the day, but gave up taking photos by the evening as was too busy having fun!

Sunday 2nd June – day 20

Bit of a wipe out – spent the day in joggers watching TV and recovering from last night’s misadventures! 

Monday 3rd June – day 21

Myself and Nena headed out for the first time on our own to do the water run.  It takes around 3 and a half hours in total to go around all the paddocks, check the water tanks and fill up empty Lick tubs.  We managed to get all the way around without getting lost! :D  Woop!  After lunch we re-filled the diesel tanks, I think I’m going to smell like a petrol station for the next couple of days.  We also went to check on the weeners and gave them some more hay and weener food.  Had a bit of a Jeremy Beadle moment whilst opening one of the gates to the weener pens;  Breanna (one of the kids from the family who are visiting) got out of the car to open up the gate, apparently the gates at their farm open either way. Sadly ours don’t, so as she went swinging the gate open it bounced back and whacked her in the head, even knocked her over… I know I shouldn't laugh at a kid getting whacked in the head and falling over but man it was funny (and it still makes me laugh out loud just thinking about it)  If only there had been a camera rolling at the time, I’d be £200 richer.  I did stop laughing long enough to make sure that Breanna was ok, and bless her she took the knock well. 

Got some pictures from this mornings water run – them there are some hungry cows!